Daily Human – Sports Writers – 4/9/21

Yes, I actually spend time thinking about these things.

I read a lot of sports. Especially editorial pieces. There are many writers whose work I really enjoy.

The question I have often asked myself is

Should sports writers always be completely objective ?

Many sports writers got into this professions because they loved sports. And they are likely to have favourites – players and teams – that they have followed passionately all their lives. While they try to be objective, you can often notice the bias.

Two such examples are Bill Simmons and Ramachandra Guha. You can see Bill’s Boston biases come to life, every time he speaks about a Boston team or one of their hated rivals. He loses all sense of balance the moment you mention the Yankees or the Lakers. Or even LeBron.

Similarly, Guha is extremely partisan about Bangalore cricket and cricketers. Don’t expect any objectivity there.

I have thought about it a lot.

I finally realised one thing.

Rather than thinking of them as sports writers, I should think of them as sports fans who are great writers. Which essentially means, they can express and articulate their feelings and emotions for sport really well.

Who doesn’t like to hear a passionate sports fan ?

I do. It quickly rubs off on me. Evokes some wonderful emotions.

I can now see the upside of their bias. It’s good to have biased sports writers.