Off-side: Walking the tightrope of sports journalism

We are all bundles of biases wrapped up in human flesh — childhood memories, schoolyard alliances, family loyalties, college dalliances — they all dance around in our subconscious, pulling the strings of our supposedly rational minds. Even we sports journalists, with our ideals of impartiality, are not immune to the siren call of whims and predispositions. We are not emotionless automatons devoid of any personal history or passion. For many of us, sports has never been only about the wins and losses but the connections and memories we forge.

An “all-time favourite” team or player, basking in the glow of our undying adoration, can lose it all in the blink of an eye, relegated to the sidelines as we are suddenly immune to the charms of their title-winning run. Their once lofty position usurped by a newcomer or simply lost in the shuffle of life’s chaotic choices.

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For us, it is a precarious tightrope walk to maintain impartiality while hobnobbing with celebrities and wrestling with our deep-seated prejudices and loyalties to clubs and nations.

The press box of the Salt Lake Stadium when Mohun Bagan and East Bengal lock horns becomes a battleground of divergent opinions, and the wafer-thin veneer of impartiality is soon tossed aside like the used wrapper of the famous Kolkata Kati roll.

For the large contingent of travelling Argentine journalists, the pleasure of witnessing Lionel Messi lift the World Cup in Qatar was cathartic, as most wept in joy, forgetful of the professional decorum and deadlines that threatened to eat into the euphoria of a lifetime.

“It’s impossible not to feel the vibes, the energy of a collective force made from the beating hearts of thousands of Argentinians who can’t hide their emotions. Women, men, and kids of all ages are crying. How not to? They cry here in Qatar; they cry in Argentina as they take the streets. We all cry together on WhatsApp, FaceTime, Instagram, or Messenger. Argentina are world champions,” celebrated Argentine football columnist Martin Mazur wrote for the International Sports Press Association a day after the final.

IT'S DONE. MESSI AND ARGENTINA ARE WORLD CHAMPIONS. #FIFAWorldCup pic.twitter.com/Q8UjQZfp6C
— Sportstar (@sportstarweb) December 18, 2022

The legendary Argentine woman football writer Marcela Mora Y Araujo bid us goodbye a day after the semifinal on December 13 to be with family and friends in Buenos Aires for the all-important final, just as she had done ahead of the 2014 Maracana clash.

The love of sport is about such emotional ties that go beyond the game, the emotive responses that are triggered by events on the pitch. For everyone in India, memories of the 1983 World Cup win are about where we were that year. And it is the same for 2007, 2011, or when Neeraj Chopra finally got us a track-and-field gold medal from the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.

Neeraj’s gold was celebrated in an office full of excited, teary-eyed, and shouting journalists — the young, the old, and the cynical. But my happiest sporting memory will always be M. S. Dhoni’s 2007 T20 World Cup triumph, watched with my Dadu (grandfather), the most emotional and vocal sports fan I have ever known.