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When Emmanuel Morgan was hired in 2021 as a sports reporter covering the NFL and combat sports for The New York Times, the job felt familiar. After all, Mr. Morgan, who grew up playing soccer, has been writing about the sport since high school. He covered the NFL for the Los Angeles Times for nearly two years.
“I knew the NFL, UFC and all the other sports very well,” said Morgan, 27, who covered high school sports and basketball for the Los Angeles Times. Kobe Bryant’s Death In 2020.
So when The Times disbanded its sports department last year, he seized the opportunity to expand his capabilities and pitch 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 and listen to music constantly every day, whether in the shower or on the subway,” he said. “My pulse was racing.” Over the past eight months, Mr. 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 the interview, he talked about how his daily news consumption has changed and what his favorite reporting experience has been to date. This is an edited excerpt from the conversation.
I’ve been in that role for just over eight months now. How is it going so far?
We definitely had to be a lot more creative when it came to finding story ideas. When I was on the sports desk, I knew the NFL and UFC very well. Covering the sport was very formulaic. We know you need previews for big events like the Super Bowl and NFL Draft, and as the season progresses with major storylines, the goals of your profiles and features become very clear. But with this new beat, I’m reporting stuff you don’t see on TV or Twitter, and I have more options because I’m no longer just focused on the NFL and UFC. I have to make 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 nation’s best women’s college basketball players, balances her sports and music careers.
What’s your favorite article you’ve ever written?
I worked on several pieces related to the Super Bowl held in Las Vegas this year. I followed a retired player around Radio Row for a day and heard his story about how it was transformed into an NFL mega-stadium. I wrote about how the party goes at the Super Bowl. By establishing ourselves as a business, we are using events as a venue for brand activation. It was great to show others on the culture desk that we can cover more than just the halftime show.
I also wrote about basketball player Joel Embiid, who started a media production company that is now doing big things in sports. And it ran a front-page story about how the NFL is looking to expand its business and take on more long-term projects for streaming services like Netflix, Amazon and Apple.
Did you play sports growing up?
I played soccer in high school. I was a running back and linebacker. I also wrestled. I’ve always been an athlete, but I also loved writing. So it made sense to tie the two together.
What’s the funniest thing you’ve been able to do for an article?
I got to follow UFC announcer Bruce Buffer and compete. I was able to observe how he prepared, including color-coordinated index cards that he read from the octagon with the fighters’ names and statistics written on them.
What was the biggest challenge?
Trying to separate myself from the game. My instinct is to want to cover what happens on the field or court. You have to take a step back and look for things that are not related to the actual sport itself. I am training myself to think differently.
What are your goals for future sports and culture coverage at The Times?
To keep building — it’s been great to be able to experiment and try new things. “The New York Times probably wouldn’t have covered that story before, and that’s important.” It hasn’t even been a year, and I’m still looking for new stories to cover. There is an audience that loves the intersection of sports and entertainment, and my goal is to find that and tell stories that resonate with them.
