What are careers in football?

Sports writers, coaches, and sports anchors are careers in football. If you love football there are plenty of career options available instead of being a football player. Working in the industry allows you to have a career that you are passionate about while being close to the action.

• Sports Writer

A sports writer is a journalist who specializes in content for the sports industry. They are often required to travel to related games and network within the industry. To say this is a road-warrior position is an understatement. Some writers will focus on a single sport, such as football, while others will report on an entire region (e.g, all Los Angeles teams).

Being a sports writer takes great attention to detail. You must be able to understand all aspects of the game and break it down play-by-play and moment-by-moment. You must be able to offer potential reasons or explanations for why a team won (or lost) and make predictions for future games.

Sports writers will spend much of their downtime connected with contacts and others within the industry. This may also include doing interviews or meetings with coaches or players to get the inside scoop on an upcoming game or some other related news. They often write for print media and digital news platforms, but may also have their blog.

• Coach

instructs people on the skills of a sport and they can coach an amateur or professional team or athlete. They improve a team's performance and an athlete's skill by developing practice drills and conditioning sessions.

Coaches are also involved in the recruitment and scouting of potential new talent. They also plan strategies for games and instruct their team on how to implement these strategies. This step also involves a lot of research on the part of the coach and their staff to analyze the team they are competing against.

A coach must not only understand their team but also their competition to be successful. They must also know new equipment, technology, and rules to help their team be successful. Depending on the age range that the coach is working with, they may also need to teach fundamentals and basic game rules.

Coaches can work for anything from pee wee leagues to amateur to the National Football League. They can be an offensive coach, a defensive coach, or a head coach. They will work unusual hours including nights, weekends, and possibly holidays depending on the level they are coaching at. Irregular travel is also common.

• Sports Anchor

Similar to a sports writer, a sports anchor position is another great way to work in the football industry. A sports anchor is a reporter who is featured on newscasts to talk about sports. They typically work for a news station or online webcast but may have their podcast.

A sports anchor will prepare stories about sporting events, players, and teams. They will conduct interviews on the air and may present breaking news or other important sports updates. They are tasked with providing engaging content for viewers and keeping them up-to-date on all of the latest sports news.

While some sports writers may specialize in one sport, most sports anchors are knowledgeable about many different sports. A sports anchor must have an impressive amount of knowledge about the sports they are reporting on, so a great deal of their time is spent watching, analyzing, and researching sports.

As with the other careers in football, a sports anchor will likely be required to travel quite often to attend live sporting events and to provide game coverage. They will have to share their analysis of the game while educating the viewers about what they are seeing.