There are days when you sit down to write a commentary — then record it — and nothing really pops into your head. You want to be pertinent, interesting, current, thought-provoking, maybe controversial.
But the computer’s cursor keeps flashing, flashing, flashing.
You think about this weekend’s CFL games. Baseball’s pennant races are on. NFL preseason is starting. In the NBA, some teams are building powerhouses while others fall by the wayside. Golf’s final major, the PGA championship, continues through the weekend. Soccer’s Premier League kicks off soon, or is it just ending? The whole world is talking about the Toronto Maple Leafs, right?
Jim Murray, a Pulitzer-winning sports writer with the Los Angeles Times, was once asked if he ever wrote an emergency article, for one of those days when the cursor kept flashing and nothing popped into his head. “Of course not!” Murray fumed. “What if I die one ahead?”
Writers sweat out every article. Good or bad. Long or short. Right or wrong. Even this article will tick off somebody. Likely the boss.