# Sports journalists specializing **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [January 25, 2012, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-journalists-specializing/610625 "2012-01-25T19:17:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2012, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-journalists-specializing/610625/1 "2012-01-25T19:17:57Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2012, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-journalists-specializing/610625/2 "2012-01-25T20:01:04Z")
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](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/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. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2012, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sports-journalists-specializing/610625/3 "2012-01-25T20:18:09Z")
Moving to The Game Room from Cafe Society.