Just write: No good will ever come from a story that you never started
Michael Schottey, NFL National Lead Writer, was awarded the 1st place 2014 Dick Connor Writing Award for News Writing by the Pro Football Writers of America, along with 3rd place in the Game Stories category. The 1st place award was for his column headlined “Reported NFL influence over ESPN latest blow to integrity on concussions.”
The following is the story of how that column came about.
Last year, the big news at Bleacher Report was the hiring of Matt Bowen and Mike Freeman as Lead Writers. Knowing both guys, I couldn’t have been more excited and was even more happy to fly out for an “NFL Summit” with the two of them, Lead Writer Ty Schalter, NFL Editor Collin McCollough, Editor-In-Chief Joe Yanerella and B/R founder and General Manager Dave Finnochio. Best yet, it was in the new video offices in New York City, so we were getting the chance to see those as they took shape.
On Aug. 23, as I was preparing to fly home to Florida from that summit, news broke from James Andrew Miller of The New York Times that the NFL had pressured ESPN to remove itself from its role in a joint documentary with PBS’s “Frontline” based on the book “League of Denial,” which had been written by two ESPN staffers.
If true—and Miller is a ridiculously reputable source on what goes on in Bristol—it would be a huge blow to the NFL’s integrity on the concussion matter and proof positive of what many have suspected for some time: that the NFL is more interested in sweeping the concussion issue under the rug than actually dealing with it.
My initial reaction was to blanket everyone I knew to try to get statements on the issue. I emailed, texted and called people at ESPN, NFL offices and at the NFL Players Union. I searched through all my contacts and cross-referenced them with any connection to the story, including ESPN employees who happened to be in the NFL concussion lawsuit.
I set up a number of columns on Tweetdeck so I would see any information on the subject as soon as it hit the internet.
Then, I shot my immediate editor, Wes O’Donnell, a G-chat at 9 a.m. on the dot (I still have the conversation saved) asking if I could write on the issue. At this point, I had nothing but my own opinion and the original report, but I trusted I could get more, so I started writing.
Understand that I was supposed to be checking out of my hotel and heading to LaGuardia. I had already called the front desk at about 8:50 to check out and have them call me a taxi.
I didn’t have to write this story—it wasn’t assigned and could have easily been covered by someone else at B/R. Yet, I wanted to write this story. It was important to me, and I knew it was an important topic.
The first response back to me was a text from NFLPA executive George Atallah agreeing to call me. The next, almost immediately, was a response via email by NFL spokesman Greg Aiello. By the time I had finished reading that email, I had received a message from former NFL player Lomas Brown.
You can read what those men had to say in the column, linked above.
In all, I think I sent about 15 texts, emails or phone messages that morning and only received a handful back. Some on the record and others off.
As each person responded to me, I plugged it into the skeleton of the story I had built. I used the columns from Tweetdeck to add more context to the piece as others were getting comments from sources I hadn’t talked to as well as others, including an official denial from ESPN.
At 10:17, I emailed the published link to O’Donnell and was out of the hotel by 10:30, praying that traffic would be OK on my way out of the city. With NYC’s typical and terrible Sprint cellphone reception, I G-chatted O’Donnell on the way to the airport about the editing and content standards of the piece.
In the airport, I was boarding the plane when the column was cleared and ready to go.
I didn’t have to write. There was no need to subject myself to that stress, or to chance missing my flight, which would have meant incurring huge change fees or getting home later to the wife and children who weren’t exactly loving that I hadn’t been home.
In the end though, I couldn’t be more happy that I wrote.
Writers write, period. That’s who I am and that’s what I do.
This isn’t about just the award, though I am extremely grateful to the PFWA and their judges for recognizing the hard work and craft that went into the piece. No, I’ve been proud of this piece since it published and have reaped benefits in terms of how seriously people take me and my writing—including some of those sources who may not have given me the time of day beforehand.
I wish I followed this “writers write” maxim more often. As can be the case, life happens. I have many hats to wear both personally and professionally, and I don’t always juggle those roles as well as I should. I try not to procrastinate, but I do. I try not to go through “writers block,” but I do.
Write, just write.
Don’t talk about writing. Just write. Don’t complain about writing. Just write. Don’t stress over writing. Just write. Don’t spend the entire day tweeting and Facebooking on a topic. Just write.
I don’t know what your best story will be or whether it will earn you an award. I do know this: Your worst work will always be the work you didn’t put in.
Just write.