How do sports analyst who specialize end up in that sport? I’m NOT refering to ex-players. I’m thinking of guys like Mort or Timmy Kurkjian.
I suspect that, in many cases, they start out as beat writers for local newspapers, covering a particular team (and thus, by extension, a particular sport). Chris Mortensen, for example, covered the Falcons and the NFL for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in the 1980s. IIRC, SI’s Peter King had similar sorts of duties in Cincinnati and New York around that same time. Kurkjian spent many years as beat writer for various papers, often covering the local baseball teams.
Moving to The Game Room from Cafe Society.