By Jeff Trousdale
What does it take to make a great sportswriter? This was the question that I sought to answer when I walked into the station offices of 95.5 FM The Game to meet with Oregonian columnist John Canzano, the recent recipient of the AP award for sports columnist of the year.
Canzano is one of a new breed of sportswriters. He Twitters, he blogs, he has his own radio show, and occasionally he even graces the pages of the Oregonian with an old fashioned column. The man works his ass off.
I started reading Canzano's columns back in high school, and like many people who have read his stuff, I didn't really like him at first. At times he seemed pretentious, at times he seemed arrogant, but almost always, he challenged my perception of sports.
I've been a Blazers fan my whole life, so when Canzano talked badly about the team, even during the JailBlazers era, I was pretty pissed. Damon Stoudamire smokes weed...? Ridiculous. But as I got older and went to college to become a sports journalist, my perception of his writing gradually began to change. Sure, there were things that I disagreed with and columns I didn't enjoy reading, but for the most part, he had a point.
Canzano's columns are interesting because, despite being in the sports section, they often have nothing to do with how fast an athlete can run, how well a team is doing, or how many points a person scored. Instead, he may write a column about a dying fan, or a boy who is friends with Shaquille O'Neal, or even a high school coach who brings his players to a strip club.
Not exactly game recaps.
So with that in mind, I thought I was going to meet the journalist's version of Lance Armstrong. Morally upright, driven beyond all reason, and with a heart twice the size of an average human's. But while it's clear that he is a very hard worker - he was writing his column during the show, and all the while his Blackberry was going off like a Van Halen concert - he is actually a pretty chill guy.
It's surprising that a man can be chill after dealing with the likes of Bob Knight, Rasheed Wallace, and Barry Bonds. But Canzano has confronted them and moved on, just like he confronts his readers. See, the thing about Canzano is that he really doesn't care about what other people think of him. He is his own man, he will say what he thinks, and if you don't like it...who cares?
Canzano welcomed me to the studio with a handshake and immediately asked what he could do to help me out. I told him that I just wanted to get some perspective from a writer who had covered a lot more than myself. He was more than willing to provide. He talked about how hard it is to remain a fan after covering sports for so long, and how to deal with difficult interviews, and also the way that a sports team reflects its community.
I found the last point to be very interesting, especially pertaining to UP. In my short time as a sports writer here, I have had the privilege of interviewing many of the department's athletes, coaches and administrators. Through all of my interviews, I have noticed that we have an athletic department that does our school proud. Our coaches are polite and humble, our athletes are friendly and professional and our administrators really seem to care about the school.
Sports writers see a lot of things that the normal fan doesn't, and Canzano has seen things that a lot of sportswriters haven't. I know a number of people who don't like his work, and that's fine. He talks about things that the average fan doesn't want to hear, and he brings light to issues that are not normally discussed in sports. The truth is something that is undervalued in sports. My generation has grown up with sports stars doing steroids, gambling illegally and abusing animals. Maybe we should look elsewhere for inspiration...I know I have.
Jeff Trousdale is a sports reporter for the Beacon. He can be contacted at trousdal10@up.edu
