In the five-plus years of my career as a journalist that I’ve covered sports, I’ve watched hundreds of games as an observer.
There’s no real prerequisites for the job other than some basic sports knowledge and the ability to string some coherent sentences together.
As far as athletics goes, I played soccer for nine years and lettered in high school and played two years of high school basketball before I got cut. Since then I’ve spent much more time watching sports than playing them.
While covering a game, you take notes and stats and evaluate the game as best you can. Then you ask the participants, the players and coaches what their take on the game is. They lived it, breathed it and made the crucial decisions and plays.
But some times being a participant gives you a fresh perspective. As an adult, I’ve played recreational softball and soccer, and starting this past January, I decided to try flag football.
I’ve never played organized tackle football and flag football is not the same thing, but I thought it might help me get a better understanding of the top sport I cover. So I signed up for Underdog Sports flag football league, which plays on Sundays at Memorial Stadium at Seattle Center.
This co-ed league revolves around a pass-oriented offense, eight-on-eight. Some of the women in the league are pretty good.
Most teams, including the one I played on, played zone defense, which is what most high school teams play. Unless you have several outstanding athletes, it’s hard to play man-to-man effectively. My team took advantage of teams that played man. I had my best game as a receiver (touchdown, extra point catch and 30-yard catch) against a man defense because it was easier to exploit.
On defense I played corner as part of a three-deep secondary. I asked King’s football coach Jim Shapiro, who played wide receiver and running back in college at Pacific Lutheran and defensive back at King’s, what the keys to playing corner are.
The main skills are having quick feet and speed, he said.
“You always stay in your backpedal, not turn and run,” Shapiro said. “If you have to turn and run, watch the whites of (the receiver’s) eyes.”
You want to keep a cushion between you and receiver as you backpedal and maintain it as deep downfield as possible, Shapiro said.
The idea is to keep the receiver in front of you. It’s better to let him catch a short hook in front of you and make the tackle than get beat deep and give up six.
“If everything is underneath you have the ability to make the play,” Shapiro said.
Most of the time, I stayed behind the receiver and our zone coverage was effective, but I did get burned a few times.
One time I had coverage on a deep route and was running with the receiver, and got turned around and didn’t know where the ball was. I tried to read the man instead of the ball and ended up pushing him before the ball got there. The safety came underneath and picked off the pass but because I grabbed the guy the referee called pass interference. No interception and a first down for the other team. They went on to score. Tough lesson to learn.
While playing zone, as the corner I would pick up the outside receiver in most cases and he would make a cut into the middle of the field. I would have to leave him and shift to someone else. It’s a team sport which means you have to trust that the safety will be there to pick that man up when you leave him. Most of the time the player was picked up but sometimes I had to yell for help in the middle.
Shapiro said playing in the secondary is like playing quarterback. You’re either going to make a great play or you’re going to look like the town fool.
“It’s really a win or lose type of position,” he said.
As Max Mercy, the sportswriter in “The Natural” tells slugger Roy Hobbs, “whether you’re a goat or hero, you’re going to make me a great story.”
Fortunately, no sportswriters come to my games.
Tony Dondero is assistant sports editor for The Enterprise.
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