“After 190 episodes talking about other’s people writing, I finally get to talk about something I wrote!”

Brian is joined by Matthew Zimmeran and Lauren Burch, and the three of them talk about their new textbook, Introduction to Sports Journalism.

We talk about how Matt started the project and how/why he asked us to be a part of it. We talk about our different writing styles and methods, how Brian’s writing habits give Lauren anxiety, and how our three voices turned into one cohesive book. We also talk about the challenges of balancing theory with the need for practicality, and how we to tried to balance writing something as permanent as a book about such a fast-changing industry.

Anyway, I’m super proud of the book and so proud that I got to do it with friends of mine.

Links

Introduction to Sports Journalism (our book!)

Buy it at Human Kinetics

Buy it on Amazon

Want: Sexual Fantasies by Gillian Anderson (the best thing Lauren’s read lately.

The Storyteller by Dave Grohl (the other best thing Lauren’s read lately)
Tennessee coach Josh Heupel comes home to Oklahoma by Jake Trotter and Chris Low (the best thing Matt’s read recently.)

Moneyball by Michael Lewis (the other best thing Matt’s read recently.)

Everyone On This Train is a Suspect by Benjamin Stevenson (the best thing Brian’s read lately)

Support

The Other 51 is and will always be free, but if you like my work (and the stuff I do at Sports Media Guy) and want to kick me a few dollars, you can do so here. I really appreciate your support.

Follow us on Instagram and Threads. We’re on the decaying corpse of Twitter, but only because for some reason sports media won’t abandon the site.

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“I feel like my place as a writer is sort of that place between what happened and the mythology of what’s happening.”

Joe Posnanski joins Brian for a deep dive into his new book, Why We Love Football: A History in 100 Moments.
Joe talks about how he started with a list of more than 300 football moments and the process of whittling those down. It’s an honest and super nerdy discussion about how early drafts of the book weren’t working, what Joe did to work through those struggles, and how writing about The Drive unlocked the book for him

Joe also talks about how we was able to write a collection of essays while maintaining a central theme, how the Don Beebe-Leon Lett play is the perfect example of why we love football, and what kind of athlete “Brian Moritz” would be.

“For me as a writer, the moment where the book came alive for me was when I started to think of it as a football game … every play is its own little universe in football.”

Links

Why We Love Football: A History in 100 Moments

Joe Blogs

The Poscast

Destiny of the Republic: A Tale Of Madness, Medicine, and the Murder of a President by Candice Millard (the best thing Joe’s read lately.)

Support

The Other 51 is and will always be free, but if you like my work (and the stuff I do at Sports Media Guy) and want to kick me a few dollars, you can do so here. I really appreciate your support.

Follow us on Instagram and Threads. We’re on the decaying corpse of Twitter, but only because for some reason sports media won’t abandon the site.

Subscribe:

Apple Podcasts

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“I think those fans deserve the truth. They don't need to be pandered to, they don't need to be misled.”

Tyler Dunne, the man behind Go Long and the best NFL feature writer working today, joins Brian to talk about Sean McDermott, Zay Jones and so much more.

Ty talks about the aftermath of his Sean McDermott series, how the coach and the team responded to that explosive series and reached out to him and how he’s now credentialed by the Bills. Tyler talks about the conversation he had with McDermott at the NFL Combine and what it felt like to walk into that meeting.

We then do a deep dive into his feature on Zay Jones that won him a first place award in the APSE National Writing Contest. Tyler talks about his tools for gently steering a conversation in an interview, how to handle the elephant in the room, and the value of doing extra reporting beyond the main interview. He also discusses how he protects his own mental health when writing and reporting heavy features, and how these stories make him want to be a better person.

“It's a people business, it's a human business, and you just want to have conversations and you just want to treat people like human beings.”

Links

Go Long

The McDermott Problem

I’m Still Alive: The Zay Jones story

Buffalo Bills Memory Lane with Chuck Pollock

The Infinite Game by Simon Sinek (The best thing Tyler’s read lately.)

County Highway (The other best thing Tyler’s read lately.)

Support

The Other 51 is and will always be free, but if you like my work (and the stuff I do at Sports Media Guy and want to kick me a few dollars, you can do so here. I really appreciate your support.

Follow us on Instagram. We’re on the decaying corpse of Twitter, but only because for some reason sports media won’t abandon the site.

Subscribe:

Apple Podcasts

Spotify