Go to the places where the cameras aren’t, says award-winning journalist

It was Thanksgiving Day, and for once, Mark Sanchez didn’t deliver a turkey. The often-maligned quarterback had a huge game in leading Philadelphia to a big win over Dallas.

Sitting in the press box, Mike Sielski considered his options. The columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer could have written a piece on the importance of the game to Sanchez and the Eagles. Perhaps he would go down to the locker room to get some perfunctory comments. Maybe not. Quotes often are excess baggage in today’s opinion age.

Sielski, though, had something different in mind.

He knew Sanchez’s father, Nick, was at the game, and that Mark’s career also had been a rollercoaster ride for him. Sielski hooked up with Nick and was with him as he waited to celebrate with his son. After more than an hour, the locker room was practically empty and still no meeting. Sielksi, though, didn’t retreat to the press box. Instead, he was there to write about the moment.

The end result was a rich and compelling column that boiled down a big nationally televised game to the emotions of a father and son.

Sielski wrote:

Eventually, the media-relations staffer ushered Nick Sanchez into the locker room. It was mostly empty and quiet, an equipment manager pushing a laundry bin full of white towels, and when Mark Sanchez stepped out of the shower Nick did not say anything. He handed him a cellphone. Mark spoke in Spanish to a family member, and Nick rolled a pair of black socks into a ball to help Mark tidy up.

They left the room and returned to the field, father and son together on their best of days, and they put their arms around each other and smiled as someone snapped a photograph . . . a new memory made, an old one buried forever.

Looking back, Sielski explained why he took that approach.

“Anybody could have written Mark Sanchez had a great game,” Sielski said. “Not everyone was in that locker room to observe Sanchez and his father. I wanted to stand back and be a camera and watch and see how they would interact. [As a columnist] You have to find the interesting thing and write about it.”

Sielski did, as the Sanchez column was a big reason why he took first place as the top columnist in newspapers with a circulation of 175,000 or more in this year’s Associated Press Sports Editors contest. Gregg Doyel of the Indianapolis Star was cited in the 75,000-175,000 circulation  category; Pete Iorizzo of the Times Union in Albany, N.Y. for 30,000-75,000; and Mark Selig of the Columbia Missourian for under 30,000.

The APSE contest is the writers’ equivalent of the Oscars. The 39-year-old Sielski, who became a Inquirer sports columnist in 2013, headed a field that included Sally Jenkins of the Washington Post, Bill Plaschke of the Los Angeles Times, Tim Cowlishaw of the Dallas Morning News and Ian O’Connor of ESPN New York.

“It’s a real honor to just get nominated,” Sielski said. “I joked to my boss, ‘I think you need to give me a raise.’”

Sielski’s victory speaks to the importance of access. He seeks to take readers to places they never get to see. Sielski tries to base his perspective by observing his subject, such as a column on Pete Rose speaking at a Philadelphia church.

Sielski wrote of Rose:

This initially would seem an ill-suited venue for Pete Rose: among evangelicals. But to sit in on the services was to see how fitting the setting actually was. He and Jones sat across from each other on stage in an auditorium, and more than 2,000 people whooped and cheered and chuckled at his stories and one-liners. A teenage boy who distributed bread and wine at communion wore a red Phillies jersey. A man in his early 50s – bald and goateed and built like a small mountain – yelled, “Love you, man!”

“I’m a big believer that the greatest advantage we have is our access,” Sielski said. “We have to use it. Only so many of us have access to these people. In your columns, you have to ground what you do in your reporting, the freshness of your take. You need to give people something they won’t find in a boxscore, Twitter or ESPN.”

Sielski knows his approach runs a bit counter to a new generation of columnists and bloggers who rip and critique in all directions, often from the comforts of home. That style isn’t for him.

“It would be easy to succumb to the temptation of, ‘Let me give this opinion and I’ll get some eyeballs,’” Sielski said. “You have to pick your spots. You can’t write the Eagles should fire Chip Kelly in week 1. The advantage to this approach is that when you do take a stand, it has more impact. People go, ‘He doesn’t usually write like that.’ It has more meaning.”

One column always will have special meaning to Sielski. Last year, he wrote on Father’s Day  about his son, Evan. He shared how his head was “spinning” after a doctor mentioned autism in regards to his then 3-year-old son.

The sports connection, Sielski said, comes from Evan becoming a huge Phillies fan. His passion for the team is a “welcome development” amid some challenging times for the family. Sielski writes about taking Evan to a game:

“When it was time to leave he pretended to slide head-first into home, right there on the crud-covered concrete floor of the pavilion deck, and it was worth the extra-long, extra-soapy bath that night. Every second was worth it, because his daddy was able to comfort him a couple of nights later, when the screaming started again, by asking him to remember their fun day at the ballpark together.”

“I rarely write in first person, and I wouldn’t have done it if there wasn’t a sports angle,” Sielski said. “The response was overwhelming. People were unbelievably gracious and kind. I still get emails about the column.”

The column helped Evan’s father win a prestigious APSE contest. Sielski, though, is being sure to keep everything in perspective.

“There’s something to be said for the way the contest is determined,” Sielski said. “A friend of mine said, ‘You can win one of those things by writing five great columns and 195 lousy columns. I’d rather be the kind of guy who writes 200 great columns.’ That’s how I define myself. This won’t change how I do my job.”

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Recommended reading on sports journalism:

The National Sports Journalism Center’s Michael Bradley believes sports journalism lost with Rachel Nichols and Michelle Beadle being denied credentials to the big fight.

I wrote a column for NSJC saying the media needs to stand as one to when fellow reporters are unfairly denied credentials.

Ryan Glasspiegel of Big Lead questions whether reporters actually need to cover big events.

Ken Lang of Awful Announcing has an interview with Robert Lipsyte about his tenure as ESPN’s ombudsman.

And get this, Lipsyte is launching his own blog.

Dave Anderson of the New York Times has a terrific column on his stories about covering big fights.

Ed Sherman writes about sports media at shermanreport.com. Follow him @Sherman_Report.