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’s subject. Thompson writes about humans. Sports is just a lens. And to me, that’s why his work his powerful.
This story from 2013 on Johnny Manziel 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’t about Manziel the football player. This is about Manziel the college student who can’t figure out who he is or who he wants to be.
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’ve ever read. Manziel is no longer the person he was a few years prior, and it’s clear that the pressure and spotlight is becoming detrimental.
One of my other favorite Wright Thompson stories is also about the destructive tendencies of fame. Thompson’s story on Tiger Woods written this spring 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’ struggles than Woods could have even articulated himself. On top of that, one of the key pieces of Woods’ story was his involvement with the Navy SEALs, perhaps one of the world’s 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.
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’s not the full story. Thompson explores how this obsession comes from Woods’ 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’ car after the wreck. Later in the story, he connects a piece of that book to a struggle in Woods’ life. That’s great reporting, and that’s certainly the type of reporter I aspire to be.