{"id":151,"date":"2016-08-17T01:01:28","date_gmt":"2016-08-17T05:01:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/sportsenterprise\/?p=151"},"modified":"2016-08-17T01:01:28","modified_gmt":"2016-08-17T05:01:28","slug":"wright-thompson-journalist-i-admire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/sportsenterprise\/wright-thompson-journalist-i-admire\/","title":{"rendered":"Wright Thompson: Journalist I admire"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wright Thompson is one of my favorite sports journalists largely due to how he uses sports as a lens to write about broader world issues. His writing has pushed me to be a better reporter and to relentlessly pursue more sources, more anecdotes and more details. I enjoy how frequently he uses dialogue and describes scenes with characters interacting with people and objects in the space. His writing is exceptional, but I am particularly amazed by his ability to essentially force readers to connect with the emotion experienced by the story\u2019s subject. Thompson writes about humans. Sports is just a lens. And to me, that\u2019s why his work his powerful.<\/p>\n

This story from 2013 on Johnny Manziel <\/a>showed me who Manziel is a person, rather than who he is on the field. The reporting in this story clearly shows the benefits of having great access. How many people would get to spend a day with Johnny Manziel and his dad on a golf course to report a story? Thompson uses that access to find specific details that showcase what Manziel is struggling with. To me, this isn\u2019t about Manziel the football player. This is about Manziel the college student who can\u2019t figure out who he is or who he wants to be.<\/p>\n

This story is heavy on dialogue, and I love that. Again, this shows how helpful it is to spend significant time with sources and see them interacting in their environment. It also proves that Thompson pays constant attention while reporting in order to pick out the conversations that best tell the story. I think the ending of this story is one of the strongest endings I\u2019ve ever read. Manziel is no longer the person he was a few years prior, and it\u2019s clear that the pressure and spotlight is becoming detrimental.<\/p>\n

One of my other favorite Wright Thompson stories is also about the destructive tendencies of fame. Thompson\u2019s story on Tiger Woods written this spring<\/a> is the epitome of unyielding reporting. I remember in the ESPN The Mag podcast Thompson said he worked on this for at least 14 months, and that is evident in the final product. He never talked to Woods, and this story could possibly be a more comprehensive look at Woods\u2019 struggles than Woods could have even articulated himself. On top of that, one of the key pieces of Woods\u2019 story was his involvement with the Navy SEALs, perhaps one of the world\u2019s most secretive communities. The number of sources needed to make this story work was insane. But that type of reporting is what brought this so far above just a typical, well-written feature.<\/p>\n

Thompson clearly pulled on every thread that even had the potential to lead to more pieces of the story. I feel like this all stems from him simply wanting to get the story right. It would have been easy to run a story about how Woods spent significant time with Navy SEALs, but that\u2019s not the full story. Thompson explores how this obsession comes from Woods\u2019 deeply rooted grief after the death of his father. The detail throughout the story is unreal. Just as one example, Thompson identifies the book about physics in Woods\u2019 car after the wreck. Later in the story, he connects a piece of that book to a struggle in Woods\u2019 life. That\u2019s great reporting, and that\u2019s certainly the type of reporter I aspire to be.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wright Thompson is one of my favorite sports journalists largely due to how he uses sports as a lens to write about broader world issues. His writing has pushed me to be a better reporter and to relentlessly pursue more sources, more anecdotes and more details. I enjoy how frequently he uses dialogue and describes … Continue reading Wright Thompson: Journalist I admire<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":251,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[21],"tags":[30],"class_list":["post-151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-module-1","tag-hero"],"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7MY21-2r","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1162,"url":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/sportsenterprise\/structure-advice\/","url_meta":{"origin":151,"position":0},"title":"Structure Advice","author":"amak","date":"October 19, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I read the Wright Thompson story The trouble with Johnny. I can\u2019t remember who first introduced me to this story, but it perfectly foreshadowed the implosion that was Johnny Manziel. \u00a0 One of the biggest writing techniques I took out of the story was Tool No. 27 \u2014 reveal traits\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Alex"","block_context":{"text":"Alex","link":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/sportsenterprise\/category\/students\/alex\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":312,"url":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/sportsenterprise\/surprising-age-regulations\/","url_meta":{"origin":151,"position":1},"title":"Surprising – Age Regulations","author":"Emily Greenwood","date":"August 25, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"For anyone who pays attention to sports, this may sound like beating a dead horse. But, I have always been fascinated with the age regulations for professional leagues, namely the NFL and NBA. For basketball, the rules for the draft stating that players must be 19 years old and have\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Greenwood"","block_context":{"text":"Greenwood","link":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/sportsenterprise\/category\/students\/greenwood\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":753,"url":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/sportsenterprise\/revised-story-memo-clarkson-high-school-cross-country\/","url_meta":{"origin":151,"position":2},"title":"Revised story memo – Clarkson High School cross country","author":"Emily Giambalvo","date":"September 23, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I spoke with the head coach of the Clarkson High School cross country team, and after that, I feel confident that is the team I want to dive into as I tell the story about refugee resettlement in Clarkston, Georgia. It sounds like access is not going to be an\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Giambalvo"","block_context":{"text":"Giambalvo","link":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/sportsenterprise\/category\/students\/giambalvo\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":169,"url":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/sportsenterprise\/journalist-i-admire-pat-forde\/","url_meta":{"origin":151,"position":3},"title":"Journalist I Admire: Pat Forde","author":"ebg308","date":"August 17, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Pat Forde is a bit of a jack of all trades. I really admire his ability to transition from one sport to the next, from one writing style to the next. He writes columns, features, and deadline-type stories \u2014 often all in one sitting at an event. He understands the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Module 1"","block_context":{"text":"Module 1","link":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/sportsenterprise\/category\/module-1\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":457,"url":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/sportsenterprise\/various-story-ideas-to-explore-refugees-in-clarkston\/","url_meta":{"origin":151,"position":4},"title":"Various story ideas to explore refugees in Clarkston","author":"Emily Giambalvo","date":"September 1, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Since I feel pretty confident that I\u2019ll my individual project will center around refugees in Clarkston, Georgia, and how their lives are affected by sports, these are five variations of how that could play out. As of now, my top choice for a story would focus on the children and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Giambalvo"","block_context":{"text":"Giambalvo","link":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/sportsenterprise\/category\/students\/giambalvo\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":209,"url":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/sportsenterprise\/journalists-i-admire-frank-isola\/","url_meta":{"origin":151,"position":5},"title":"Journalists I Admire – Frank Isola","author":"Bryan Marseille","date":"August 16, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Frank Isola, \u00a0Knicks beat writer for the NY Daily News, is hand-down my favorite sports journalist. Like Grantland's\u00a0Shea Soranno (more an author than journalist) and Bill Simmons (more sports-entity\u00a0than journalist), Isola's got the best blend of sports breakdown and wit in his writing. Frank Isola started on the Knicks beat\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Module 1"","block_context":{"text":"Module 1","link":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/sportsenterprise\/category\/module-1\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/sportsenterprise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/sportsenterprise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/sportsenterprise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/sportsenterprise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/251"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/sportsenterprise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/sportsenterprise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/sportsenterprise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/sportsenterprise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/sportsenterprise\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}