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When Emmanuel Morgan was employed as a sports activities reporter masking the N.F.L. and fight sports activities for The New York Occasions in 2021, the job felt acquainted. In spite of everything, Mr. Morgan, who grew up enjoying soccer, had been writing in regards to the sport since highschool. He went on to cowl the N.F.L. for The Los Angeles Occasions for practically two years.
“I knew the N.F.L. and the U.F.C. and all these different sports activities so effectively,” mentioned 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 comply with popular culture, I watch Netflix and I take heed to music continually — within the bathe on daily basis, on the subway,” he mentioned. “I had my pulse on it.” Over the previous eight months, Mr. Morgan, now on the Tradition desk, has written in regards to 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 up to now has been. These are edited excerpts from the dialog.
You’ve been within the function for just a little over eight months now. How is it going up to now?
I’ve positively needed to be much more inventive in the case of discovering story concepts. Once I was with the Sports activities desk, I knew the N.F.L. and the U.F.C. so effectively — masking sports activities may be very formulaic. You realize it’s important to have previews for giant occasions just like the Tremendous Bowl and the N.F.L. draft, and because the season goes on the main story strains and the targets for profiles and options develop into 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 individuals.
In March, a gathering with a publicist led to a well timed story about how Flau’jae Johnson, among the finest 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 up to now?
I labored on numerous 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 reworked right into a colossus for the N.F.L. I wrote about how events on the Tremendous Bowl have develop into a enterprise and use the occasion as a enjoying floor for model activations. It was cool to point out different individuals 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 an enormous factor within the sports activities area 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 tasks 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 working again and a linebacker. I additionally wrestled. I’ve all the time been an athlete, however I cherished to put in writing, too. So placing the 2 collectively made sense.
What’s essentially the most enjoyable factor you’ve had the possibility to do for an article?
I acquired to comply with the U.F.C. announcer Bruce Buffer round for a combat. 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 wish to cowl what’s occurring on the sphere 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 in a different way.
What are your targets 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 essential.” I’m not even a yr in but, and I maintain 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.
