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Sportswriters, even those who have long written about the sports culture of a specific city, rarely seem to know much about the people for whom they do the writing. It’s not always their fault; it’s hard to engage at depth the kind of kids-at-recess discourse that probably fills inboxes on tough Monday mornings. But that’s maybe the root problem with sportswriting: Endless shallow-water splashfights are pretty easy and comparatively lucrative, but they’re not good writing.

Factory sportswriting — seems like a pretty good term for the dominant form of the genre — skims the surface of a fan base’s reaction to something like the offensive pass interference call against Jimmy Graham at the end of regulation during the Saints’ overtime loss to San Francisco. Factory sportswriting responds to upset fans with stock phrases and dismissive condescension. Factory sportswriting uses the myth of neutrality as a platform from which to speak down. Factory sportswriting says fans are biased fools who will always start fights over the refs when their team loses, and so let us find reasons to show them why they are wrong.

An alternative might be an effort to delve into the emotion, rather than dismiss it. A reflective, rather than reflexive, writing action might be to search for meaning in the absurdity of sports, even if that meaning is inevitably biased by emotion.

On Factory Sportswriting and the Jimmy Graham Hail Mary Penalty | B&G

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