I’m a big sports fan. Football’s my favorite, and I’ve been a die hard New England Patriots fan since birth. As a journalism student, I was always interested in how athletes are portrayed in the media. In fact, I turned my curiosity into a research paper for my senior seminar, an awesome class called Sports, Media and Society. For the paper, I researched the coverage of NFL players in Sports Illustrated and People Magazine. I compared the subjects that were covered in each one, how the players were described, which aspect of their lives the stories focused on, etc., and I was very dissapointed (though not surprised) by the amount of coverage given to negative news.
In the fall of 2007, I spent the semester in DC, and had the absolute pleasure of interning with the NFL Players Association. My favorite project revolved around the Home Depot NFL Neighborhood MVP program, which recognizes players who dedicate their time to community service. About 15 players are selected as finalists, and each one is honored with a football field refurbishment or a playground build in their community. I would research each player and their community service involvement, and then interview them via telephone the day of their project. Not only was it ridiculously awesome to talk to these guys on the phone, but I really enjoyed learning and writing about the good things that they do.
When I spoke with Jun Loayza in my interview for Viralogy, Jun suggested that I start a website where I would highlight athletes doing good things in the world. Since I don’t exactly have time to do that, I’ve come up with a compromise. I’m going to do a little series here called Positive Spin, starting with the players I interviewed for the NFLPA. Unfortunately, they gave the website a makeover after my internship, so my articles aren’t posted on NFLPlayers.com anymore. But, I figured that gives me the perfect opportunity to give athletes some well-deserved positive spin. Look for the first feature in the next few days!
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=d4785b14-5e76-4714-b647-8e2a427e6996)
