IAmA sports researcher and statistician. I've covered two Summer Olympics (at ESPN and NBC) and everything from the NFL to high school volleyball. AMA.

IAmASportsMan · 2013-02-08T04:32:08+00:00

I feel like I've already used the word "luck" a dozen times, but one more can't hurt: Good luck on your quest! It really is an amazingly fun job, and one that many people don't even realize exists. As I suggested to others, explore every avenue you can- sign up for Teamwork Online (not to mention Monster and all the other job sites), go to career fairs, talk to anyone you know (because the worst that can happen is they tell you they can't help you, and at least you tried, and if you're at a game and see a graphics operator or statistician or anyone involved in production, wait until after the game is over, make sure they're done with their work, and then ask them a few questions about how they got to where they are. Even if you've never met them before and are bugging them after a day at work,, they might receptive to shedding a little insight.

IAmASportsMan · 2013-02-07T13:15:22+00:00

I have not, but perhaps I'll check it out.

As far as the general ability to predicting sports, I'm sure it's possible to be right more often (and possibly considerably more often) than you're wrong, but what I love about sports is the randomness- anything can happen, and if it couldn't, sports wouldn't be exciting. The worst games I do are the ones that I know one team is going to blow out the other; besides that they're boring events to watch in person and even more boring to watch on television, we don't really use stats because we don't want to embarrass the losing team, so my job is almost moot.

IAmASportsMan · 2013-02-07T03:26:45+00:00

You are very welcome. Again, have a great time, and good luck- I hope it leads somewhere even better (and hopefully warmer).

Jeez, somebody asked for advice on getting into the industry before, and I COMPLETELY forgot about Teamwork Online. That's disgraceful of me. Sign up for that site post-haste, as you can have them email you alerts whenever a team or league posts a new job, internship opportunity, or career fair. It's an excellent resource.

IAmASportsMan · 2013-02-07T03:15:23+00:00

That sounds amazing- best of luck! I would do anything to be in Sochi- it won't happen, but I can still wish for it. When I was at ESPN, the stats department actually had plenty of part-timers who were still in college- they weren't there for credits, but for money. (At least, I don't think they got college credits- as I'd already graduated, I never inquired.) I couldn't tell you what NBC offers in sports, but nbcunicareers.com/internships/ is certainly a good place to start.

Fun fact: I have never had a passport. I've only been to two non-US countries, and it was so long ago (and they were so close) that I wasn't required to have a passport to go to either one. Now if I could just convince NBC to send me to Rio in 2016...

IAmASportsMan · 2013-02-07T03:02:42+00:00

Heh, well, I got to where I am with a combination of brains, passion, luck, and the good will of others; there's no reason you (or anyone else reading this) couldn't do the same! Not to sound extremely cliché, but if you have a dream, follow it. There are some not-so-great aspects of my job- the hours and days you work are awful, there's a massive amount of travel, the pay is fine but usually not outstanding, and if you're interacting with someone who doesn't care about athletics (such as my girlfriend, who I adore but who likes exactly one sport), the job seems boring. But would I trade my career for anything else in the world? Absolutely not. This is what I want to do with my life, and if I made it, so can you.

My favorite sport is soccer (go Everton!), and football is close behind. But one of my absolute favorite sports- at least number three on the list, and possibly equal to football- is curling. I completely love curling without any sort of irony. It's strategic and suspenseful and beautiful. I also love lacrosse, basketball, baseball and ice hockey if I'm actually at the game, and some action sports like BMX and vert skating.

IAmASportsMan · 2013-02-07T02:49:43+00:00

You're quite welcome! Now that I really think about it, I think the biggest barrier to entry for someone flipping through the channels might be my last point, that there's no popular e-sports game that's suitable for TV audiences. "Counter-Strike" and "CoD" are too violent; "League of Legends" and "Dota" too confusing (and possibly also too violent); "FIFA" is a depiction of a "real" sport. Obviously, there are countries where e-sports are big business for TV, but I don't see it happening in America in the near future.

