Shots Heard ‘Round the Newspaper World : How Sports Columnists Profited From a Circulation War in Dallas

Joe Namath once dismissed sportswriters as “hundred-dollar-a-week creeps,” but one columnist set him straight. “We’re not, either,” the writer advised. “We’re $200-a-week-creeps.”

Namath probably would be surprised at how much the lot of the sports columnist has improved. Take the roles of Dallas writers Blackie Sherrod and Skip Bayless, for example. They have been the leading characters in a circulation fight between the Times Herald and Morning News that has fascinated the newspaper industry. Each has been enticed to change papers by big salaries and fringe benefits uncommon in their business.

The nation’s sportswriters have gleefully followed the escalation of the columnists’ salaries. They believe similar fights in such other competitive markets as Denver, Chicago and New York, and a commitment to quality even by papers already dominant in their markets, will bring more respect and respectable wages for all writers.

The salaries of some sports columnists already have been boosted to levels that have sent them to lawyers for an examination of the fine print. So far, none has hired an agent.

“We’re getting paid like some athletes,” said Dave Kindred, who left the Washington Post for the Atlanta Constitution.

Kindred was exaggerating, but for skilled professionals who have toiled for years without much leverage and pay, the salaries of Sherrod, Bayless and Kindred are the best things since the invention of the Linotype machine.

The Dallas affair stunned Sherrod. “It’s not me,” he said. “I just happened to be in a hot market. What happened triggered a lot of things in our business.”

What happened was that the Morning News first made a run at Sherrod and, failing the first time, hired Bayless, then 26, away from The Los Angeles Times, where he was a feature writer.

The Morning News marketed Bayless, who had never written a column, on billboards and television as “That Extra Edge,” and posed him, he said, “lying prone, like a mock centerfold.” The ads, in fact, had sexual overtones, he said. “They played to personalities. It was my youth vs. Sherrod, an institution, a typical sportswriter type, an Odd Couple-guy.”

The Times Herald, which had given Sherrod a seven-year contract, then went after Bayless and wooed him with a five-year contract, reportedly starting at $75,000 and increasing by 10% each year, and some attractive fringe benefits.

The two-column arrangement never worked. Sherrod says only, “It was awkward.”

When his contract with the Times Herald ended, Sherrod jumped to the Morning News. “I was stunned,” he said of his new five-year contract. “Some perks were involved.”

Sports Editor Dave Smith of the Morning News said Sherrod “can’t do anything but help circulation. He is the best-known sportswriter in the Southwest. His writing style has a Texas, good-old-boy flavor.”

“Bayless has a lot of talent and the Times Herald wooed him heavily,” said Burl Osborne, president and editor of the Morning News.”

Smith said: “Bayless was young and wanted to do it overnight with sensation. He started ripping without becoming familiar with the territory. Readers don’t want to read someone who is kicking the hell out of someone all the time.”

Sherrod has a loyal following, created over a quarter of a century. Asked what he thought his appeal was, he replied, “Longevity. I couldn’t have lasted this long without knowing the territory.”

“I like sports,” Sherrod said. “I hate to see them get so serious. I guess money does that.”

Said Osborne: “He’s really a part of the city. He’s more conversational than confrontational. He can take someone to the woodshed without offending his readers.”

On his problems at the Morning News, Bayless said: “I write for my market. The Morning News is a conservative paper. I’m sure I turned a few heads.”

Morning News surveys, Bayless said, showed he had a high readership. “Readers loved me and hated me, but they read me.” In one radio talk-show poll, he was voted both the best and worst columnist every year.

Bayless, a boyish-looking 33, believes his biggest appeal is to readers 35 and under and said he rates highly with women because “they understand me and grasp what I write.”

Smith said that Bayless sought a clause prohibiting anyone from editing his column at the Morning News, but the columnist denied it. “I would not want one,” he said.

Bayless, describing his relationship with the Times Herald staff, said, “They know what I can do. . . . how hard I report . . . how careful I am . . . how much blood I shed in my writing.” He recently told some editors, “I’ll get just as dirty as they (the staff) will get, catch more 7 a.m. flights than they will, travel more miles than anybody on my staff and get fewer days off.”

Sherrod talks comfortably with his readers. Bayless keeps his off-balance. “I do many types of columns,” Bayless said. “I am not Jim Murray writing one-liners. I am not a gifted essayist. I want to surprise my readers every day. I want to move them every day. I want them to react. I write poignant pieces. I write emotional pieces.”

His readers do react, sometimes writing as many as 100 letters criticizing or praising a column. He answers every one, he said. He also does a 90-second radio commentary five days a week and speaks, for no pay, to service clubs and schools. “I think that’s important,” he said.

Of his perks and company car, Bayless said: “Executives get perks and cars, why not a columnist? Mike Royko (a Chicago columnist) once told his editor, ‘You don’t sell as many papers as I do.’ ”

To stay topical, Bayless subjects himself to many late events. “I often have only a 20-minute shot at my subject and I can’t bring myself to look at it,” he said. His deadline is 10 p.m. On most days he starts writing at 3:30 or 4, works until 7, walks away from it for an hour to have dinner, then returns to finish and edit the column. Usually, he said, he files it by 9.

To relieve the mental burden of his job, Bayless runs. And runs and runs. He’s a marathoner.

At 33, Bayless said he is still learning his trade. “I’m still a novice at this. I marvel at Blackie’s longevity. He still has his enthusiasm at 65.”

According to Osborne, Bayless’ departure from the Morning News had no negative impact on circulation. “We picked up some subscribers, a few hundred, and we had a few cancellations,” Osborne said.

The Morning News, in fact, increased its edge in circulation while Sherrod and Bayless were both writing for the Times Herald. As this story was written, the Morning News had a lead of 89,700 daily and 81,600 on Sundays.