By James Peacock

This past week was a hectic one for the Buffalo Bills. Star receiver Stefon Diggs was not present at the first day of mandatory minicamp which, when combined with comments made by Head Coach Sean McDermott that the situation was “very concerning,” started a media frenzy in Buffalo. For Ryan Talbot, a Bills beat reporter for Syracuse.com and NYUP.com, this chaos was a “very good thing” for himself and Buffalo media members like him. He was kind enough to share his story and experiences with graduate students enrolled in the Jandoli School of Communications Sports Journalism program at St. Bonaventure University.  

A 2006 graduate of St. Bonaventure, Talbot began his track on the Bills beat with Scout.com in 2014, before he moved onto Syracuse.com and NYUP.com. Back then, the Bills were a middling team that was in the middle of a 16-year playoff-drought, and a team that didn’t receive a whole lot of coverage outside of the local media in upstate New York. Talbot remembers those early lessons he learned well.  

“First, when you are brand new, you want to reach out to anyone on that beat that you think is going to be able to help you. There are a lot of guys that have been on these beats, and they’re more than willing to talk to you about ideas,” Talbot told the attentive students.  

The concept of networking, especially with those in the journalism field, is one that has been drilled into the heads of the students throughout their time in the program. However, Talbot did not just limit the networking opportunities that one should readily take to more seasoned journalists on the same beat:  

“Sports agents [too], that’s a big thing…they can give you a heads up [on news] and you can break news,” Talbot continued, “The more stories that you can break, that you can report, even if it’s not a huge deal, it gets your name out there” he told them.  

For his part, he said that he had gained some level of national exposure when Ian Rappaport, an esteemed national reporter on the NFL, shared one of his pieces on former Bills player Ronald Darby. From this base point of how one can take steps to set themselves up for success as a beat writer or sports journalist of any kind, it would make sense if the students then wondered how Talbot’s career had changed as the Bills became a prominent force in the NFL. Julia Rowland was one of these students, and she put the question to Talbot:  

“How [has] your job, your career, your time commitment, evolved over the past almost decade,” she wondered.  

Talbot then shifted gears in his retelling of his career and how it’s evolved. He discussed how he now does a podcast several times a week in tandem with his written reporting, and how he must put aside time for the immense amounts of travel associated with the job, noting that he’s been on the road reporting for two recent Thanksgiving’s, missing that time usually spent with family. Though he did say that such sacrifices can sometimes be burdensome, he was quick to counter that there are perks to such travel, like when the Bills are scheduled to play a game in London this upcoming season.  

Talbot’s mention of the podcast that he does prompted Professor Brian Moritz, who preaches to his students the importance of becoming savvy in all forms of digital media, to inquire about what that balance is like: 

“How much of your job is writing based, versus other forms of media,” Professor Moritz asked him, noting that he did not mean to sound accusatory.  

It was at this point that Talbot, in discussing his career in its current stage, made his most critical point to these aspirational students. He noted that the podcast has been beneficial to his publication and their collective brand both financially and exposure-wise, his job ultimately comes back to writing. He said that during the season he typically writes up to three stories a day about the Bills, and that written reporting is still a major source of where people, both NFL fans and otherwise, get their news.  

For the students, who may feel like they’re going to be entering an industry where the importance of written stories is not what it once was, this crucial point was both informative and inspiring. This too was the case for the entirety of the class’s “alumni masterclass session” with Ryan Talbot, a successful beat writer of today who, in taking the time to share his story and answer questions, might just have inspired the beat writers of tomorrow.