The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Tuesday, September 29, 2015 — 7A
One Hundred Twenty-Fifth Anniversary
1977
Diver Christina
Seufert earns the
individual national
championship.
Former Michigan player Jim
Harbaugh returns as the head coach
of the football team.
1948
Men’s ice
hockey wins its
championship.
1973
hockey begins as
the first female
sport.
1989
The men’s
basketball
team wins its
championship.
1972
The passage of Title IX
begins a new chapter,
as women’s sports are
introduced.
2015
2001
The field hockey team
women’s national title.
Rosenberg reflects on lessons learned at Daily
By MAX BULTMAN
Daily Sports Editor
Last spring, on a particularly
late night at the Daily, the Sept.
12, 1994 sports section of The
Michigan Daily was sitting on
the table in the center in the
conference room. Surrounded by
bound volumes on the shelves,
and a few on the table, the
standalone issue stood out.
It was the oldest issue of
the Daily the current editorial
staff had ever seen that wasn’t
contained by a bound volume
or framed on the wall. But more
thrillingly, it included a column
from Michael Rosenberg — the
1995 editor in chief of the Daily,
now a senior writer at Sports
Illustrated — on the front of the
sports page.
Today,
Rosenberg
is
one
of the most prominent sports
writers in the country. He has
written for some of the top
papers in the country, including
The Washington Post, Chicago
Tribune, Detroit Free Press,
The
Philadelphia
Inquirer
and The Sacramento Bee. His
work was featured in the 2005
edition of “The Best American
Sports Writing,” and he has been
featured in the Associated Press
Sports Editors top 10 column-
writing awards multiple times.
It was especially exciting,
then, that on the front of the
sports page from that issue was
an especially moving feature by
Rosenberg
on
then-Michigan
receiver Walter Smith.
Rosenberg has written several
phenomenal stories throughout
his
career,
but
there
was
something about Smith’s that
made it especially poignant.
Smith injured his knee before
his senior season, and Rosenberg
set out to tell his story — a
gripping, emotional tale about
the life he had moved away from
but had irreversibly shaped him.
The following passage captures
its essence:
“ ‘I cried before every game
last year,’ Smith says, ‘because I
thought we were going to lose.’
He does not cry when his friends
are killed. He cries when his
football team loses, or might lose.
People usually cry when a friend
dies partly because it is a shock.
When Smith’s friends die it is
not a shock. It literally happens
about as often as his football
team loses.”
Rosenberg had to treat this
story with immense care in order
to be fair to Smith, just one of
many traits that make his work
so respected.
So when the Daily caught
up
with
Rosenberg
before
Michigan’s 2015 season-opening
football game at Utah, we asked
about the story — in writing it,
Rosenberg exemplified one of
the most important lessons he
learned during his time at the
Daily.
“It’s not just getting your
facts right,” Rosenberg said, “but
(that) you’re taking the proper
care.”
The Smith story had such
sensitive subject matter — about
Smith’s upbringing in Detroit
and his resulting distrust of
people — that it was especially
important to be careful and
courteous.
The Daily reached out to
Smith to talk about the story.
All these years later, he still has
a copy of the piece, titled, “Self-
made man,” but he had no idea
Rosenberg was now working at
Sports Illustrated.
Asked what Rosenberg did
to make him feel comfortable
sharing such a vulnerable story,
Smith talked about how relatable
and understanding Rosenberg
was with him. At the time of
the piece, Smith had injured
his ACL and was reeling from
the realization he couldn’t play
football. But Rosenberg still
managed to connect with him,
showing empathy and treating
his life story with care.
“He made me feel like I wasn’t
hurt,” Smith said. “That’s an art.”
The Daily strives to foster the
growth of exemplary journalists
like Rosenberg. And in order
to grow, making mistakes is
inevitable. Rosenberg learned
that lesson at 420 Maynard St.,
too.
Back in 1992, New York
Yankee
legend
Derek
Jeter
briefly attended the University.
Back then, Jeter was just a draft
pick out of Kalamazoo Central
High School. He wasn’t playing
for the Michigan baseball team,
so he was, for all intents and
purposes, a regular student.
Rosenberg decided to write a
story on him, setting up what
became
an
embarrassing
learning experience.
“I did a story on (Jeter), and
for some reason, and to this day
I have no idea why, I mentioned
he played football, which he
didn’t do,” Rosenberg said. “I
must have, I don’t know, but
I’m assuming I heard it from
somebody in the newsroom, and
being a freshman in college, I
just didn’t check it. It wasn’t
like I could Google it at the time
because there was no Google.
It’s my fault, it’s my story, but
it’s not like I came up with it on
my own.
“I just didn’t know what I was
doing. I was literally 17.”
Jeter and Rosenberg ran into
each other a few times upon
Jeter’s trips back to campus.
Jeter was always friendly, saying
hello and not mentioning the
error. Of course, that wasn’t the
end of it.
