Courtesy majorlycool

I had an interview with a recruiter from the Dallas Morning News, and he asked me a question I wish I had been better prepared for. What are some ways a reporter can break up the repetitive nature of professional sports coverage? I’ve been thinking about it ever since Friday morning.

On a daily basis, there’s game summary’s, which usually include typical, useless quotes from athletes and coaches alike. Columnists pontificate on the ifs and coulda/woulda/shoulda aspects of the team. And that’s about it. Blogs have helped to change that, allowing more personal and detailed analysis from the beat reporters covering individual teams, but at the same time, blogs from enthusiasts have readers skipping newspaper websites in favor of content generated by the guy or girl next door.

My idea was to take a basic story idea but upgrade it. Occasionally, a single play can make or break a game. A good beat writer will be able to analyze the play and break it down for the reader. It makes for a neat, short story. You get feedback from the athletes and coaches involved, and its a window into the intricate details of a particular aspect of a sport.

Basically, I want to watch simulations on my computer. To a certain extent, ESPN.com already does this by using the latest version of Madden NFL to simulate every game each week. But they only show the highlights of their video game simulation. I want to see a single play broken down in video form.

I want, and the Washington Post gives.

After a little searching, I found the Post’s “Redskins Gameday” web page. This is a feature that’s been in the Post’s print version for the better part of a decade, so most of the content isn’t new or unique to the web. But they’ve added something new: a low quality simulation of a particular type of play that could be one the Redskin’s keys to the game.

Like I said, the quality is lacking. Severely. In the age of Flash, this is kind of unacceptable, were it not for the video’s great execution and that fact that I loved watching every second of it. The video looks like it uses graphics from the original Madden video game, but it takes you through a play analysis, which explains visually and textually each aspect of the play. It also has two different views of the play: you can watch from inside the helmet of the ball-carrier, or from the defensive’s perspective.

Like most things worthwhile on the Post’s website, I wish I’d known about this sooner. I don’t know for sure how long this has been a feature, but it takes a little too much searching to find something this cool. The Post has a real problem of not featuring the content that would interest people the most in a clear and easily accessible way.