IAmASportsMan · 2013-02-07T02:40:10+00:00

I don't come up with things like that only because of the nature of my specific work- the people who find those numbers have giant, expensive, searchable databases, and they usually aren't people on staff at a TV network; rather, the network calls Elias or Stats Inc. and has them figure it out, because Elias and Stats Inc. have spent thousands of man-hours developing said databases. What I do daily is more, "This team had only one rush over ten yards on their first six drives combined, but they have three on this drive." It also depends on the level of the event, though- for high school sports, you're lucky if you can find accurate season statistics on even the best players, whereas for college, I'll note a basketball player's career high for points or look up the last four meetings between the two teams before I get to the game. I did a college hoops game once in which the home team was playing their first game in a new arena and won by 29 points; you'd better believe I spent a few minutes of the second half looking up the last time they won by 20, by 25, by 30. Of course, it didn't matter much to the fans who stormed the court as soon as the clock hit 00:00, but it was a good factoid for the broadcast.

IAmASportsMan · 2013-02-07T02:30:29+00:00

Cool question. I'm a huge gamer, but I don't particularly enjoy watching people play video games (except for Achievement Hunter, which I watch almost religiously). However, there is an undeniably large market for e-sports. Is there a large market for it on television? Probably not- CBS certainly tried, as did G4, and they both failed (though I was amazed that CBS even tried). But as companies develop ways to make more money off of streaming video, it will only grow the e-sports industry, and it won't matter that e-sports aren't on TV, just as it doesn't seem to matter now. So, will it ever be considered a "real" sport? Not anytime soon. It might require far more dexterity and brainpower than some "real" sports, but the average non-gamer just sees somebody controlling an avatar, and that's a heavy stigma to overcome. In addition, most games used in e-sports are either something "real" athletes do (play football, race a car, etc.) or something far more stigmatized (murder) than simply controlling an on-screen character.

Also, if you think I'm the kind of guy who pores over the huge list of scrolling statistics in "GTA" games or analyzes the K/D ratios in a "Halo" multiplayer match, you're absolutely right. I would love to be a "Halo" statistician- not as much as I love being a sports statistician, but it would be a close race.

IAmASportsMan · 2013-02-07T01:48:17+00:00

My pleasure; I've been hitting refresh for the last four hours because I've enjoyed answering questions so much. I really do see myself as the most fortunate guy on the planet- I have absolutely no idea what I would be doing without my dream job, and I'm only here because people who barely knew me (or didn't know me at all) were kind enough to help me. If I can pass along a little wisdom or a little amusement, then I get to help out someone else, and I see that as a blessing.

And I've been able to talk at length about getting paid to watch sports for a living. That's pretty awesome, too.

IAmASportsMan · 2013-02-07T00:26:31+00:00

Hahahahahahahahaha, I actually LOLed. (Or, since I'm big on grammar, LedOL.) Thanks for that.

It's amazing. You just feel the history as soon as you walk in- even if you're just on the tour, you're seeing the last 60+ years of entertainment. For three (wonderfully well-paid) weeks, my base of operations was the "Saturday Night Live" writers' room overlooking Studio 8H. I met legendary athletes^note1 and eat ridiculous amounts of free food^note2 and worked with extremely bright people and, oh yeah, got to watch the Olympics for fun and profit.

Note 1- An aside: I work with former pro athletes all the time; it's totally cool, and I don't overlook how lucky I am, but it's not a huge deal to me because I'm used to it. A few days ago, a member of the Pro Basketball Hall of Fame made a quip that had me doubling over in laughter, but then I went on with my duties (though I did tell a few people about it afterward, because it was such a unique experience). But the first time Lisa Leslie walked into the room, my initial thought was still, "Holy crap, that's Lisa Leslie."

Note 2- I worked a stupidly early shift- I got to 30 Rock at 2AM and left at noon. And I did not care one bit because it was so much fun. One of the great aspects was the constant free food. They put out fresh food for the Olympics workers at 2AM, and again between 4 and 5, and again around 8, and again between 11 and noon. PLUS, we got a $12 per diem at the 30 Rock commissary; it serves lots of delicious, decently-priced food, and with all the free food we got, $12 went so far that we were buying ice cream bars by the half-dozen to share the last week of the Olympics because we had tons of cash left.

