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When Emmanuel Morgan was employed as a sports activities reporter overlaying the N.F.L. and fight sports activities for The New York Occasions in 2021, the job felt acquainted. In any case, Mr. Morgan, who grew up taking part in soccer, had been writing concerning the sport since highschool. He went on to cowl the N.F.L. for The Los Angeles Occasions for almost two years.
“I knew the N.F.L. and the U.F.C. and all these different sports activities so properly,” stated Mr. Morgan, 27, who additionally lined highschool sports activities and basketball for The Los Angeles Occasions, together with serving to report on the dying of Kobe Bryant in 2020.
So when The Occasions disbanded its Sports activities division final yr, he took the chance to stretch himself and pitch a brand new beat: the intersection of sports activities and popular culture.
“I’m not a film critic or a Broadway-goer, however I observe popular culture, I watch Netflix and I hearken to music consistently — within the bathe each day, on the subway,” he stated. “I had my pulse on it.” Over the previous eight months, Mr. Morgan, now on the Tradition desk, has written concerning the popular culture phenomenon of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce, the rising relationship between the N.F.L. and streaming providers and the rise of athlete podcasts.
In an interview, he mentioned how his every day information consumption has modified and what his favourite reporting expertise to this point has been. These are edited excerpts from the dialog.
You’ve been within the position for just a little over eight months now. How is it going to this point?
I’ve undoubtedly needed to be much more artistic in relation to discovering story concepts. After I was with the Sports activities desk, I knew the N.F.L. and the U.F.C. so properly — overlaying sports activities may be very formulaic. You understand it’s important to have previews for large occasions just like the Tremendous Bowl and the N.F.L. draft, and because the season goes on the foremost story traces and the targets for profiles and options turn out to be fairly clear. However with this new beat, I’m reporting on stuff you don’t see on TV or Twitter, and there are much more choices, since I’m not simply specializing in the N.F.L. and U.F.C. anymore. I’ve to make much more telephone calls and speak to extra folks.
In March, a gathering with a publicist led to a well timed story about how Flau’jae Johnson, the most effective girls’s school basketball gamers within the nation, balanced her sports activities obligations along with her music profession.
What are a few of your favourite articles you’ve written to this point?
I labored on quite a lot of items across the Tremendous Bowl this yr in Las Vegas — I adopted a retired participant round Radio Row for a day for a narrative about the way it’s remodeled right into a colossus for the N.F.L. I wrote about how events on the Tremendous Bowl have turn out to be a enterprise and use the occasion as a taking part in floor for model activations. It was cool to indicate different folks on the Tradition desk that there’s extra to cowl than simply the halftime present.
I additionally wrote about Joel Embiid, a basketball participant who began a media manufacturing firm, which is a giant factor within the sports activities house now. And I landed a front-page story on how the N.F.L. is making an attempt to department out and do extra long-form initiatives for streaming providers like Netflix, Amazon and Apple.
Did you play sports activities rising up?
I performed soccer in highschool. I used to be a operating again and a linebacker. I additionally wrestled. I’ve at all times been an athlete, however I beloved to write down, too. So placing the 2 collectively made sense.
What’s essentially the most enjoyable factor you’ve had the prospect to do for an article?
I obtained to observe the U.F.C. announcer Bruce Buffer round for a struggle. I used to be in a position to observe how he ready, together with color-coordinating index playing cards he reads within the octagon, which have the fighters’ names and stats on them.
What’s been your greatest problem?
Attempting to detach myself from the video games. My intuition is to need to cowl what’s taking place on the sector or on the court docket. I’ve to step again and search for issues that aren’t concerned within the precise sport itself. I’m coaching myself to assume otherwise.
What are your objectives for future protection of sports activities and tradition at The Occasions?
To maintain constructing it out — it’s been cool to have the ability to experiment and take a look at new issues; to say, “The New York Occasions wouldn’t have lined that story earlier than, nevertheless it’s necessary.” I’m not even a yr in but, and I hold discovering new tales to cowl. There’s an viewers for this crossover between sports activities and leisure, and my objective is to search out it and inform tales that resonate with them.
