ESPN’s Bomani Jones and Outsports.com’s Cyd Zeigler joined Jessica Luther in a panel on Saturday about social justice being influenced by the sports media. Among the first questions tackled by the panel was whether social issues should actually be discussed in sports writing.
“I think sports is as much of the culture as anything else,” said Luther, whose 2015 Texas Monthly story about a rape case at Baylor was one of many articles by the Austin-based journalist that have interwoven collegiate athletics and violence against women. “We have to talk about it on a much larger level than X’s and O’s.”
Not everyone on the sports page, though, is qualified to write about social issues such as race, gender and politics – “I am not encouraging everyone to write on these issues, because some of you don’t need to,” quipped Jones. That may be why many of today’s sports journalists aren’t traditional sports writers.
Jones, for example, studied economics in college, and Luther is a trained historian. Ziegler also isn’t a traditional sports writer. The inclusion of other backgrounds, the panelists argued, has allowed for more depth to be found on the sports page.
“Sports coverage is richer and better that it’s ever been,” Jones said.
As for the sports-related topics the panelists thought would be important in the upcoming future, Luther and Ziegler respectively went with the upcoming Olympics and transgender athletes. Jones gave his vote to the presidential run for Donald Trump, and how fans may react to their favorite athletes endorsing the Republican front-runner. - DANNY DAVIS
Finding Hidden Gems: Selecting Athletic Talent: What if there was a way to remove the risk of drafting a bust in pro sports?
Well, there isn’t, of course, but the participants of the Saturday panel are compiling data to make a more educated decision.
There are four predictors of success — athletic IQ, character, productivity and physical measurables. If an athlete checks boxes on all four, he or she is a no-brainer - a can’t-miss prospect. But when one is deficient in one or more area, it becomes important for a general manager to determine how the athlete is struggling and whether it is possible to change the circumstances that led to the red flag.
For example, Scott Goldman, a performance and clinical psychologist at the University of Michigan, referenced former NFL star receiver Randy Moss, who thrived in stable environments at Minnesota and New England but dipped in between with Oakland.
“If that’s not a testament of environmental contribution, I don’t know a better example,” Goldman said.
@TwitterSports: The Power of Now: Some new emojis will soon be appearing on your Twitter timeline.
Danny Keens, Twitter’s Head of Sports Partnerships in North America, told a crowd inside of a Four Seasons ballroom on Saturday that using certain hashtags will cause the insertion of emojis into tweets during March Madness. Emojis have been fashioned for the well-known later rounds, and emojis have been created to complement hashtags like #Cinderella (a slipper) and #MarchMadness (a bracket).
Keens called March Madness the “perfect marriage” for a social media platform like Twitter. This month, fans will also be able to experience March Madness through the view of Go Pro-wearing mascots, a concept that has been labeled #MascotScope.
Don't expect these to be the last innovative ideas for Twitter as the sporting calendar turns to events like March Madness and the Olympics. Keens told a panel moderated by Mashable's Sam Laird that two things keep him up at night: how to continue giving fans a unique relationship on Twitter and how to deliver authentic content. - DANNY DAVIS
In the Dugout: The Team from 'Everybody Wants Some': The funniest people Richard Linklater says he's ever been around weren't creative types in Hollywood, but his college baseball teammates at Sam Houston State.
That was the impetus for Linklater’s new comedy “Everybody Wants Some,” which he discussed with an audience at the convention center on Saturday a day after the film premiered at South by Southwest.
One of Linklater’s former teammates, Rick Keeler, joined the director on stage, as did Tyler Hoechlin, a former college infielder at UC Irvine who plays star hitter McReynolds. Comparing the camaraderie developed by the cast to that of an athletic team, Hoechlin said filming for the movie “was the best eight weeks I’ve had since playing.”
Hoechlin’s character is based loosely on former Major League all-star Glenn Wilson, a cocky teammate of Linklater’s at Sam Houston, who once threw a ping-pong paddle at Linklater after losing to him in a table tennis match.
Linklater, who nearly won best picture in 2015 for Boyhood, likened himself to the coach of the team, assembling talented individuals and putting them in positions to succeed. - RYAN AUTULLO
'1984' Meets 'Moneyball': Who Owns Player Data?: The San Antonio Spurs have long been one of the most secretive organizations in professional sports, so it was enlightening to hear one of their top employees share some of the club's trade secrets.
Brandon James, an attorney in the Spurs’ basketball operations, discussed the organization’s use of wearable devices to curate data on players, but noted there are risks in placing too much emphasis on what the analytics might say.
For instance, Jones said a Spurs player — no names, of course — appeared to be dogging it at practice based on the information provided by the wearable devices. Yet the aging player (Tim Duncan, perhaps?) was expending more energy in games than anyone else, leading to the conclusion that he was conserving his body in practice so he could perform in games.
“It’s a dangerous game with how you can jump to conclusions,” James said.
Former University of Texas linebacker Emmanuel Acho, who played four seasons with the Philadelphia Eagles, who leaned heavily on analytics under former coach Chip Kelly, expressed discontentment for wearable devices and the invasion of privacy they bring to athletes.
"It became tedious," Acho said. - RYAN AUTULLO
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