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When Emmanuel Morgan was hired as a sports reporter covering the NFL and combat sports for The New York Times in 2021, the job felt familiar. After all, Morgan, who grew up playing football, had been writing about the sport since high school. He later covered the NFL for the Los Angeles Times for nearly two years.
“He knew the NFL, the UFC and all these other sports very well,” said Morgan, 27, who also covered high school sports and basketball for The Los Angeles Times, and helped report on Kobe Bryant’s death in 2020.
So when The Times disbanded its Sports department last year, it took the opportunity to step up and launch a new beat: the intersection of sports and pop culture.
“I’m not a movie critic or a Broadway fan, but I follow pop culture, I watch Netflix and I listen to music constantly, in the shower every day, on the subway,” he said. “I had my pulse on it.” Over the past eight months, Morgan, now on the Culture desk, has written about the pop culture phenomenon of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce, the growing relationship between the NFL and streaming services, and the rise of athlete podcasts .
In an interview, he talked about how his daily news consumption has changed and what his favorite journalism experience has been so far. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.
He has now been in office for just over eight months. How is he doing so far?
I’ve definitely had to be a lot more creative when it comes to coming up with story ideas. When I was in the sports section, I knew the NFL and UFC very well; Covering sports is very formulaic. You know you have to have previews of big events like the Super Bowl and the NFL draft, and as the season progresses, the main story lines and objectives of the profiles and features become quite clear. But with this new beat, I’m reporting on things you don’t see on TV or Twitter, and there are a lot more options since I’m no longer focusing just on the NFL and UFC. I have to make a lot more phone calls and talk to more people.
In March, a meeting with a publicist led to a timely story about how Flau’jae Johnson, one of the country’s top college basketball players, balanced her athletic obligations with her music career.
What are some of your favorite articles you’ve written so far?
I worked on several pieces about the Super Bowl this year in Las Vegas; I followed a retired player around Radio Row for a day to learn a story about how he became an NFL juggernaut. I wrote about how the parties at the Super Bowl. They have become a business and use the event as a playground for brand activations. It was great to show other people at the Culture desk that there is more to cover than just the halftime show.
I also wrote about Joel Embiid, a basketball player who founded a media production company, which is now very important in sports. And I got a front-page story on how the NFL is trying to branch out and do longer projects for streaming services like Netflix, Amazon and Apple.
Did you play sports when you were a child?
I played football in high school. I was a running back and linebacker. I struggled too. I’ve always been an athlete, but I also loved to write. So putting the two together made sense.
What is the most fun thing you have had the opportunity to do for an article?
I had to follow UFC announcer Bruce Buffer to watch a fight. I was able to watch him prepare, including the color-coordinated index cards he reads in the octagon, which have the fighters’ names and stats.
What has been your biggest challenge?
Trying to get away from games. My instinct is to want to cover what happens on the field or on the court. I have to take a step back and look for things that are not related to the sport itself. I’m training myself to think differently.
What are your goals for future sports and culture coverage at The Times?
To continue developing it, it’s been great to be able to experiment and try new things; say, “The New York Times wouldn’t have covered that story before, but it’s important.” I’m not even a year in and I’m still finding new stories to cover. There is an audience for this crossover between sports and entertainment, and my goal is to find it and tell stories that resonate with them.