10 questions for David Scott

1. How did having your own column space at the Collegian prepare you for "the real world?"

2. How did you get the opportunity to help write a movie script with Dan Wetzel?

3. At ESPN, how do you strike the balance between hard news reporting in OTL and the more opinionated brands such as First Take?

4. When OTL got pushed back, how did that affect what you do?

5. How was it working for John Calipari, who is one of the savviest coaches with the media, and was that role different than an SID?

6. How much of your job is simply explaining and clarifying the journalistic work being done at ESPN to the masses?

7. Do you consider yourself a true public relations person, or more of a facilitator?

8. What kind of flexibility does working at ESPN provide you>

9. How did you handle the transition from being more of a traditional reporter to the public relations role?

10. How would you evaluate the perception of ESPN's DeflateGate coverage?

10 questions for Howard Bryant and Jemele Hill

1. What types of challenges did you face reporting on race in Boston – which has a stigma of being unkind to minority athletes?
2.   How did working as a beat writer help prepare you for a role as a columnist?
3.  What were some of the things you did to find your own voice?
4.   You wrote two books within a fairly brief span – are you planning on writing another one?
5.   Plenty of students my age are told to build our own brand. Do you believe in that? And if so, how does one find their voice in a mature, responsible manner?

Jemele

1. When did you know you wanted to do this for a career, and what were the challenges of working in a male-dominated field?
2.  Did you feel like you were ever disadvantaged because of that?
3.  Do you have a preference between TV or writing, and why?
4.  Did you think what happened in 2008-2009 would blow up like it did? How did it change you?
5. Did you feel a responsibility to be a leading voice on ESPN after the Ray Rice incident? 

10 questions for Bonnie and T.J.

1. For T.J.: When reporting on PEDs in baseball, did you ever take into consideration how your reporting would alter the framework and history of the game?

2. Was investigative journalism like this something you always wanted to do?

3. For Bonnie, When you continue to track and report on one person, such as Lance Armstrong, who lies and is found to have cheated, what do you think of his character?

4. Was there ever a moment where you were sure you had the story, but couldn't nail down the requisite reporting?

5. How difficult was it to deal with USADA?

6. Did the connection between Bosch and Rodriguez come as a surprise, or was it a chicken and the egg type deal?

7. For Bonnie: How long did it take you to report the Boston Marathon piece, and was it something you knew you wanted to do as soon as it happened?

8. What are the challenges of and the techniques used in reporting on a story as sensitive as that one?

9. For T.J.: What was the public reaction to giving up your Hall of Fame vote?

10. For either of you, if you were fans of the sport you were investigating, do you view it differently once you know its dirty secrets?

10 questions for Eric Neel

1. How do you generally approach writers in terms of finding an angle on a story? Do the writers come to you with ideas or do you generally assign stories?

2. What is a typical deadline like for a longform piece?

3. How often, if ever, does a writer go through the reporting process and come away without a story?

4. Who is the most talented writer you’ve ever worked with?

5. What’s the one piece of advice you’d give a writer who is going out to report out a longer piece?

6. You’ve worked on both sides of the table, as a writer and as an editor. Does having the writing background change the way you go about your role as an editor?

7. What’s the most difficult story/conflict that’s arisen since your time as an editor at ESPN LA?

8. What’s your favorite story you’ve either written or presided over? Why?

9. As a journalism major and someone interested in the craft, I love longform journalism. But it appears society as a whole is gravitating toward quick-hitting topics and short burts of writing. Is the audience for these types of pieces declining?

10. For someone in my shoes, what is the most impressive thing that can show up on the resume or LinkedIn? 

Story pitch 

DISCLAIMER: I actually thought of this during class, but we ran out of time at the end. 

When Marc asked Eric about whether NFL players felt a moral obligation to act as role models, I thought about when Eric said that athletes don't think of sports in the fans perspective, they know each other as athletes.

I took a sport sociology class at UMass and one of the overriding themes is that sport is constructed not for fans, but for competition. The athletes play for themselves and for their teammates. Fans root, cheer and offer their opinion because at some level, they believe they have an outcome on the game. 

