Making It In ESPN

ESPN.  It is every sports journalist’s dream to one day work for the largest sports outlet in the entire world.

However, the company is no longer strictly journalism.  One of the largest parts of the company is the Stats and Information Group, also known as SIG.  This group handles all the stats and analysis that we see on the television screen, making sure that it is accurate, but still getting it on the air in a timely manner.

Within the SIG department are four main departments: the Bottomline, Production Research, Stats and Analysis, and Analytics.  Much of the research and stats come from databases such as the Elias Sports Bureau, TruMedia, and two summers ago, ESPN introduced MLB TruMedia.

Three people that work within the Stats and Analysis department are Hillary London, Erin Quinn, and Caroline Stedman are responsible for putting together many of the stats that you see pop up on screen.

Quinn and Stedman are both very young and just in the beginning of their time at ESPN, but have immense amounts of experience that can take them a long way. 

Stedman graduated from Amherst College in 2012, where she played for the women’s basketball team and was named an All-American and NESCAC Player of the Year.  The summer going into her junior year of college, she studied in Costa Rica, where she became fluent in Spanish, a trait that proved very valuable to her when she applied to ESPN.  Now, even though she is working in analytics, she is trying to use her knowledge of Spanish to help her move up in the sports world.

“I am currently working my way towards becoming a certified translator,” said Stedman. 

By becoming a translator, Stedman can use her knowledge of both Spanish and sports and work her way up in the organization and in the sporting world.

Quinn is currently in her third year with ESPN, her first full-time job right out of school.  She, like Stedman, went to school in Western Massachusetts, graduating from the all-girls school Smith College in Northampton, Mass.  Rather than learning a language like Stedman, she stood out to ESPN with all of her experience, interning for a minor league baseball team and then also at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY. 

The round of interviews that she went through to finally be hired by ESPN were lengthy, but certainly worth the time.

“After I originally talked to them on the phone, I had to take a 45-minute email test,” said Quinn.  “Following that, I had about four or five phone interviews and then finally was asked to come to the campus in Bristol and have an in-person interview and observation.”

And finally, there is London.  She is the experienced one in the group, a production manager within SIG.  Unlike Quinn and Stedman, she didn’t go right into the stats world, but instead, followed her passion of lacrosse and coached collegiately for 11 years, before she left to take a position at ESPN.  Now, she works with statistics, but is also one of the people that hires applicants like Quinn and Stedman.  For her, everyone that applies to ESPN loves sports, but she looks for more.

“In your cover letter, I want you to include a story about how sports have played a role in your life,” London said.  “Everyone says that they’re passionate about sports, but you need to include why this (job) will help you with what you want to do.”

All three of them took different routes to get where they are now, but for all of them, it is their passion in sports that will make them successful.

To Hell and Back

In 2007, Michael Vick had it all.

He had recently signed the richest contract in NFL history with the Atlanta Falcons, a 10 year/ $130 million deal with $37 million guaranteed.  But all of that disappeared when he was arrested and found guilty on dogfighting charges, causing him to go to jail for 18 months of his life.  The 18 month penalty was a much harsher penalty than what the law had called for, but Vick was used as a scapegoat.

Following his release, Vick signed as a free agent in 2009 with the Philadelphia Eagles and has since seen himself go from a near MVP candidate, to one of the most hated men in Philly.  But, back in 2010, ABC News' Bob Woodruff had a chance to sit down with Vick and talk about everything that Vick had been through: his time in Atlanta, how he lost everything, and how he has found his way back.

Coupled with the piece was a written story by Jennifer Metz that goes into more detail than the two and half minute video piece that Woodruff put together that details Vick's life in more detail.  By putting the two together, you get the visual side of the story, seeing Vick's life through highlights and video interviews and then the much more in-depth story of how Vick lost everything and got it all back again in the written piece.

Together, the multimedia package does a fantastic job of putting everything out there about Vick, but the one thing that really stood out to me as odd was the one-on-one interview that Woodruff had with Vick in the auditorium.  I didn't really like how they had the interview side-by-side as opposed to being face-to-face.  Had they been set up in front of each other, it would have forced Vick to look more directly towards Woodruff and talk TO him, rather than be next to him and talk BY him.  By setting them up that way, it was almost giving Vick a chance to avoid eye contact and not make it as personal as what it could have been.

On a positive not, I liked how there were multiple video packages put together.  The first one, the 2:33 package is the real story.  The next video that pops up is all the interview that Woodruff has with Vick, so you're able to hear more about what Vick has to say about his life.  The final video is Vick at his introductory press conference when he signed with the Eagles in 2009, giving you the full sports aspect of the story and showing him finally back from where he had gone.

Overall, this piece was well put together, nothing less than what one would expect from ABC News.  Even though I wish the video could have been longer, the written story did a fantastic job capturing everything about Vick and is certainly a great piece about a person trying to get a second chance at life.