Photo Credit: Charles LeClaire/USA TODAY Sports
In case you didn’t check out this week’s spotlight yet, Melissa Jacobs is a former ESPN producer turned football blogger turned Sports Illustrated writer. Her blog, The Football Girl, became insanely popular, garnering attention from some high-profile media companies like Forbes, CNN and the New York Times. Currently, Jacobs is an NFL Editor for Sports Illustrated but continues to write frequently. Some of her more popular features include “Week Under Review”, “What Ray Rice’s Daily Life looks Like Now” and interviews with players, current and former including Todd Gurley, Jon Gruden, and Jerome Bettis among others.
I got the chance to talk to her about women working in sports, her infamous Ray Rice article and who she dreams about interviewing.
Who would be your dream person to interview?
My dream person to interview would probably be Marshawn Lynch because he’s so mysterious. There’s questions surrounding why he retired, what he’s gonna do in the future. He’s just such an authentic person in the NFL where everyone, most athletes are trained to provide answers and he doesn’t provide any answers, but he’s just so true to himself and doesn’t play by any rules. I’d love to spend time with him.
What sporting event do you wish you had the chance to cover?
That’s pretty easy for me. The Kentucky Derby. It’s the one sporting event that I want to attend, I’m not sure that I’d necessarily want to cover it although that would be very cool. I’ve always wanted to attend…I wouldn’t say I’m particularly into horse racing any more than anyone who’s casually into it but you know the pomp of it all and the attire. It’s just a really fascinating world in general…horse racing. There was a period of time where I was very into horse racing like I would go to the track and bet, all that stuff. I’m fascinated by the process of training and all the animal rights stuff. You know to able to cover that on the world’s biggest stage would be pretty cool.
One of your most-talked-about pieces was when you spoke with Ray Rice about what his life is like now. What was your reaction to all of the positive feedback on what you wrote?
I was really surprised actually. I just feel like his name made him sort of this ostracized person and that he’s been blacklisted. He’s certainly been blacklisted in the NFL but my impression was that it wasn’t to that extent in society. You know, he’s somebody that I had interviewed before all the stuff with the elevator…it was actually at an event where he was getting a humanitarian award for all his work in the community so I certainly have the same visceral reaction that everyone else did and all the venom towards the commissioner and everything.
I just wanted to approach him with an open mind and I sort of had an inkling that he was genuine in his turnover or learned. I certainly believe that it was a one-time incident and I was really surprised to just see that a lot of people felt the same. I just assumed that he was going to be blacklisted for life but it’s still so new that I really think that two years later, people would have an open mind sort of in mass really.
With Greg Hardy, you would think that people would at least be a little forgiving with Ray Rice?
Yeah and I think that helped Ray. I think it was the week that Greg Hardy gave that horrific interview to ESPN and you know the disparity between the two and how they’ve handled their situations. Ray took ownership immediately and immediately went out into the community. I mean Greg just sat there and continues to be in denial despite the fact that he was convicted of his crime. It’s only now that his agent’s floating out that he’s now in therapy but not a therapy to sort of learn the lessons from the acts committed but therapy in general because he wants to get signed by an NFL team.
It’s a complete 180 in how they handled it and credit to Ray. He had every reason in the world to just sort of crumble up and just go on this freefall. To go from where he was to where he is now, but he’s at peace. I don’t think he’s very much a danger to society and I wish I could say the same about Hardy, but I don’t feel that.
What piece that you’ve written is most important to you?
It’s actually one that I wrote six or seven years ago. I was freelancing for espnW at the time and I was covering the US Open. I didn’t go in with an objective, I was just kind of going to covering the day’s events. I sort of happened upon this story. It was from one of the golf pros was kind of telling me this story of this guy, Michael Tobiason and how he wasn’t supposed to make the cut. He was completely there to honor his father who had passed away exactly a year ago to the day and it was Father’s Day actually.
I ended up spending a lot of time with him and it was very meaningful to me. It was a story that nobody else was really seeking because Tiger was still relevant at the time and I don’t think Jordan Speith had come onto the scene, but there were big names that everybody was chasing around.I like to do that in general.
I like to do that in general. I think it’s important to find those stories. I’m certainly not the only one who takes that approach but to find this particular one and tap into that emotion and be able to tell his story connected to his dad. It was very raw and real and it happened quickly so I really appreciated him being forthcoming and being able to write the story.
What do you believe is one of the biggest misconceptions about females who work in/write about sports?
I think that it’s that we don’t know deep X’s and O’s. Men are like ‘Okay, women know sports. They know the basics and can talk about a lot of the societal aspects and some of pop culture stuff’ but I don’t think they believe that women would know what was going on if they watched film and I think that’s absurd or that women aren’t as well-versed to give their opinion when there’s a play under review, to understand the rule book as quickly as men do.
I think that’s a definite misconception and every time I tell somebody that 44% of the NFL fan-base is female, you get a lot of ‘Oh well, they’re just watching it with their boyfriend or their husband’, you just get that generic, old-school mentality. I like to that that it’s shifting and I think it is a little bit, but I’d say it’s general lack of respect and knowledge in particular that women don’t understand.