With that being said, I'd love to interact with a player and learn what they truly think of the fan. Do fans play a role in determining the games? Do they think of fans as an annoyance? What does it do to their ego? 

If we know what an athlete thinks of the people who watch him or her and idolize him or her, we can then delve into whether they truly have a moral obligation to the fan. Or maybe, fans believe athletes have an obligation to them when, in reality, they're doing their jobs in a very public manner. 

Goodell drops the ball on domestic violence, again

If you read my first blog installment for Issues in Sports, you're very much aware of my views on the NFL, and more specifically, Roger Goodell.

So it comes as no surprise that yet again, I believe Roger Goodell came up short.

Domestic violence -- and the NFL's handling of the subject -- is a derisive topic among pundits and fans alike. It's commonly believed the NFL has handled both the awareness against domestic violence and it's response to violent offenders poorly.

Before suspending former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice indefinitely, Goodell handed him a meager two-game suspension. Later, video surfaced of Rice striking his then-fiancee Janay Rice, prompting Goodell to up the punishment.

Goodell's received criticism for his handling of Rice's punishment and his uneven system of punishing players. It's prompted groups such as UltraViolet to call for his firing and produce an advertisement admonishing the NFL's treatment. The league as a whole has spent a significant amount of money partnering with the "No More" campaign to release Public Service Announcements on the issue.

Still, criticism remained. Goodell had the opportunity to discuss the situation two different times leading up to the Super Bowl. He failed to do so on both occasions.

Goodell wouldn't address the issues at his Friday press conference before the Super Bowl, a presser in which he took his fair share of difficult questions. It wasn't Goodell's finest hour, but he had a chance for redemption.

NBC Sports anchor Bob Costas said in the Sunday pre-game production leading up to the Super Bowl that Goodell was offered a chance to speak candidly in a 1-on-1 interview, and turned it down.

Somehow, I'm not surprised that he'd turn down an opportunity to add clarity to such an important issue on the biggest day of the year in the NFL.

This is the same Goodell that told reporters he is "available to the media almost every day of my job, professionally," according to Thinking Progress. And this is an interview with NBC, which traditionally takes it fairly easy on the NFL and which I've criticized via Twitter for its terminology and treatment of concussion issues.

It's disappointing that we as consumers of the NFL still don't have an answer, or at least a definitive statement from its leader, I'd go as far to say that because of Goodell's evasiveness, the NFL failed in the domestic violence category leading up to the Super Bowl.

And so too did the coverage.

My sports bucket list

We've been challenged to come up with five sports related things we plan to (reasonably) do this semester while at the University of Massachusetts. And while I admittedly will use one we talked about in class, it's more of a challenge than I initially imagined.

1. Attend an Amherst College/Williams basketball game

OK, so after a quick Google search of the schedule, I've found they already played twice this season. That could prove to be difficult. They're also always top teams within their conference and this is one of the fiercest rivalries in the area. I'm adding it to the list in hopes they meet in the playoffs -- I attended an Amherst College playoff game last year by chance and really enjoyed it.

2. Play an intramural sport

I stink at sports, that's why I write about them. I've played a handful of pickup basketball games at the rec center but I've never actually played in an intramural game. Is it possible to walk on to a flag football team? I'm willing to break barriers.

3. Attend the Basketball Hall of Fame

It's right in our backyard, I really have no excuse.

4. Catch a Cathedral High School hockey game

I've been told this is a good high school hockey program with multiple potential UMass hockey recruits playing locally. Good hockey and something that may even help me with my job? Sold.

5. Attend the Sloan Sports Conference

Tickets are expensive and always in demand, but I'd love the chance to network and listen in on some of the best in the industry.

Now, I'll delve into five bucket list items that I need to do before I die.

6. Go to the Masters

How cool would it be to walk Augusta? That'd be tremendous.

