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Emmanuel Morgan is seduced by the way athletes and sports leagues turn to music, television and other media.
By Sara Bahr
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When Emmanuel Morgan was hired as a game reporter to cover the NFL and wrestling games for the New York Times in 2021, the paintings were familiar. After all, Mr. Morgan, who grew up playing football, had been writing about the game since high school. He then covered the NFL for the Los Angeles Times for about two years.
“He knew the NFL and the UFC and all those other sports very well,” said Morgan, 27, who also covered major school sports and basketball for the Los Angeles Times, adding that he helped report on Kobe Bryant’s death in 2020.
So when the Times dissolved its sports arm last year, it took the opportunity to push itself and propose a new rhythm: the intersection of sports and pop culture.
“I’m not a film critic or a Broadway lover, but I get attached to pop culture, I watch Netflix and I pay attention to music all the time, in the shower every day, on the subway,” he said. I had my pulse on it. ” For the past 8 months, Mr. Morgan, now in the culture office, has written about the pop culture phenomenon of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce, about the developing dates between N. F. L. players, streaming and the rise of athlete podcasts.
In an interview, he explained how his news intake has been replaced and what his favorite journalistic experience has been so far. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.
You’ve been doing this for a little over 8 months. How are you doing so far?
I definitely had to be a lot more artistic when it came to coming up with story ideas. When I was in the athletic office, I knew the N. F. L. And U. F. C. si it intelligently: covering sports is very stereotypical. You know you have to make strides for big occasions like the Super Bowl and the NFL Draft, and as the season progresses, the main stories and goals in terms of profiles and characteristics are pretty clear. But with this new rhythm, I’m reporting things that you don’t see on TV or Twitter, and there are a lot more options, since I’m not just focusing on the N. F. L. and U. F. C. plus. Je I have to make a lot more phone calls and communicate with more people.
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