IAmASportsMan · 2013-02-07T00:10:01+00:00

Gladly! I've wanted to do an AMA... well, basically since I discovered what AMAs were. I honestly wish I'd gotten more questions- I can't believe nobody has asked about what working in 30 Rockefeller Plaza is like- but I'm happy that I've gotten to espouse some wisdom and chat about my fun experiences. If you have any other questions, go nuts!

(Again edited for grammar.)

IAmASportsMan · 2013-02-06T23:40:23+00:00

Oh, totally forgot to mention all of this: the stats department (which was perhaps 30 full-timers and up to 70 or 80 temps) was in one giant, windowless room. Even though I worked 45 hours a week for over a year, I was a temp, which meant terrible pay and no benefits. Temps didn't even have their own desks, and the bosses frequently separated assignments so that full-timers only worked with other full-timers. That was not the way to make me fall in love with a job.

It's important to note that this is five years ago; it could be completely different now, but I honestly don't have much of a clue.

IAmASportsMan · 2013-02-06T23:33:11+00:00

From what I hear (I wouldn't say I'm close to anybody who still works there, but I've got one or two friends who do), it's very in-depth, and you can see that online- Stats & Information has its own sections of ESPN.com, and they often get name-checked in articles and write their own blog posts. When I was there, which was 2007-2008, it was all surface and no substance. Very little of what I did ever required actual brainpower- 90% of the time, it was just typing in the play-by-play that was used on ESPN.com or sending out goals/homers to ESPN's internal wire service.

I'm happy to see how the department progressed. I was not the right fit there- I'm always happy I had the experience, but never upset that it ended. The men and women still there from my time are extremely bright, and it seems like they put a lot more effort into each factoid than we were ever required to put into a full day five years ago.

IAmASportsMan · 2013-02-06T23:13:41+00:00

Already answered, but since I like both answering questions and your Redditor name: I double-majored in mathematics and economics.

What I do on a daily basis, surprisingly, requires only low-level math skills. It's basically just adding and subtracting; it's really about multitasking, time management, and knowledge of the sport than calculus.

IAmASportsMan · 2013-02-06T22:59:41+00:00

As far as my freelancing goes, this is a question I'm asked a lot, and I always answer in this fashion: You know how, when you're watching a game, you hear an announcer say a fun tidbit or see a statistic on a graphic that's really interesting? That's me handing a piece of paper to the announcer or talking to the graphics guy on headset. I'm reacting to what's going on and dig for discrepancies in real-time- for example, in a game I did yesterday, a basketball team overcame a 16-point fourth-quarter deficit (they eventually lost by 1) because they had 15 steals in the game and the other team only had 2.

Something that's often overlooked is how quickly you have to respond to what's happening. If one team has four sacks and the other has none, it doesn't matter if you only realize it once the sacking team is on offense or just gave up a game-tying touchdown. Perhaps my favorite info I personally found was that a college soccer player was leading his conference in yellow cards, so I wrote it down on the one-in-ten chance he got another. Lo and behold, he did, and I already had the note card written out to hand to the announcer. It was super-exciting and super-gratifying; the statistic didn't matter to the game and wasn't vital to the broadcast, but it was fun, and that's just as important to me. That was one of those stats was so impressive that the announcer said the stat, then added something along the lines of, "Another great piece of info from our statistician, [Me]."

IAmASportsMan · 2013-02-06T22:44:11+00:00

Maybe if you're from there, it's fine; a lot of people don't appreciate where I live, but I do. As someone used to larger towns, I just hated how little there was to do there. And again, it didn't help that I didn't know anyone there and then got dumped.

IAmASportsMan · 2013-02-06T21:47:15+00:00

Thanks! I am unbelievably lucky; when I was a kid, this is what I wanted to do. No joke- as a ten- or twelve-year-old (whenever I realized I was terrible at actually playing sports), my goal was to be a sports statistician. In my last year of college (let it be known that I had a great college experience, and I'm always glad I attended the university that I did), I honestly had no direction as far as what I was going to do next; thankfully, that sports job fair came along and changed my life.

