As I often find myself deciding ultimate justice on the run, I am the proud owner of a BlackBerry Curve (at $450, it makes a great stocking stuffer), which keeps me in the know about all things sports. I even have a LWN RSS feed on there. It’s great, but I’m not here to blow the trumpet of the 862nd most popular sportsblog in America, or teach you all how technology can change your lives, but rather to wonder. I wonder why a senior writer (Len Pasquarelli) for the Worldwide Leader in Sports (ESPN) felt the need to apologize for his subject in this article FIVE times in the first three paragraphs (the story was the main article on the ESPN.com mobile site the morning of November 28). Len wrote about the tragic death of Sean Taylor, but also about the impact that Sean’s absence will have on the Washington Redskins’ defense. Though this subject is somewhat grisly, ESPN.com is a sports website – it is entirely appropriate to discuss the purely sports-related effect of a death, particularly when several other posted stories on ESPN.com have thoroughly covered the tragic/human angle.
I’m not a monster, but I think it’s important to have a sense of perspective even in times of loss. There is no question that the senseless killing of a 24 year old, superstar or not, is a tragedy. The fact remains that someone is going to have to step into Sean’s spot and perform, because the Redskins have five games to play and are under .500. I have no doubt that other sports news outlets have refused to give a more-or-less straight sports angle on this story, but with the quality of the writer’s bloc at ESPN and the influence and reach of the organization, I expect more. The network has done a wonderful job of putting the human element front and center, but that philosophy does not have to play 100% of the time.
For those of you looking for a blueprint for your sports news stories that involve tragedy, here’s my suggestion: get a sincere statement out within the first paragraph (incorporating it into the lede works well here), then write your story. I actually really like Len P., and I get a lot of information from ESPN, but the sympathy pervading this article detracted from its central point: like it or not, the NFL and the Redskins are moving on without Sean Taylor.
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November 29, 2007 at 9:52 am |
well said.
on top of the tragedy, this is a very big game for both the Skins and the Bills