Count me in as one who still enjoys holding a good, local newspaper and absorbing almost every word.
From the front page to the obituaries to the sports to the legals. I even read the entire jury list.
High school football season had just begun, and I was reading the town’s sports page. For that paper, I started as a sportswriter and, since I knew little of sports – Daddy only watched wrestling so he could cheer for Thunderbolt Patterson and Dusty Rhodes and the Dallas Cowboys simply to admire Coach Tom Landry – I explained games carefully.
An interesting occurrence happened: letters started coming in from women who said they had never read the sports pages because they didn’t understand the jargon.
Yet, I explained it in a way they understood and had begun watching games with their husbands.
I think I may have saved one or two marriages.
I tried to find a human-interest story in a game changing play like the time a young man from a wealthy Nashville family had been turned down by most Tennessee schools but found his way to the University of Georgia. In a rare, on-field appearance, he intercepted the ball and ran 60 yards for a touchdown that gave the Bulldogs a win over the University of Tennessee. He was the war hero in a win over a school that did not want him. My reporting led with that story.
Sometimes, a weekly publisher will call to ask my advice on what should be in the paper. When Brad Hughes bought the tiny Early County paper near the Georgia-Alabama line, he called. Most people ask advice and never use it but Brad and Julie, his Editor, thus far, have done everything I suggested.
“Put in lots of high school photos and stories.” True. It sells newspapers because families clip out the stories and keep them. Recently, I was reading a story where two local schools were playing. It’s one of the more serious rivalries in the area.
The battle between the Trojans and Warriors ended in a 49-34 Trojan win. The quarterback had racked up six touchdowns. Impressive, most certainly.
I read the story with interest and all the laudatory comments for the winning team. The story jumped to another page which listed the stats of every player on the winning team. There was not one Warrior named anywhere.
Since I am making a complaint – or, at the very least, an illustration – pertaining to fair and unbiased sports reporting, let me admit this: the Warriors’ quarterback is my nephew, Charlie.
(When he was a toddler, Charlie would run toward me, shouting happily, “MY RONDA!”) Charlie is slight built but a remarkable three-sport athlete and he has a quick thinking, highly intelligent mind that can easily memorize a hundred plays.
The winning quarterback, with six touchdowns, was “Player of The Week” so the story rightly led with it.
Charlie, despite losing, had three rushing touchdowns and one passing TD. He scored the majority of the team’s points that night.
My family is stoic an tough. If any feelings were hurt, it wasn’t mentioned around the Sunday dinner table. Only the game was discussed. I didn’t know about the story until I read it, later.
Every teenager in our family is a remarkable athlete and often the leading scorer in games.
This did not come from my side of the family; this I can assure you. But this I know: players like Charlie no longer can have summer jobs because they practice football all summer and every student who plays football spends miserable days in the South’s steamy heat, being beat to pieces to get season ready.
Every sports story should tell both sides – good or bad. Of course, this does teach the players the unfairness of life.
By the way, the winning team is my alma mater.
How’s that for fair and balanced?
Ronda Rich is the author of the best-selling novel St. Simons Islands: A Stella Bankwell Mystery. Visit www.rondarich. com to sign up for her free weekly newsletter.