Is it possible to be a journalist and a fan?
That's a question that many young journalists are forced to ask themselves. I started writing at the sports desk for The Spectrum three years ago, mainly because I loved sports and I wanted to be a writer. When I started writing, my goal was to write articles that UB fans would love to read. I was going to be the fan that was a journalist too. However, a funny thing happened on my way to this goal: I stopped being a fan.
I'm not saying that I don't love sports. I do, and I think you have to if you want to have a career as a sports journalist. When it comes to the University at Buffalo, however, it's tough to make the case that I am a fan of the teams anymore, and that's a bitter pill to swallow.
I once considered myself one of the biggest UB fans out there. Up until this season, I traveled to Cleveland every year that Buffalo was there for the MAC tournament, only missing one game - the championship game against Ohio - because I was already in Florida. I had a consecutive streak of attending home men's basketball games that neared 100. I even set up a tent to camp out for Reggieville when Buffalo almost defeated Pitt. I didn't stay in that tent, but hey, I set it up.
I could go on and on, about remembering Jim Hoffher and how he said, "If you want to drive to Arizona, you're probably going to have to drive through Missouri." Or how the 2004-05 basketball team brought me my favorite college memories. I don't regret any of that, but something happened this season that made me realize I'm not a UB fan anymore. And I don't regret that, either.
I believe that there is a difference between loving sports and being a fan. Loving sports is waking up at 5 a.m. to watch the US lose in the World Cup, even though you don't like soccer. Being a fan of a team is crying when your team is eliminated from the NHL Playoffs despite winning the President's Trophy and being the better team. (I will always be bitter towards Ottawa for that series.)
And that's the catch. I don't think I will always be bitter towards Ohio for ruining Buffalo's chance at the NCAA tournament. Now, I could never see myself dating a girl who went to Ohio, but I could, under perfect conditions, be cordial with an Ohio fan. Trust me, it took a long time to get there. But I could never date someone who was openly a fan of the Red Sox. I just couldn't do it.
To do this job correctly you have to put all personal bias aside. It took me almost three years to get there, but I did. My former editor Tony would be so proud of me.
All of this brings me to the Andy Robinson incident, which I reported over a week ago. I know for a fact that last year I would not have reported this. The fan in me would have said that Andy Robinson is a basketball player and I don't want to hurt the basketball team.
Yet, when I was alerted of the post, I knew that it was a news story. I have gotten several complaints about the reporting, some of them valid, most of them not. Believe me when I tell you that I hope Andy comes back next year. He deserves a second chance. But in this instance, I thought as a journalist, not as a fan. I'm not debating whether it was right or wrong - that is for other people to decide.
The decision that I made to write the article proved to me without a doubt that it's impossible to be a fan of a team that you cover. You have to be amicable with everyone, approachable even, but whether someone scores five points or 45 points, my job is the same - to report what happened.
That is what I will take away from UB. Not the Chaucer class or the Milton monotony, or anything really from the Old-English British literature garb that is forced down your throat as an English major, but the responsibility that you have as a journalist to report.
This is not the type of thing that you learn in a day, a semester or a year. It took my entire college experience to instill this sensibility into my life. There are way too many people to individually thank, so if you've helped me get to where I am now, or where I'm going in the future, thank you.