7. Attend an Ohio State/Michigan football game

I passed up on an opportunity to do it this year and I'm still kicking myself. One of the most passionate rivalries in all of sports and two typically powerful football programs sounds like a great time.

8. Meet Wright Thompson

Is this a bit of brown-nosing considering he's visited the class before? Possibly, I don't quite know. All I know is that I love reading his stories and am fascinating to learn what makes him tick. If you gave me the option of meeting Michael Jordan or Wright Thompson, I'd probably take Wright.

9. Attend the Kentucky Derby

THOSE HATS.

10. Tailgate and attend an SEC football game

Just get me to a big one. A rivalry. I'll even settle for a fun day in nice weather. I just need to experience it.

Assignment 1: The single greatest issue in sports

MaxDenver.com

I fear the most popular sport in America is turning into sports' biggest monster, and largest obstacle.

It's natural to believe this week is the National Football League's moment in the spotlight -- it's pregame trot out of the tunnel and into a stadium of thousands of cheering fans, if you will. The week leading up the Super Bowl is a cacophony of media attention, play diagrams and unabashed fandom.

So it's only fitting that in the two weeks leading up to the NFL's proudest jewel, the Super Bowl, it's stained with controversy.

That's what the NFL's become after all. What was  America's newest pastime -- OK, who am I kidding, it was never about truly about the game -- is now America's newest machine. The NFL is a constant, 24-hour news cycle within itself, a manufactured beast that only continues to grow. It's similar to the housing market prior to it's great collapse -- a bubble waiting to burst.

It begs the question, is the largest sports league in America too big to fail? It seems as if Roger Goodell wants to find out.

It's fascinating to me that the sport's most glaring issues could all come to light during it's finest hour. I wonder if the NFL even truly cares. Within the past week, ESPN again documented the risks of youth involvement in football, a GQ profile directly hit on Goodell's inability to handle crises and his narrow vision on revenue numbers and "DeflateGate" dominated news cycles to the point of nausea.

Throw in the league's continued assault on Marshawn Lynch -- he was fined for grabbing his crotch despite the NFL's official website selling photographs of it for $150 -- and you wonder whether this is some kind of reality TV show.

But that's the reality of the NFL -- it can go to the extreme, push the limit, ignore its issues and still pull in a bottom line.

Goodell's quest is reportedly grow the NFL's revenue to over $25 billion and league revenue is already up over 65 percent. CBS reportedly paid $250 million to air just 16 games -- all on Thursday night, no less -- and the league is aired on three major networks: NBC, CBS and ESPN.

The growing influx of cash helped the owners negotiate a favorable Collective Bargaining Agreement and makes the collective unit of 32 men some of the most powerful in the country. If you evaluate the NFL as a business, it's impossible to say it isn't firing on all cylinders.

Yet the drive for dollar revenue -- and the exhausting attention that comes with it -- is casting the NFL in a negative light.

Goodell operates with an iron-clad fist in the negotiating room, but his uneven disciplinary style earns criticism from players and doesn't cast a shadow of a man that's fully in charge. The discrepancy between the league's shady history on disciplining domestic violence and it's harsh drug policy is hypocrisy at its finest. This is the message most kids are privy too as they grow up.

And as those kids grow up and want to try what's popular, statistics show they're endangering the longevity of their lives. Former football players between the ages of 40-69 who started playing football before the age of 12 proved to be in "significantly worse" shape in terms of brain health in a study done by Boston University.

So to recap: the NFL cares about little more than its revenue, it disciplines (often unfairly) on a case by case basis, and the sport itself is a health risk.

And we're all eating it up by the spoonful.

Ratings are up. Way up. Football talk is a powerful staple of sports social media and it seems a myriad of scandals this season ( I didn't even mention Adrian Peterson's alleged child abuse) haven't deterred fans from the Super Bowl frenzy, as DeflateGate churned out an incredible amount of coverage and reaction.

This is my biggest fear, and the single greatest issue in sports. The NFL's skeleton's are out of its closet as it continues to gain a head of steam.

The NFL certainly seems like it's too big to fail.