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Speaker 1: What's up everyone, and welcome to the Playmaker's Podcast. I'm

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Speaker 1: your host, Haley Ellwood and joining me on today's show

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Speaker 1: is Courtney Cronin. Courtney works for ESPN is the Minnesota

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Speaker 1: Vikings NFL Nation Reporter. She's an award winning journalist who

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Speaker 1: has been with ESPN since twenty seventeen and delivers news,

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Speaker 1: analysis and insight about the Vikings on ESPN dot com

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Speaker 1: and makes regular appearances on ESPN's radio and television platforms,

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Speaker 1: including SportsCenter and NFL Live. I'll talk with Courtney about

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Speaker 1: what it's like covering a team beat, how she's made

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Speaker 1: her mark in a male dominated industry, and oh yeah,

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Speaker 1: what it's like braving those cold Minnesota winners. So now

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Speaker 1: let's welcome in Courtney Cronin, presented by Mercury Insurance. All right,

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Speaker 1: let's say hello to Courtney Cronin. Corney. How are you

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Speaker 1: doing today? I'm great, Haley, how are you? I'm good?

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Speaker 1: Thank you, Thank you so much for joining me, No problem.

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Speaker 1: So you cover the Minnesota Vikings for ESPN, is their

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Speaker 1: NFL Nation Reporter. But just give our listeners a little

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Speaker 1: background on your career up to this point. Well, I

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Speaker 1: started my career in Mississippi in Jackson, which is the

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Speaker 1: state capitol, kind of jack of all trades role. I

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Speaker 1: covered high schools, I covered SEC football, SEC baseball, recruiting

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Speaker 1: the whole nine yards of what makes up sports down

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Speaker 1: there and what draws a lot of attention to that

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Speaker 1: area regionally. So I mean I got my start there.

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Speaker 1: I loved it. I lived there for three years, moved

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Speaker 1: out to the Bay Area where I covered the Warriors, Raiders,

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Speaker 1: forty nine ers, mixed a little bit of giants and

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Speaker 1: athletics in there too, and got a chance to really

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Speaker 1: babble in the pro sports world for the first time.

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Speaker 1: And I was only out there seventeen months, but managed

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Speaker 1: to cover two finals runs, a bit of a Stanley

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Speaker 1: Cup run with the Sharks in two thousand and sixteen,

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Speaker 1: the Raiders twelve and four season in two thousand and sixteen,

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Speaker 1: and obviously all the all the stuff that was going

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Speaker 1: on with the forty nine ers as they began rebuilding

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Speaker 1: mode to kind of the team you see now. That

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Speaker 1: all was going on in the early stages of my

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Speaker 1: career covering the NFL, so it was really unique to

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Speaker 1: see that. And then in twenty seventeen, right before training camp,

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Speaker 1: I jumped to ESPN to cover the Vikings. They had

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Speaker 1: a great opportunity that presented itself for me and I

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Speaker 1: haven't looked back since. This is my third season covering

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Speaker 1: the team, and it just it feels like it's my

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Speaker 1: first season still. It's gone by so quickly. What do

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Speaker 1: you like about covering a beat versus your time with

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Speaker 1: the San Jose Mercury News, where you're covering, like you said,

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Speaker 1: all different sports, all different topics. I think it gives

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Speaker 1: you a chance to really sink your teeth into what

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Speaker 1: you're doing and get to know every single player, get

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Speaker 1: to know people in the building, from the front office

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Speaker 1: to the coaching staff, to the support staff, a little

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Speaker 1: bit of everything in between. Like that to me was

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Speaker 1: really important because, as you mentioned, like when I'm jumping

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Speaker 1: from NBA to the NFL and to the NHL and

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Speaker 1: too MLB, like you go from one season to the next,

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Speaker 1: and there's really no gaps that you have there and

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Speaker 1: it's nice to kind of do something year round where

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Speaker 1: I think the NFL the reason I love covering the

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Speaker 1: NFL is because it truly is a year round sport.

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Speaker 1: I mean, once the season ends, it's not like you

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Speaker 1: have eight months where you do nothing. I mean you

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Speaker 1: cover coaching searches in free agency and the combine and

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Speaker 1: the draft and OTA's and mini camp and training camp.

