finally happened … Rodrigue leaving Rams beat

nittany ram wrote:

Weird thing is, I’m not sure her new role will play to her strengths as a writer and journalist.

Did you read or hear the whole thing she did about the McVay-tree coaches? (Tree coaching is a complicated business). Or her long piece about how the Rams draft? It really does look like she has “trends in the NFL” type articles in her. She does a lot of research and is well regarded by the national analyst/reporter types because of it.

Zooey wrote:

She’s going to write best-sellers and take a place next to Michael Silver, Peter King, and so on. She’s the best football writer of her generation, and she’s going to become a household name among NFL fans nationwide.

Do you remember the time a few years ago when you could sense that many male football fans did not take women reporters or analysts seriously?

And then…I think most acknowledge that Rodrigue was by far the best Rams beat reporter they ever read, going all the way back to Jim Murray.

Zooey wrote:

zn wrote:

Do you remember the time a few years ago when you could sense that many male football fans did not take women reporters or analysts seriously?

As much as anything else, I think that was a by-product of the fact that for many, many years, the only women who broke the glass ceiling into sports reporting were hired because of how they looked in a little black dress, rather than because they had anything to say about football. Male football fans were groomed to not take women reporters seriously because they weren’t serious reporters. Still true of most of the sideline reporters.

Jourdan loves football. And she’s intelligent and articulate. She asks interesting questions and pays attention to the answers. I’m sure the players and coaches appreciate her for that, too. She’s not a “What was going through your head on that last play right before you made the catch?” kind of reporter. She probably understood what Cooper Kupp said to that sideline reporter a few years ago.

And Jim Murray WAS the best Rams reporter prior to Rodrigue, but he was from a different era, and what he did really well was paint pictures with words. Jourdan writes well, but her analysis and ability to explain, to connect dots, to provide deep insight into the deep currents of the team and the game are simply unparalleled.

We all knew she was inevitably going to get promoted to the national stage. It was only a matter of time. If I was managing the staff at The Athletic, I would have made the same move. Jourdan is brilliant.

Yeah she was okay I guess.

😎

Zooey wrote:

wv wrote:

Zooey wrote:

She’s going to write best-sellers and take a place next to Michael Silver, Peter King, and so on. She’s the best football writer of her generation….

Better than Fast Eddy?

w
v

Fast Eddie was in Jim Murray’s generation, and he was promising up until his abduction by aliens.

I still blame Janet Jackson for that.

Fast Eddy promised his girlfriend he would spend less time obsessing football. So he dropped out of sight.

True story.

Meanwhile, Jourdan apparently promised someone she would spend more time obsessing even more football.

So! Once again, we see that life goes in cycles….