I Love This Game ~ Blog 20



The office.

 A couple of days ago, I chronicled why sports reporting isn't necessarily a dream job. Today, I'm going to tell you why it's still pretty awesome.

The best games to attend for work in Salt Lake City were the games when Kurt Kragthorpe was sitting next to you. (This is a blog first, using real names, but Kurt's a public figure and we have nothing to hide here. He's the columnist for The Salt Lake Tribune and a friend of mine.)

Journalists are famously jaded people. It's happened to me. My jokes are often in horrible taste when I'm around other journalists. Ordinarily, they are just horrible.

That jaded attitude spills over into everything they do at work. They complain about the pregame food. They complain about the free shuttle bus that takes them from their hotel to the game. They complain about security measures. They complain about the people they cover. Those are just the examples from covering the Super Bowl.

Kragthorpe never says a negative word. He sits there quietly, looking at stats. When the game starts, he'd talk to you.

"Did you see that?"

"Oh my God. That was huge."

"Wow."

That last one is my favorite. Wow. Kragthorpe and I were peas in a pod. While the other writers were busy complaining, or checking Twitter, or making jokes amongst themselves, Kragthorpe and I would sit there and take it all in.

We're jaded, but we're not that jaded.

If there was any epiphone from covering Wednesday's Jazz-Celtics game in Boston, it's that I still think sports writing really stinking cool. Actually, I think writing in general is really cool; sports writing moreso because we're paid to watch sports.

It's not about perception or what people think of you. It's a little about having a free ticket to see the circus that is a sporting event and some of the best athletes on the planet. There's drama of players trying to make a name and trying to tie the game. I apologize for the rhyme. Last night's game just really has me in a good mood.

Kragthorpe would have loved it. The Celtics had a bunch of aging All-Stars who kept trying to pull away from the mostly no-name Jazz, but the Jazz kept coming back on them. It was the best game I've seen in a long time.

Don't mistake this for being a fan. Kragthorpe and I don't care who wins and loses. Utah lost last night but it didn't bother me because I got a better-than-usual story out of it. That's what it's mostly about -- finding and telling good stories.

Writers forget that. They complain about how long it takes for the elevator to move at Fenway Park. They sit there in the press box with the windows closed on a beautiful day. They complain about having to work nights all the time and the older ones don't like having to update Twitter. Or checking email, even.

Me? I'm sitting here with a goofy grin on my face because I got to pretend to be an NBA beat writer for 60 hours. And it helps that some good stories came out of it. The best part is one every writer can be thankful for: Nobody destroyed me in the online comments. That's not your cue to go do so, but feel free. My job is still pretty awesome.