I think there are more good sportswriters doing more good sportswriting than ever before. But I also believe that the one thing that's largely gone out is what made sport such fertile literary territory - the characters, the tales, the humor, the pain, what Hollywood calls 'the arc.'
Interpretation
Sportswriting is rich with characters and stories, but has lost its essence over time.
In this quote, Frank Deford reflects on the evolution of sportswriting, acknowledging that while there are many talented sportswriters producing work today, the depth and richness that once characterized sports stories—such as the intriguing characters and emotional narratives—have diminished. He emphasizes that the elements that made sports a compelling subject for writing, including humor and personal struggles, have largely been overshadowed, suggesting a need for a revival of these essential qualities.
In practice
In a speech about the importance of storytelling in journalism.
So much about big-time college sports is criticized. But the worst scandal is almost never mentioned: the academic fraud wherein the student-athletes, so-called, are admitted without even remotely adequate credentials and then aren't educated so much as they are just kept eligible.
Sport is an art: it has incredible appeal everywhere on this earth, and it fills so many human hearts with passion that it's impossible to dismiss.
The end of a story must be stronger rather than weaker than the beginning, since it is the end which contains the denouement or culmination and which will leave the strongest impression upon the reader.
I wish more Italian literature were translated and read in English. I've discovered so many extraordinary and diverse writers: Lalla Romano, Carlo Cassola. Beppe Fenoglio, Giorgio Manganelli, just to name a few.
Most American writers don't get asked their opinion on current affairs, whereas in Europe and England, we still do. There are writers here who are the most sophisticated commentators, but they're not asked. Like Don DeLillo, who sort of forecast most of the modern world before it happened.
The shapes arranged themselves into words, and the words spelled out a delicious and wonderful phrase: Once upon a time.
Literature is an occupation in which you have to keep proving your talent to people who have none
That the question of likability even exists in literary conversations is odd. It implies that we are engaging in a courtship. When characters are unlikable, they don’t meet our mutable, varying standards. Certainly we can find kinship in fiction, but literary merit shouldn’t be dictated by whether we want to be friends or lovers with those about whom we read.
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