Matt’s Mix Tape, Vol. 116

Matt Tillotson

Nov 5, 2021

Hi, I’m Matt Tillotson, and this is Matt’s Mix Tape: essays + links on living a vibrant and creative middle life.

This weeks Mix:

Logo: Pivot! (Sorta.)
David Carr, the reluctant messenger
The future of sports media in one photo
New Apple Notes tips and tricks
Stories over facts
Florida photo

Pivot! (Sorta.)

This feeling has gnawed at me for years:

I should create sports content, in some fashion.

But I don’t want to just spew sports opinions. Instead, I want to try something more useful:

Draw lessons on digital writing and content strategy from the sports world.

So I’m experimenting. A temporary pivot, maybe. I took at stab at it this week with an essay about David Carr (see below).

Thanks for indulging me.

(BTW—whenever I hear the word “pivot,” I always think of this scene from Friends. Thus the logo for this week.)

Derek Carr, the reluctant messenger

He didn’t ask for the job.

David Carr is the quarterback of the Las Vegas Raiders. A job that should consist primarily of film study, practice, and chucking footballs.

But this season, David Carr has been shoved into a lead public relations and crisis comms role in a tragic and tumultuous season for the Raiders:

First, Raiders’ celebrity coach Jon Gruden resigned after a series of misogynist, racist, and homophobic emails written by Gruden were leaked to the media.
Not even a month later, wide receiver Henry Ruggs III killed Tina Tintor and her dog after he struck her vehicle while driving drunk at 156 MPH.

Carr’s statements on the situations were consistent and clear.

Ari Meirov @MySportsUpdate

Derek Carr says he personally feels terrible about the Henry Ruggs situation because he always wants to be a helping hand and wishes he could've done something: "Did I not let him know that I would be there for him at 3 am?"

Here’s how Carr showed leadership in two difficult situations, and what we can learn about communications and values from Carr’s statements.

New Apple Notes tips and tricks

I use Apple Notes every day:

Capturing articles to share in this newsletter
Tracking workouts
Storing daily journal entries
Capturing article ideas and other thoughts

Jenny Lee created a Twitter thread with her nine favorite Notes tips, including these keyboard shortcuts I need to somehow memorize:

Jenny @HeyJennyLee

5️⃣ Write quickly with keyboard shortcuts Some formatting keyboard shortcuts which are excellent for quick, organized writing: - CMD+Shift+T for Title - CMD+Shift+H for Heading - CMD+Shift+J for Subheading - CMD+Shift+B for Body - CMD+Shift for the list of all shortcuts

Keyboard shortcuts for formatting and quick writing

The future of sports media in one photo

East Lansing, Michigan, was the center of the college football world last weekend as Michigan State defeated Michigan.

It was a wild rivalry game. Took years off my life.

Anyway, the major sports media companies were all there, which made for an interesting comparison. Both Barstool Sports and ESPN hosted pregame shows in East Lansing.

But …

ESPN:

Was given the highest-visibility, most scenic location outside Spartan Stadium for its “ESPN College Gameday” show.
Promoted the show on its national cable TV and syndicated radio networks for a week prior to the game.

Barstool:

Set up its online pregame show in a dumpy campus-adjacent student apartment complex where students burn furniture for entertainment and possibly life-giving warmth (I know, I once lived there).
Had absolutely zero traditional media promotion.

Given that context, check out this comparison:

Dave Portnoy @stoolpresidente

Barstool vs ESPN 🤔

Money, promotional power and location favored ESPN. Yet the online upstart is the one that drew the bigger crowd of students.

The future of sports coverage does not belong to traditional media businesses.

Stories over accuracy

I can’t stop thinking about this Tweet.

Amir S. @AmirSymmetry

The minute you write for an audience ; and try to make sure you’re “accurate” is exactly when you’re going to start to be useless, dull, and boring ...to ALL. A fate much worse than sometimes being wrong for some and sometimes being right for others.

I don’t like to be “wrong” in my writing.

If you disagree with my opinion, I don’t care so much. Opinions are pretty worthless, including mine. But I like to have the facts correct.

I wonder:

In this age of online emotion and hot takes, is striving for factual accuracy and balance dated thinking?
We seem unable to agree on many facts anymore, so what’s the point in pursuing balance and factual accuracy in writing?
Does that framework prevent my writing from being more interesting and widely read?

And then Robbie Crabtree drops the perfect Tweet.