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Speaker 1: And I really enjoy gunn of getting to see how

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Speaker 1: it's how the process comes together of building teams and

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Speaker 1: seeing how it works and how it doesn't work. So

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Speaker 1: I mean, to me, it's the best beat to cover

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Speaker 1: because hey, you know what your schedule is every single week,

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Speaker 1: not on the road, you know, on the end of

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Speaker 1: a back to back where you've been gone for two

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Speaker 1: and a half weeks. Like, it's really is a great

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Speaker 1: chance too to cover you know, there's sixty three guys

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Speaker 1: in every locker room with the practice squad factored in

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Speaker 1: there too. I means, it's a lot of different stories

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Speaker 1: to tell, and to me, that's such a great opportunity

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Speaker 1: to make yourself better as a journalist and really get

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Speaker 1: to know these players more than just for what they

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Speaker 1: do on the field. Yeah, I love it obviously from

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Speaker 1: the team side, because I equated to like a school year,

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Speaker 1: like you know what you're gonna get at certain times

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Speaker 1: during the year, and it kind of makes the year

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Speaker 1: go by actually very fast. In a sense, would you

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Speaker 1: say that's the same for you? Oh? Yeah, I mean,

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Speaker 1: I can't believe it's Week fifteen. There's there's this stretch

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Speaker 1: that you go through, kind of the flog of the season,

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Speaker 1: where if you're covering a winning team, it goes by quickly.

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Speaker 1: If you're covering a losing team, it goes by very slowly.

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Speaker 1: And I've been on the opposite ends of both spectrums.

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Speaker 1: Like you know, covering a two and fourteen forty nine

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Speaker 1: Ers team in twenty sixteen was tough because it's like, Okay, well,

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Speaker 1: what am I going to write about? What am I

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Speaker 1: gonna what are we going to talk about? Because this

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Speaker 1: team it's the same result every single week, and certainly too,

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Speaker 1: I mean, you can't forget but Colin Kaepernick stuff was

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Speaker 1: happening throughout the twenty sixteen season, and that was a

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Speaker 1: major storyline that we were talking about throughout the year.

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Speaker 1: So I think it makes you actually a better writer

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Speaker 1: and a better journalist when you are covering a losing

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Speaker 1: team or a team that's already out of playoff contention.

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Speaker 1: You're trying to figure out, Okay, what stories can I

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Speaker 1: spin forward to the future of this franchise? What stories

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Speaker 1: do people want to read about when they don't really

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Speaker 1: have any face that their team is any good anymore. So,

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Speaker 1: I mean there's there's a lot of learning experiences you

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Speaker 1: can gather from covering a team that you know is struggling.

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Speaker 1: But like it goes by, like the season just flies

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Speaker 1: by at certain points, and I think, you know, the

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Speaker 1: month of October was a blur, November was a blur,

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Speaker 1: and now we're in December. It's like, Okay, this is

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Speaker 1: where it counts the most. As teams you're trying to

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Speaker 1: you know, solidify their playoffs bids, and it's like it

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Speaker 1: feels like accoun into more almost and like everything stakes

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Speaker 1: are so much higher, and you know, your last chance

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Speaker 1: essentially to to show the strength of your team and

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Speaker 1: show if you're going to make it far in January

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Speaker 1: and potentially even into the super Bowl. So I mean

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Speaker 1: it just you know, raises the stakes all around from

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Speaker 1: what I'm doing in you know, the coverage that I'm

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Speaker 1: trying to provide my readers and my viewers to uh,

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Speaker 1: you know, kind of what we do with the company too,

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Speaker 1: with the SPN And you're in a situation too covering

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Speaker 1: the vikings they're currently you know, if you hear it,

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Speaker 1: if the playoffs started today, they'd be in How much

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Speaker 1: are you also having to pay attention to whatever else

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Speaker 1: happens on Sundays with the NFC while you're also doing

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Speaker 1: your own job as well. Oh, I think you have

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Speaker 1: to be. I mean, you have to be clued in

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Speaker 1: to you know what the other at least with the

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Speaker 1: other six teams, five teams from the playoffs outside of yours,

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Speaker 1: or you know where people are seated, and certainly keeping

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Speaker 1: track on who's in the hunt because I know, at

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Speaker 1: least with the Viking situation, I mean, the Rams winning

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Speaker 1: last night, they're chasing down the Vikings for that number

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Speaker 1: six feed in the playoffs. So I mean it's definitely

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Speaker 1: something you can't just be focused in on your own team. Mean,

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Speaker 1: you're focused on the division and figuring out scenarios, and

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Speaker 1: I think that's kind of the fun part. I love

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Speaker 1: ESPN's playoff machine. Just trying to figure out it kind

