Being a sportswriter is easy, regardless of what those covering the PGA Tour will have you believe

My fellow magicians will likely be upset that I’m unveiling one of the secrets of the trade, but, hey, I’m a rebel so here goes:

Being a sportswriter is as cushy a job as you can find.

Not only do you get to watch sporting events for a living, you generally get to watch them from great seats. You have your own parking area. Organizers of whatever event will have a separate area set up just for sportswriters where they can file stories. They feed you. And there’s always an event PR guy running around making sure you have every last available piece of information they can find. And you really don’t have to be all that good of a writer.

I can say this with authority because I am a sportswriter. I’ve covered events ranging from the Little League World Series, to high school girls soccer, to UCLA basketball, to the Arena Football League, and all stops in between. I’ve interviewed athletes like Bo Jackson and Vince Young, and living legends like John Wooden. And sure, I’ve had athletes blow me off or disrespect me, but it’s a small price to pay. I’ve been a commercial fisherman and a truck driver, as well, so I have a fairly decent concept of what’s hard and what isn’t.

I felt it necessary to mention the ease of sports writing after I saw the following comment to my WorldGolf.com Magazine column “Vijay Singh may not coddle golf writers but with 31 wins on the Tour, he deserves his due”:

“Obviously, your web site writer doesn’t cover much PGA Tour golf. If he did, he would know that Vijay Singh holds the media with much more disdain than we could ever hold him. We have been bullied, ignored, insulted, cursed at and treated with utter contempt by Vijay for the crime of doing our jobs. We would love to give the world insight to a fantastic talent. Instead, we are forced to give the world insight to a bitter man,” wrote “Floridasportswriter.”

Now, don’t get me wrong, it would make a sportswriter’s job even easier (if such thing were possible) if every athlete you encountered was thoughtful and forthcoming at all times, but blasted human nature makes that an impossibility.

So when I read Craig Dolch’s scathing blog about Vijay Singh - one day after Singh won the Arnold Palmer Invitational - I thought just one thing: it was bush league. And Dolch is by no means the only one guilty of it, as several other reporters also felt it necessary to interject themselves into Singh’s win.

By all means, readers want to know what makes their favorite athletes tick. And one of the things that makes sportswriters stand out is the ability to develop an understanding of an athlete. But it’s not as though there was some great scoop in telling people that Singh isn’t overly fond of the press and then pointing out how you felt slighted and how horribly hurtful it all is and Singh is undeserving of respect. Trust us, it’s been made clear. Going off on a tangent about Singh the day after he wins on the PGA Tour is just plain unprofessional.

To me, you see things like this and you look at someone like Barry Bonds and have to agree that he may have a point - he’s a notorious jerk to the media, and reporters do have a penchant for putting him in a bad light whenever possible. So when reporters find rock solid evidence that Bonds is a cheat and Bonds shoots back with, “they’re all out to get me,” you can’t just disregard it.

There are a lot sportswriters out there who do amazing work and are a pure delight to read. But don’t think for a second that it’s some type of burden. Being a sportswriter is a cake job - at very least you can be professional about it.

–WKW