“I found out years later that
he was pissed about the story,
cause his friends were giving
him shit about it in Kalamazoo,”
Rosenberg said. “And he should
have been pissed! It was wrong!”
Fellow
Daily
alum
Ken
Davidoff,
now
a
baseball
columnist for the New York
Post, eventually clued Rosenberg
in to his mistake, leaving him
mortified, but allowing him to
make good on it.
After
a
couple
years
—
Rosenberg
doesn’t
remember
exactly when, only that Nick
Swisher was on the Yankees at
the time — he paid a visit to the
Yankee captain at a Detroit Tigers
game.
“I went into the Yankees
dugout, before a Tigers game,
of course he remembers me,”
Rosenberg said. “He might have
forgotten me if I had gotten the
story right, but it’s years later,
and I hadn’t talked to him since
I’d heard that. And I said, ‘I just
wanted to say I’m sorry.’ And he
was entertained. He was like,
‘This guy said I played football!’ ”
A friendly observer to the
situation,
Davidoff
eventually
asked Jeter about it.
Asked about the error, Jeter
said, “It’s not the first time
someone wrote something wrong
about me,” to which Davidoff
replied, “Actually, I think it was!”
In journalism, as in any field,
errors shape a writer as much — if
not more — than their successes.
And while Rosenberg was already
an established columnist by the
time he found out about his Jeter
mistake, he still counts it among
the various ways the Daily helped
him to grow.
“You just learn,” he said.
It was at the University and at
the Daily that Rosenberg learned
some of the most important
lessons for a young journalist.
“Just because a story is accurate
doesn’t mean it’s fair — especially
if it’s their personal life,” he said.
“If you catch a coach breaking a
rule, that’s fair game. If a coach’s
wife has cancer, and doesn’t want
you to know it, it doesn’t matter if
you know it. That’s their life. It’s
just a story to you.”
Schefter’s career began
with Daily experience
By MAX COHEN
Managing Sports Editor
Before he was one of the
nation’s most prominent NFL
reporters, Adam Schefter was
a freshman at the University of
Michigan looking for something
to do with his time.
First, he tried to rush a
fraternity, but that didn’t work
out. Then he went to the football
offices, looking to help out, but
they didn’t have a job for him.
He went to the basketball team’s
office for the same reason, and
they didn’t have anything for him
to do, either.
It took three misses, but
Schefter
eventually
found
something to pour himself into:
The Michigan Daily. It changed
his life.
“I was always very curious
about newspapers,” Schefter said
in a phone interview. “I loved
sports growing up, and that kind
of combined two interests when I
had no other opportunities. And it
just led to, honestly, just a thought.
I never, never, never imagined that
it would turn into my vocation.”
Schefter, now an ESPN NFL
Insider who appears on a variety
of NFL shows on the network,
in
addition
to
frequently
contributing to ESPN.com and
ESPN Radio, arrived at the Daily
as a timid freshman, one who
was still finding his way. But
eventually, he found a passion.
By the time Schefter graduated
from the University in 1989,
he had served as the paper’s
managing
sports
editor
and
covered Michigan hockey, men’s
basketball and football for the
Daily.
“It
was
something
that
captivated me and interested me
and motivated me,” Schefter said.
“I loved it. I was drawn to it.”
An airport conversation during
what Schefter believes was his
junior year helped solidify his
career path.
He was waiting for a flight
to cover a Michigan men’s
basketball game in Minnesota
when he approached Detroit
Free Press sports writer Thomas
George, who was on the same
flight. In their conversation and
the ones that followed, George
helped convince Schefter that
sports journalism was actually a
viable career path.
“To me, that was something
that was unattainable, something
that somebody else did, not me,”
Schefter said. “The more I talked
to him, the more I thought, ‘Wow,
maybe I can try this.’ ”
And
Schefter
did.
After
graduating from the University,
Schefter earned a master’s degree
at
Northwestern
University’s
Medill School of Journalism
before starting a newspaper
career. He worked for the Seattle
Post-Intelligencer,
the
Rocky
Mountain News and the Denver
Post before transitioning into
television.
He considers the Daily to be the
launching pad of his career, a place
where he was able to learn about
himself and his future profession.
“If I didn’t go to the Daily,
I wouldn’t have done this,”
Schefter said. “It set me on a path
to doing what I am doing today.”
One of the experiences that
stands out most to Schefter
from
his
Daily
career
was
the
opportunity
to
cover
legendary Michigan coach Bo
Schembechler in his penultimate
season, Schefter’s senior year.
Schembechler
held
court
at Weber’s Inn in Ann Arbor
every Monday, and Schefter
never missed a single one. He
loved listening to the coaching
icon and learning from his
experiences.
“I’d go and I’d have my best
meal of the week, lunch on
Monday, Weber’s Inn, and I’d get
to listen to Bo Schembechler,”
Schefter said. “What was better
than that? Getting a free meal
and getting to listen to Bo? It
didn’t get better than that.”
1997
The Michigan football
team wins the national
championship.
TODD NEEDLE/Daily
SAM WOLSON/Daily