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Speaker 1: of reminds me of like when you're in high school

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Speaker 1: and you're trying to figure out, like what your grade

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Speaker 1: can be on a certain test, like if you need

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Speaker 1: to study for the final, Like what if I got

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Speaker 1: a thirty eight percent on this final would still end

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Speaker 1: up with a B, like what what I need to

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Speaker 1: get like an A? And it's just like, I think

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Speaker 1: that's the fun part of this year where you see

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Speaker 1: teams jockeying for playoffs position and just how quickly stuff

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Speaker 1: like that, like where you know the two seed and

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Speaker 1: the five seed could change. So I mean that to

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Speaker 1: me is so fascinating. What makes for a good beat

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Speaker 1: reporter or for someone like you and your job at ESPN,

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Speaker 1: what's sort of the most important thing that you want

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Speaker 1: to convey to your readers. I think a lot of

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Speaker 1: it has to do with your connections to the team

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Speaker 1: and just showing that you are rooted in a place

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Speaker 1: where people will talk to you and you can provide

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Speaker 1: you can you know, kind of be the trusted voice

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Speaker 1: or among the trusted voices on your beat where you're

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Speaker 1: you're not just breaking news, but you're also giving context

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Speaker 1: to what matters and analyzing things from an objective viewpoint

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Speaker 1: and truly explaining like tying it with institutional knowledge to

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Speaker 1: history to trends and showing kind of like how things

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Speaker 1: you know progress through time with teams, Like back to

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Speaker 1: me is the most important part of being a beat

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Speaker 1: writer where you're not just focused on them now, but

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Speaker 1: you're relating it to like what does this mean? Like

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Speaker 1: if you can tell people what something means, that's critically

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Speaker 1: important to the success of yourself as a beat writer.

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Speaker 1: I'll get back to our conversation with Corney in a

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Speaker 1: back to the interview with Courtney, grown and presented by

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Speaker 1: Mercury Insurance. So covering the Vikings, you obviously went from

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Speaker 1: the Bay Area to Minnesota. How quickly did you have

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Speaker 1: to acclimate and adjust to learning this team? Obviously it

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Speaker 1: changes year to year, but when you first got there

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Speaker 1: because it's brand new pretty much, right, Yeah, I mean

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Speaker 1: I grew up in Chicago, so I you know, grew

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Speaker 1: up kind of in NFC North Country to begin with,

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Speaker 1: but I didn't know much, I mean outside of like

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Speaker 1: you know, Randy Moss and you know those late nineties

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Speaker 1: Vikings teams and obviously the late two thousands of Vikings

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Speaker 1: teams too, and um like I had to kind of

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Speaker 1: like build my institutional knowledge of this team on the fly.

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Speaker 1: So what I did once I found out that I

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Speaker 1: was leaving the Bay Area, I ordered a ton of

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Speaker 1: books just like trying to figure out the history side

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Speaker 1: of the team because I was like, okay, like I can,

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Speaker 1: I can go to ESPN dot com, I can go

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Speaker 1: to all the local newspapers to try to build up

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Speaker 1: my knowledge base before I start on this job. But

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Speaker 1: I should also have, um, you know, the knowledge of

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Speaker 1: how this team was built, how this team you know,

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Speaker 1: went to a bunch of Super Bowls and never won

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Speaker 1: any of them, and just kind of like learning the

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Speaker 1: coaching trees and who's come up through this organization and

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Speaker 1: and all that. So, I mean that was really important

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Speaker 1: to me. It was kind of like cramming for a

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Speaker 1: big test, and it don't need to know it all

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Speaker 1: at once. It wasn't like day one on the beat,

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Speaker 1: I had to be this wealth of knowledge because you're

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Speaker 1: constantly learning, I mean the whole first year, like just

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Speaker 1: with what happened in twenty seventeen and how unexpected that was.

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Speaker 1: Like that was a wild ride for everybody, and you know,

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Speaker 1: myself included, just because you're trying to you know, write

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Speaker 1: historically in the context of history what all this means,

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Speaker 1: but also reporting on the now, and I try to

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Speaker 1: do the best I could with that. I think that

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Speaker 1: that's it was. There's no better way to learn than

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Speaker 1: kind of jumping right into the deep end and trying

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Speaker 1: to slim. And I love that season, Like I look

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Speaker 1: back at that and just think about how much fun

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Speaker 1: I had getting to experience this my first NFL beat

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Speaker 1: like where I'm truly the beat writer and not just

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Speaker 1: bouncing around from team a team like that was really cool. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: you mentioned some of those stories, finding those stories, they're

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Speaker 1: sixty three guys in a locker room in the regular season.

