Ted Lasso Goes to Washington...and Is This the End of the TV Sports Anchor Era?

Thanks for reading Communications x Leadership! This edition features five items worth your time. And while sports was not a planned theme, it is carrying through many of the topics today!

1) The Death of the Local Sports Anchor

In this important Sports Illustrated piece, Jon Wertheim discusses one of the biggest changes over the past 40 years in sports media - the rise and fall of how local sports in TV news.

I've been so fortunate to spend a lot of time around local TV sports anchors. I'll never forget the summer I spent learning under Mark Viviano and, in my sports PR days, I spent time with the best of the best TV sports storytellers, from George Michael to Chick Hernandez to Lindsay Czarniak to N. Louis Holder, M.Ed. to Steve Buckhantz to Diane Roberts and many others. They brought stories to life, providing context and resonance and impact for audiences in the Washington, DC, market. They told stories that could only make air locally.

As news - and sports alongside it - has been increasingly centralized as a national product, the TV time dedicated to local sports has dwindled. However, good stories still need to be told and the craving for insights into local sports appears to have only increased, with national outlets like ESPN and The Athletic focusing on local beat reporting around teams and markets. Podcasts and blogs following markets and teams are increasing all the time.

I don't know if TV sports anchors will find resurgent airtime in a post-pandemic world with more events. Not my call to make. Without a doubt, though, local sports anchor drove more storytellers to tell more stories in more ways delivered to more targeted audiences. And we, as communicators and fans, are better off because of them.

Finally, on a very personal level, the local sports anchors in Baltimore from my teen years, like Gerry Sandusky , Bruce Cunningham , Scott Garceau, and Keith Mills, inspired me to follow my passions, which led to my career. Even though I've moved on from sports communications, I can never thank them enough. (Article H/T Bram Weinstein )

2) Resilience, 'Rocky' and John Fetterman: What we can learn on resilience

This is a non-partisan newsletter :) But regardless of right/left/center, the leadership lesson in this op-ed by my friend Neal Urwitz is universal. One of the most underrated leadership traits is what's in the headline - resilience. Overcoming obstacles to continue to lead.

"There was little glamor in this work. Just grit." - Neal describing the work ethic of 20th century political leaders, like Ted Kennedy, Arlen Specter, and President Lyndon Baines Johnson.

Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman is recovering from a stroke and being treated for depression while settling into the highest office he's ever had. Neal discusses how high levels of resilience directly benefit leaders - from managing stress to increasing workload capacity.

3) Small Efforts, Big Output

This image, shared recently in the always-thoughtful Brain Expansion Group here on LinkedIn, shows the cumulative impact of making a small change every day.

I work in communications, not mathematics, so I'm trusting the calculation here. But the main takeaway is that if you do the same thing every day for a full year, you get the same output. However, if you make an incremental change every day, you will see a massive improvement over time.

This is a tremendous lesson for annual goal season. You don't need to make wholesale changes to grow significantly, you just need to take small steps consistently.

4) Mr. Lasso Goes to Washington

Since our last edition, Season 3 of Ted Lasso premiered. Spoiler-free version: Yeesh...you've gotta find the bottom before you rise to the top.

In real life, the cast of Ted Lasso went to the White House to speak about the importance of mental health, pulling through one of the key messages of the show. James Lance reprising his role as reporter Trent Crimm in the media seating was just fantastic!

This is an incredible activation to leverage celebrities to support a cause. Having a leading actor taking questions in the White House Press Briefing Room is highly unusual, so it stands out BIG TIME. Lasso 2024?

5) The Future of AI is...The Future?

We can't talk about communications without discussing AI. I don't make up the rules, I just live by them.

One of my favorite takes on the recent AI boom comes from my former Ithaca College classmate, ?? Paul Canetti . His take is that we should be focusing LESS on what AI can do today and MORE on the rate at which is evolves.

Great reminder that we are not even seeing the tip of the iceberg of what AI can do, even though what we're seeing today is definitely amazing.