John Feinstein Spends Season With the Baltimore Ravens

Posted on December 13, 2005

John Feinstein is familiar to sports fans as an author of sports books. With his latest book, Next Man Up, Feinstein tried something a little different -- he used immersion reporting to report on the NFL while spending the season with the Baltimore Ravens. A Christian Science Monitor article gives the book a good review and explains Feinstein's approach to Next Man Up.

Feinstein explained his unique approach to the Monitor. He says, "One way was to use an approach I had enjoyed in writing about the pro golf tour, the pro tennis tours and Major League Baseball -- just follow the sport for one season, from the draft through the Super Bowl. Certainly it would have been interesting to watch different teams, players and coaches at critical times during the course of a season. But I knew doing such a book on the NFL wouldn't be at all like golf or tennis, because those sports are covered year-round by only a handful of people and are in the consciousness of most of the public only during those few weeks a year when their major championships are played. Baseball is covered like a blanket, but unlike football, there is constant access to the players, coaches and managers, allowing someone like me to develop relationships and follow stories. I knew I wouldn't get that opportunity in football, writing with nothing more than a media credential." <

John Feinstein has worked for the Washington Post, Sports Illustrated and the National Sports Daily so he has the journalist background that is very useful with immersion reporting. Another author who used immersion reporting in the sports world was G. Wayne Miller who used in to write his novel Men and Speed about NASCAR powerhouse: Roush Racing.