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Speaker 1: But what's sort of your favorite story that you've done

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Speaker 1: so far with Minnesota? Man, That's a tough one, um.

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Speaker 1: You know, I had a chance this past summer to

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Speaker 1: go down to Mike Zimmer's ranch in northern Kentucky and

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Speaker 1: just kind of see him away from football in his

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Speaker 1: element on his land and learn a little bit more

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Speaker 1: about Mike away from football while still like football is

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Speaker 1: is who this man is. But I really enjoyed our

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Speaker 1: conversation down there and got getting, you know, the opportunity

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Speaker 1: to see somebody in a different light. You know, you're

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Speaker 1: around each other, the beat writers and the coaching staff

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Speaker 1: and the team were around each other all the time

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Speaker 1: for five or six months, and then like sprinkled in

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Speaker 1: sporadically throughout the off season. It's nice to kind of,

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Speaker 1: you know, peel the layer of the onion back and

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Speaker 1: find out more about what makes a person tick. That's

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Speaker 1: probably among the most memorable things at least that's you know,

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Speaker 1: that stand out to me at the stories I've gotten

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Speaker 1: to tell in Minnesota. How has the sports media landscape

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Speaker 1: changed for women that you've seen from your time in

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Speaker 1: this business. Well, I think that there's just more representation,

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Speaker 1: Like we're you know, I look around the league right

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Speaker 1: now and I think about how many friends that I

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Speaker 1: have who are beat writers covering teams, whether it's for ESPN,

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Speaker 1: whether it's for the athletic, whether it's for newspapers. You

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Speaker 1: mean it, I mean there are so many. We're not

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Speaker 1: an anomaly anymore, which which is so cool. And I

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Speaker 1: mean that extends beyond the like newspaper print, online journalism,

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Speaker 1: like people were you know, a ton of people who

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Speaker 1: worked for teams, who were for radio stations, who are

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Speaker 1: on the PR side of it, who are in the

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Speaker 1: agency side of it. Like, there's just so many of us.

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Speaker 1: And you know, one thing I started last year as

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Speaker 1: a combine was this, like you know, anybody who's anybody

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Speaker 1: who does anything, Yeah, anybody who does anything with the

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Speaker 1: NFL um let's get together for a happy hour, because

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Speaker 1: there's never really been a chance for all of us

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Speaker 1: to try to be in the same room at the

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Speaker 1: same time, whether you are in the journalism capacity, whether

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Speaker 1: you're on the you know, the personnel side for a team,

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Speaker 1: there's just so much opportunity there to get to know

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Speaker 1: each other and network. So I'm really hoping that we

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Speaker 1: can continue that again and make it even bigger next year.

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Speaker 1: But like, I look like that stuff I think is

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Speaker 1: important because it's important to know that, yes, I might

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Speaker 1: be the only woman in my conglomerate, in my media conglomerate,

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Speaker 1: or might be the only woman in the locker room

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Speaker 1: on a regular basis of the team I cover, But

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Speaker 1: look around the league, there's so many of us everywhere,

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Speaker 1: and I think that's really, you know, representations important, and

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Speaker 1: I hope that we can kind of continue to progress

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Speaker 1: in that direction. Are there other women that cover the

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Speaker 1: Vikings that you see on a daily basis? There's three

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Speaker 1: of us total. Don Mitchell where it's for Fox nine,

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Speaker 1: she's a TV reporter, Lindsay Young is a team reporter

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Speaker 1: for the Vikings, and then there's me. So it's pretty

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Speaker 1: much the three of us, or you know, once they

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Speaker 1: fish out of water. But it's like we're just you know,

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Speaker 1: we're like there's a lot more men around us. I mean,

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Speaker 1: from the players that we cover, to the people working

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Speaker 1: for the team, to the other beat writers and and

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Speaker 1: media members, but it still is one of those kind

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Speaker 1: of situations where you find strength amongst each other in

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Speaker 1: that sense. Like I remember when we were in San Diego,

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Speaker 1: I was one of very few women in the locker room.

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Speaker 1: But mj Acosta, who now works at the NFL Network,

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Speaker 1: sure was. She was with the NBC affiliate in San Diego.

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Speaker 1: When she came in, she's like, hey, you were the same,

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Speaker 1: Like we're both women, so we're going to be friends.