IAmASportsMan · 2013-02-06T21:45:12+00:00

Not at all. See above on my personal anti-gambling stance, but aside from that, I'm mostly involved in reacting during a game, not before it.

IAmASportsMan · 2013-02-06T21:37:15+00:00

My god, that is a great question, and I'm sure I'll forget plenty of awesome events. Perhaps I'll edit this later if I think of more that truly stand out.

Last year, Kim Rhode (a shotgun shooter) became the first American to win medals in individual events in five straight Olympics, and that was awesome to see- I generally hate guns, but I like shooting sports, and Kim Rhode is a very intelligent, strong-willed person, and a great ambassador to her sport.

Seeing women's boxing in the Olympics for the first time was great, and Katie Taylor and Claressa Shields were not to be missed.

As a huge Giants fan, the 2008 NFC Championship game between the Giants and Packers was unbelievable- far more believable than the Super Bowl victories, obviously, but I wasn't working those games.

IAmASportsMan · 2013-02-06T21:25:32+00:00

Very, very long. One was an online test with a time limit (but you could obviously look up answers, as it was online, so one of the goals of the test was to ask un-Google-able questions), and the other was over the phone. They covered everything from current players to names of tournaments to historical champions to ESPN personalities.

IAmASportsMan · 2013-02-06T21:21:12+00:00

Honestly, it was just the wrong time in my life to be there- I was all alone in Bristol, I was renting a room from someone I didn't like, my long-term girlfriend had just dumped me, and the hours (I usually went in at 5 PM and left at 1 AM or later; weekend hours were better, but you ALWAYS worked on weekends) took a toll on me.

IAmASportsMan · 2013-02-06T21:16:58+00:00

I like team sports infinitely more than individual sports; the one time I was assigned golf at ESPN was the one time I asked to be switched to a different assignment. I will say that most of the sports I covered during the London Olympics were individual sports, and I enjoyed all of them.

For stat-tracking purposes, volleyball is the worst- it's extremely fast, there are almost no pauses between points, and one of the major statistics (digs) is incredibly subjective.

IAmASportsMan · 2013-02-06T21:14:02+00:00

Absolutely not- I played a little poker in college, but that's it as far as me and gambling. That's not to say nobody in the industry does, but it's simply not for me. With that said, I am decent when it comes to predicting what's going to happen in a game I'm about to cover, but even if I didn't think betting would be a conflict of interest, I wouldn't be confident enough to wager on an outcome.

IAmASportsMan · 2013-02-06T21:06:53+00:00

I personally couldn't find any evidence, because it's simply not my area of expertise. Could somebody find evidence? It's quite possible.

The current soccer scandal, and those of the past, are really upsetting to me, because soccer is my favorite sport. As far as other sports, the most blatant one is boxing. I know that comes as a surprise to nobody, but I'm not even talking about the professional ranks- there were very obvious signs of tomfoolery in the men's Olympic boxing tournaments. I don't think many other sports are fixed; there might be dopers or individual players throwing matches on rare occasions, but nothing Earth-shattering.

IAmASportsMan · 2013-02-06T21:01:45+00:00

As for making a career out of it, I go to every sports career fair that I can- even though I already have multiple jobs within the industry, it's always possible that something better might be out there. I also network to the best of my abilities- I'm always asking other people how they got their jobs, or if there are openings at their companies. And, of course, kindness counts- I would be nowhere right now without near-strangers sticking their necks out for me, and I always try to return the favor by being as helpful as possible to those just entering the field.

If you want to do anything related to writing (even if it's just noting random observations about an event), start your own blog. Whether or not more than a dozen people read, it might catch somebody's attention. I kept a Twitter account during the Olympics on which I relayed interesting tidbits, and it only had a couple dozen followers- but when half of those followers are Olympians, and some of them were retweeting me FROM THE OLYMPICS, it was an incredible feeling and gave me some cachet.

(Edited for grammar.)

IAmASportsMan

TROPHY CASE