Sports Deadlines: Many Factors Go Into Meeting A Deadline

I recently had the "pleasure" of attending the Cleveland Browns and Tennessee Titans football game at Cleveland Browns Stadium.  In response to the game, our instruction for class was to write a 400-page news article summarizing the game and highlights of the game.  The Cleveland Browns were destroyed by the Titans 31-13, and the game was out of reach for the Browns by the end of the third quarter, so it allowed me to craft the beginning of my news article before the game had even ended. 

In a game that's a blowout like this the writer can start crafting their article before the game ends and make necessary updates to statistics and plays of significance later in the game, while they're finalizing their article.  So, this game gave me the ability to have a "headstart" on my work.  By the end of the game, I had crafted the first part of the news article because the major plays had already happened in the game.  If I were a professional sportswriter I would have used my laptop in the press box to write the beginning of the article.  But, since I was in the stands I scribbled a few things down on my smartphone that I wanted to make note of and had the beginnings of a good story.  The blowout was definitely something that helped facilitate the article.

To complete my article I needed accurate statistics about the team performances and the individual player performances.  In a press box, the writer would usually be given different statistics throughout the game and at the end of each quarter by someone working for the home team.  In this particular case, I had to wait until I made it home from the game to access statistics and other valuable information about the game on the Internet.  I only had a few notes that I made from the game while sitting in the stands.  The advancement of technology in this case definitely helps the writer craft articles more quickly than ever.  Since the game ended at 400pm, and I had the Internet to help with statistics it made my job much easier. 

It would have been much more difficult to meet my deadline if the game had a later start time and if the score had been closer.  If the game would have been closer I would not have been able to begin my story as early as I did.  It would also meant that I would have had to make more edits to the article before the finalized article was sent.  This would have caused me to spend much more time on the article.  If a game starts later in the day there is no way for a sportswriter to know when the game will end, so it may have caused trouble meeting my deadline at 11:55pm if the game had ended around 10 or 11pm.  Since the game was completed relatively early in the afternoon it allowed me to "fine tune" my article and make any edits and clean it up before it had to be submitted.

Technology has made it much easier for writers to do their jobs.  Information about players, teams, and matchups is available any time the writer wants to access it on the Internet.  It makes it easier for the writer to include pertinent information in their article.  It also allows the writer to approach the story from different angles because they have such detailed information available immediately.  This flow of information can usually be updated instantaneously, and it gives the writer a definite advantage when deciding on how they want to write an article.  It's almost comical nowadays to think of a writer sitting in the press box furiously typing on the typewriter, struggling to meet a deadline when the game ended two hours earlier.