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Speaker 1: Now we're going to kind of meet up and do

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Speaker 1: this thing. And it is cool when you have that

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Speaker 1: kind of camaraderie amongst each other. Oh totally. I mean,

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Speaker 1: I think that that's what makes that's what makes it fun,

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Speaker 1: because you know, it's nice to when you are kind

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Speaker 1: of in that minority. It's nice to be able to

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Speaker 1: connect with other people and realize, like some of the

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Speaker 1: things you struggle with, some of the issues that you

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Speaker 1: have you're not alone in that. So I've really enjoyed

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Speaker 1: I mean MJ is a perfect example of that. Like

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Speaker 1: she and I became fast friends this past year after

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Speaker 1: meeting up at the Combine happy hours that we organized. So,

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Speaker 1: I mean it's a good way to you know, there's

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Speaker 1: a lot of women in this industry and kind of

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Speaker 1: trying to find like common threads that connect us. All

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Speaker 1: is you know one of you know, I love doing that.

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Speaker 1: That's that's so important to me because we're better, I think,

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Speaker 1: unified than we are. Everybody kind of doing their own things,

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Speaker 1: fighting for themselves. And then lastly, you and so many

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Speaker 1: other women not only at ESPN but around the broader

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Speaker 1: sports world have accomplished so many amazing things. But where

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Speaker 1: do you see women's roles in sports media trending? Um,

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Speaker 1: I think it's just like anything else, Like we're in

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Speaker 1: twenty nineteen, like nothing should be shocking or you know, wow,

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Speaker 1: woman's doing this now, Like that's just it just doesn't

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Speaker 1: exist in today's climate, especially in sports media. I mean,

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Speaker 1: we're not seeing you know, the type of advancement we're

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Speaker 1: seeing now is like unparalleled compared to where it was,

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Speaker 1: you know, in the infancy stages even like ten or

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Speaker 1: fifteen years ago, where you know, women were only considered

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Speaker 1: for sideline roles on TV, Like now you're seeing people

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Speaker 1: like Mina Kimes, know, who's somebody that I looked up to.

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Speaker 1: I mean, she's breaking a ton of barriers, I know

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Speaker 1: with the Rams this year she was one of the

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Speaker 1: color commentators of the analysts for some of their early

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Speaker 1: I think it's for some of their preseason games, like

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Speaker 1: those are roles like the rules that we traditionally have

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Speaker 1: not seen women phil um like that to me is

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Speaker 1: is something that's awesome because you know, you're starting to

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Speaker 1: see more women talk radio host having their own show

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Speaker 1: where they're not just like you know, you know, beat

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Speaker 1: writers or one thing. I feel like we've had a

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Speaker 1: lot of women writers over the years and that's wonderful,

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Speaker 1: but like seeing it expand into like I guess, non

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Speaker 1: traditional roles for women in sports, like that's where it's

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Speaker 1: going and it's just a matter of seeing that happen

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Speaker 1: more often and more frequently as years come by. Well, awesome,

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Speaker 1: Thank you so much, Courtney, and we'll see you out

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Speaker 1: here in LA right. Yeah, I'm very much looking forward

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Speaker 1: to getting out of the snow. That was going to

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Speaker 1: be my last last question that sense. Have you adjusted

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Speaker 1: to Minnesota winners yet? Yeah? I think there's still always

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Speaker 1: a learning of how to deal with this for five

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Speaker 1: or six months. But I grew up in the Midwest.

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Speaker 1: I'm used to the snow and the ice and the cold,

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Speaker 1: but it is another level here certainly is well. We

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Speaker 1: will welcome you to sixty six degree weather out here

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Speaker 1: on Sunday. I am looking forward to it. Thank you, Courtney,

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Speaker 1: We appreciate it. And let's wrap on this week's episode

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Speaker 1: of Playmakers. So many thanks to ESPN's Courtney Cronin for

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Speaker 1: joining me. One final reminder to subscribe to The Chargers

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Speaker 1: Podcast Network wherever you listen to podcasts, because we are

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Speaker 1: now also on SoundCloud and Spotify. The Chargers Podcast Network

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Speaker 1: is your one stop shop for all things Chargers directly

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Speaker 1: from the team, including in depth conversations and analysis with players, coaches, executives,

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Speaker 1: national reporters and broadcasters, and much more. Be sure to

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Speaker 1: rate and review and thanks for listening. Catch you guys

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Speaker 1: next time.