RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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See the full story · 1 sourcesCredit: Lyndsey D'Arcangelo
The last thing I wrote as a sportswriter was a column about my father and our love for the Buffalo Bills after he had passed away in late summer 2024. It was a bittersweet way to say goodbye to him, as well as to the sports world I had fully immersed myself in for about a decade.
I’ve been a writer and author for 25 years. I didn’t get into sportswriting until 2015. Women’s sports as a whole were barely a blip on the radar. But the potential was there. I wanted to be a part of it. After freelancing for various publications and media sites for a few years, I landed a yearly contract position with The Athletic that lasted six years. During that time, I was part of the original team that launched The Athletic’s WNBA vertical alongside former editor Hannah Withiam (who, in my opinion, does not get enough credit for spearheading it).
In the early days of the vertical, we were constantly banging our heads against the wall to increase coverage, resources, and visibility. It was a frustratingly slow burn. Now, that initial flame has turned into a full-fledged fire. The Athletic WNBA is one of the premier women’s basketball media outlets with a roster of talented writers and content producers.
Overall, I love what women’s sports itself has become—a thriving, self-sustaining, money-making entity that uses creative, innovative, and personable marketing strategies to reach its core audience and beyond (so much so that men’s sports have adopted some of those same strategies). Getting to witness this happen in real time made all that headbanging worth it.
As part of a group of writers who were painstakingly yelling into the void that women’s sports were inevitable only to be yawned at and dismissed and eye-rolled and hit with the popular Twitter/X refrain, “Go back to the kitchen and make me a sandwich,” I get to sit back, fold my arms, kick my feet up on my desk, smile knowingly, and say, “Told ya so.”
So why would I hang up my press pass and delete my X account just as women’s sports was hitting its stride? Well, I not only hit a wall, I saw the writing on it. Journalism was changing rapidly. It became abundantly clear that quantity of clicks was being valued over quality of writing—and still is. Even the most reputable media outlets have fallen prey to this way of thinking. The way our media system is set up now, the more rage and anger you create, the more views you get and the more money you make, so integrity of coverage goes right out the window.
I still want to throw my laptop across the room when I see certain narratives created for the sake of clicks ( particularly anything that has to do with Caitlin Clark )—not just in the form of the written word, but on podcasts and YouTube channels by people with massive followings who want to weigh in even without background information, nuance, or extensive knowledge of the sport or athletes involved. Plainly put— social media outrage now dictates coverage . Take a scroll. The most hateful, ludicrous, outrageous takes are the ones that go viral. It has taken sports water-cooler talk and turned it into political banter and culture-war talking points. It’s insidious and damaging to the leagues, teams, and athletes being covered. Unfortunately, the same demon that the media helped create now feels impossible to rein in.
What I find most troubling is that everyone is turning a blind eye to the effects this is having on the players themselves. The weight of it—whether on Clark’s shoulders as a political avatar or the anxiety Alyssa Thomas must have felt while getting online hate and death threats—is too much for any athlete to carry. The mental and emotional toll has got to be exhausting .
You’d also think, with what has happened in women’s sports overall the past five years, job opportunities within media sites would be growing just as quickly. That isn’t the case.
Women’s sports coverage hovered around the 4% mark for three decades. In 2023, a study by Wasserman found total coverage (including social/digital media) increased to 15%. A recent 2026 report suggested that the percentage has continued to grow to around 18%. This means—despite attendance records being broken across multiple leagues on a consistent basis, a fanbase that keeps getting bigger, and brand-name companies endorsing athletes, sponsoring leagues, and investing millions of dollars into women athletes, teams, and leagues—roughly 80% of TV news and highlights programs still devote little time to women’s sports or ignore them altogether. Traditional media isn’t investing in their women’s sports staff because they aren’t focused on expanding coverage. As a direct result, real opportunities for women’s sportswriters remain dismal.
Right now, the most robust and in-depth coverage of women’s sports is found in independent podcasts, newsletters, and media sites dedicated solely to women’s sports. Those who are developing, cultivating, implementing, and focusing on multimedia that responsibly covers women’s sports leagues, teams, and athletes are the real heroes.
After writing my last column, I realized I needed a break from the toxic conversations and changing media landscape to recenter myself and figure out what I wanted to do next. Over the past year, I’ve channeled my energy and passion for women’s sports into becoming a certified life coach for athletes and teams . I now work with athletes to regain confidence, overcome obstacles, manage stress and anxiety, and achieve meaningful goals in life and sports. As a sportswriter, I’ve celebrated victories, chronicled challenges, and witnessed the moments that define the human experience, both on and off the field. Through it all, I realized the same skills, drive, and resilience that fuel success can sometimes leave us disconnected from ourselves and the world around us.
I understand the unique mental, emotional, and social challenges athletes face, especially in toda...
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