On Wednesday, October 7, Rhiannon Walker joined Marist students over Zoom as she adds to the long list of guest speakers that the Center of Sports Communications will host this semester.
Walker, who currently writes for The Athletic, is the beat writer for the Washington Football Team. Before she landed at the publication, Walker spent more than two seasons with ESPN at The Undefeated. During her time with ESPN, she wrote profiles, features, and covered all major sports for the company.
The zoom with Walker opened at noon on Wednesday, but the introduction did not go as planned.
“I think this is good for everyone to see what’s happening, that way you all have a better understanding of how crazy it can be being a beat writer or working in sports,” said the head of Marist’s Sports Communication’s department, Jane McManus.
What McManus was referring to is Walker running late. Walker was not supposed to be at the Washington facility on Wednesday, but the team announced the benching of former first round pick quarterback Dwayne Haskins for backup Kyle Allen.
“I apologize for being late, it’s been a crazy morning, I didn’t even expect to go into the facility today.” Walker said. “I fully expected to be working at home on zoom, but in this industry, this happens a lot. It’s always on the go.”
Walker further explained the challenges of what it is like working in the business. This NFL season is taking place during unprecedented times due to COVID-19 and she mentioned how things are constantly changing. This is in part due to head coach Ron Rivera, who was diagnosed with cancer before the season started.
“We don’t even have a set schedule anymore because we don’t know when coach is going to have his treatments,” Walker said. “This is just another element of being ready whenever in the day to do my job.”
Working in the sports business comes with challenges and obstacles, as does any other job. However, covering the Washington Football Team has been more difficult recently given the toxic culture that has been developed the past two decades. The team has had many sexual harassment allegations against them towards women working for the team. This offseason, many of those women have come forward to discuss this issue, including Walker.
“I had some fear when I stepped forward to speak on this. I was more unsure of how things were going to turn out,” Walker said. “I think under the old coaching staff I would have been more concerned, I was not very close with that coaching staff, in the fundamental element.”
“With Ron Rivera, it’s different, I trust him immensely,” Walker continued. I wasn’t concerned about coming forward with this team. I know Ron is a very serious guy and he doesn’t let those things slide. These weren’t his issues, he didn’t create this culture or allow these things to happen.”
“I still don’t like to reflect on the situation,” Walker furthermore explained. “I am happy that it has helped people though. That was a big thing for me to see people reach out to me.”
The conversation transitioned into Walker covering the team itself and how to handle athletes when they are visibly upset, like Haskins was this morning following the news that he would be benched.
“I never take it personally when someone is upset with me when I ask them a question,” Walker said. “On the human level, I get that he showed his raw emotions and it is really hard on him, I get both sides of it.”
“We don’t have to be robots, a lot of us know how it would feel if we were in his shoes and his spotlight,” Walker continued. “We can use that empathy to have that conversation. I’ve never been too worried about someone being rude to me or disrespectful to me because I found the way to straddle the line of, ‘I have to ask you that question’. I don’t take pleasure in it, it’s just my job.”
Working in sports, especially covering teams, may be a coveted job for most, but sometimes it is not the easiest in the world, this reigns true when you are covering a bad team. Walker currently covers a team who has not had a winning season since 2016 and hasn’t made it past the Wild Card round of the playoffs since 2005.
“When things are really bad and there’s nothing to write about, it’s no bueno,” Walker said. “Even for a team that was 3-13 last year, they [Washington] do have a lot of appeal which is great for the journalistic side, because I do have a lot of substantial content to write about.”
“I’m thankful this team has given me a lot to write about,” Walker continued. “There’s been so much to write about that I forgot about the team name change or the minority owners wanting to sell their part of the team.”
“Covering bad teams that do a lot of different things is not a bad thing, but covering a bad team that does nothing, there is nothing fun about that,” Walker further explained.
Although there are struggles in this business, like trying to cover a bad team, there is also the good side.
“I love my job, there’s nothing about it that is routine or the same,” Walker said, “it’s interesting and fascinating, there’s so many personalities and so much going on.”
Before she left the call, Walker extended her hand to students to reach out to her with anymore questions or just to chat.
“If you guys need anything, just shoot me an email,” Walker said. “I’ve had a lot of people help me in my career, so I try to help as many people as I possibly can, and I try to get back as much as I possibly can. Don’t be afraid to reach out.”
The Sports Communication Department intends to continue this fall speaker series with ESPN host and anchor, Trey Wingo later this month.
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