I spent last weekend in Houston covering Super Bowl 51.
Let me walk you through how journalists cover the “news” side of a major sporting event.
When I got to Houston, I started wandering around to talk to fans. Patriots fans were striding confidently through the streets, doing weirdly stereotypical interviews where they don’t pronounce the letter, R.
I also settled in to find interesting story angles to talk about during interviews with stations.
The betting line predicted the Patriots would win by about three points, so I checked to see what other “prop bets” casinos were offering.
Among them was the over-under on how many times Donald Trump would tweet during the game. He only tweeted once, so the under bet would have been the winner.
At the game, the NFL played a tutorial on how to take a good selfie.
Earlier in the day, I saw a bunch of people sitting at a table at a hotel selfie-sticking the tar out of their luncheon, so I tweeted a picture of it. Upon reading it was my first time seeing a selfie-stick in action, one loyal Scaiaholic gently encouraged me to get out more.
By the end of the game, though, I had become well acquainted with the selfie-stick. The reporter sitting next to me had one and brought it out several times.
And when I wanted a picture of myself with the field in the background, I had to ask someone for help like a caveman.
Apparently, that’s what’s important at the Super Bowl, now. How to take a selfie.