Down to the Wire: The Art of Sports Writing
- Gary-Alan Hopkins
- Feb 5, 2021
- 3 min read

Sports and sports journalism takes place in a fast-paced environment. Consider for a moment that you were assigned to report on the local university’s homecoming football game. Clearly, a big event to cover and more than enough stress for one person. You push forward and start digging into interviewing players and coaches before the game to see if you can gather insider insight on a player or game strategy. Perhaps someone got injured the night before and the coach had to substitute another player. The game is about to start so you take your seat in the press box and watch the game looking for anything that would be interesting to readers. This could be an amazing pass, an unexpected strategy play, an injury, or perhaps while you were interviewing you found out something personal that you could use. As you sit there taking notes on strategy, player’s performance, coaching technique the play clock ticks down. The game is down to five minutes left in the fourth quarter and you know that you have about 10-15 minutes to get post-game interviews and 30-minutes after that to write the piece and submit it to the printers and post on social media. Sports journalists need to be highly organized, deal well with stress and tight deadlines, and must be skilled writers because whipping up a quality sports article in such a short deadline is an impressive feat.
What makes a sports article appealing to readers in today’s dynamic media environment? A story no one else is talking about. Fans can quickly check live updates like scores, player stats, game highlights, and even replays via their smartphones, smartwatches, computers, and smart TVs. Therefore, a journalist needs to be able to rely on their writing and research skills to find a compelling story or angle that readers do not know about and want to learn more about. Sports fans expect a lot from their source for sports coverage. A report on fan engagement from Deloitte (2019) states that overall fan satisfaction with current broadcasting media is 39%. While the report goes on to say that fans, especially Fanatics – those that the Deloitte authors describe as “Never Miss a Game,” want more virtual interaction like gambling and (VR) virtual reality integrated into their broadcasting experience. Sports journalists cannot exactly implement these experiences in their writing unless you are a freelance journalist or blogger. However, where sports journalists can compete is digging for interesting stories to tell fans about their favorite sport, players, or coaches. So, what makes a great article?

As we pointed out earlier the article needs to have an interesting or unique angle and be something that readers want to read. You will need to create a compelling Lede for the article. This can be difficult even for experienced writers but with practice and time creating a great Lede can make all the difference in attracting the reader’s attention. A Lede should entail the most interesting part of your story. It should include things like a short description, field conditions, or important facts. Another key aspect of a good article is a “Nut Graf.” This is a paragraph that explains the context of the story. Then you have the “Key Play” in your article. This is where the article or game changes direction or momentum or something unexpected happens. A well-written article should be supported by statistics, quotations, interviews, and appropriate language and terminology. The entire article should be written in an inverse pyramid style where the most important information is presented first and less important information toward the end.
I hope this article gives you some insight into what it takes for sports journalists to write an interesting article worthy of taking the time to read.
References
Deutsch, A., Deweese, C., Harwood, K., and Teller, L. (2019). The Future of Sports Broadcasting: Enhancing digital fan engagement. Deloitte. Retrieved on February 4 from https://bb.vcsu.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-8496116-dt-content-rid-129945427_1/xid-129945427_1
Hi Gary-Alan - thank you for your work. I appreciate the depth of analysis. I saw only one question, about what makes a great article, in this post; is that the one you want answered? In that case, I think all of the pieces are so important. It is the combination of pieces done in an effective way that allows sports journalists to convey meaning to readers. All pieces must be there, or the piece may fall. Best, Kyle