Showing up, and election-night pizza
Somme thoughts on Election Day, and a reprise of a Sports Media Guy classic
We’re a day early this week, because today is Election Day here in the U.S., and it’s not just an election it’s … this election … so who knows tomorrow will bring?
I hope that you have voted or have a plan to vote. I voted for candidates who support public education and women’s rights, who believe my daughter should exist, who don’t demonize LGBTQ kids, and whom I believe will move our country in the right direction instead of dragging it back to some imagined past. I hope you do, too.
I’ll be honest — this has been a tough election season for me. My man
has done some wonderful writing about this. I’ve gone on an extended social media break to help my own mental health. I’ve found myself finding solace in pieces by and , ones where the vibe isn’t so much “we’re gonna be OK” but rather that no matter what happens, our collective work will continue. The phrase that came to me the other day about this was “show up for my life.” My life, our lives, are going to continue, no matter who wins. Our job is to show up. Every day. Do the work. Stand up to bullies. Fight for people who have been put on the margins.Whatever happens next week, my job (and yours, if we're playing this game) is to rescue compassion. Let's start there.
Show up today. Show up tomorrow. Show up a month from next Thursday.
Show up for your life.
Back to our regular programming with a reprise of one of my most popular posts of all time. I write this piece on the OG Sports Media Guy site nine years ago. It’s my fun explainer about why sports departments are so petty about Election Night Pizza. It’s definitely of a time and place. Given the state of newspapers and journalism, I’m much more on the side of “good God, let them have pizza” than I was. That being said, I still like snarking about it and still love this piece. So if it’s new to you, enjoy! If this is your ninth time, enjoy it again!
Election Night is one of the best nights to be a journalist. The thrill of news breaking all night. The adrenaline rush of chasing down breaking news as it's happening, of reporting things the moment you confirm them. The knowledge that you are reporting on something that is important to your readers' lives and, on occasion, is truly historic. The camaraderie of working late and working together common goal.
Election Night is awesome.
Unless you work in the sports department.
We in the sports department generally hate Election Night. We roll our eyes at the cityside reporters who talk about working late into the night, who have to deal with fast-breaking news, taking results over the phone, juggling numbers, getting quotes and writing fast stories on tight deadlines.
And we hate the pizza.
We hate the fact that citysiders working late get food provided for them. Election Night Pizza is a bonafide thing, it's part of the allure of working the night for citysiders, and it's the thing we in sports hate the most.
We hate it because the work citysiders do on Election Night is the same work we in sports do every ... damn ... night. Working late into the night, having to deal with fast-breaking news, taking results over the phone, juggling numbers, getting quotes and writing fast stories on tight deadlines. We do this literally every night.
And we never got pizza. We never had food provided for us in the newsroom. We never celebrated or bragged about the food provided for us. We did our jobs. Every night. Without pizza.
It's petty.
It's totally and completely petty. It's awful. It makes us look jealous and small. It's not a good look for sports journalists. It reeks of insecurity.
It's totally and completely hypocritical, too. Sports reporters have food available for them in press rooms at games, from high school to the pro level - something that never happens at a city council meeting (to be fair, reporters at pro sports pay for their food). So to complain about the one night that citysiders get food is a bit self-righteous on our part.
It's not an attitude to be proud of, but it comes from a real place. When you work in sports, you're always reminded that you work in the Toy Department. That what you do isn't Real Journalism. That the news desk serves as the Fourth Estate and the Public Watchdog, safeguarding democracy and providing a voice for the voiceless while you are doing fluffy stories about meaningless games, are too close to the people you cover, never write critical words and aren't doing serious work. There's always a bit of underlying tension between sports and news journalists at the same paper.
I feel like this attitude may be changing slightly. Digital news had made everyone - sports and news - write and update news live on a constant online deadline. One of the journalists I interviewed for my dissertation pointed out that sports used to be its own little island in the newsroom, and that digital news has forced sports to become part of the newsroom. Likewise, the constant demands of online news have citysiders doing a lot more live-deadline writing than they did 5-10 years ago.
But there's still this feeling that when you work in sports, your work is fundamentally of disrespected by your news colleagues.
Election Night Pizza is symbolic of this attitude. Seeing your cityside colleagues rewarded and celebrating the work you do every night is annoying.
It's petty. Terribly petty. But it's how sports feels on Election Night.
I mean, every night was pizza night on the sports desk if Jim asked you to snag an Angee's order. #IYKYK #OTH
We shared our pizza with sports! (Wild that we both wrote about this!)