Thursday, March 8, 2012

ESPN, Please Give Me a Job Working on Your Website: An Open Cover Letter to the Worldwide Leader in Sports

From: Matthew J. DeFonzo


To:


ESPN.com
545 Middle Street
Bristol, CT, 06010


March 8, 2012


Dear ESPN,


Hi, my name is Matt DeFonzo.  I wanted to contact you today to ask if you might hire me to come up with creative content for ESPN.com.  I've been checking the site out pretty regularly over the past seven weeks or so for my Newstrack blog project for my online journalism class.  I really enjoy looking at ESPN.com, and I've found some fantastic things on it that I never knew existed before I started this project.  For example, relatively recently I found a calendar on ESPN.com that lists sporting events for this year, and was pretty impressed by the fact that you already have some events filled in for the end of 2012.


But even though there is a great deal of stuff on ESPN.com (and I'm sure there are additional items I have yet to find), I think you can include still more awesome content on the site.  That's where I can come in.  I like to think of myself as a creative person, and I think I've come up with some things that can help make ESPN.com an even better website.


First, I note that you have five of what I like to call "ESPN Cities" on ESPN.com: New York, LA, Dallas, Boston, and Chicago.  Well, how about a sixth ESPN City on your website?...ESPN Miami!  Two professional teams from Miami have acquired some of the best available talent in recent years, with the Heat gobbling up both LeBron James and Chris Bosh, and the Marlins adding Jose Reyes to their roster.  The Heat definitely look to be in the running for title contention this year with a record of 30-9 as of my writing of this letter, and I think Marlins might be more competitive this season too.  With Peyton Manning now a free agent, and the Dolphins one of the teams thought to be interested in the superstar QB, isn't there the off-chance that Miami just might become the new City of Champions?  I think it would be a great place for the next ESPN City.


Now I know the website ESPN Florida already exists and that there is some ESPN Miami content among ESPN media, but to the best of my knowledge you do not have an ESPN Miami sub-website similar to the ones you have for the likes of ESPN New York and ESPN Boston.  However, I sort of think Miami should have its own sub-website and be a full-blown ESPN City because I think its teams are rising in terms of competitiveness.  In my opinion, that makes it newsworthy from the standpoint of the sporting world.


Second, in honor of March Madness, I have some brand new bracket ideas (some sports-related, some not) for the website.  I noted that you already have a tournament of emcees and one for greatest baseball seasons by individual players, but I have more awesome ideas for brackets.  For instance, one idea that came into full fruition this morning: a bracket pitting fictitious movie characters against one another.  Wolverine has got to be a one-seed...he's practically immortal!  And where would Ash's Pikachu be seeded?  He's pretty powerful, but in a tournament including Gandalf the Grey, Lord Voldemort, and The Incredible Hulk, how could Ketchum's favorite Pokemon be seeded any higher than 14th?


My third idea was an RSS feed dedicated to Peyton Manning, but I noted that you do have one of those on your website already.  But maybe it's a good thing that I thought of an idea you already have on your site...I must be fit to work for ESPN.com if I'm smart enough to independently come up with an idea you already thought was good.


Seriously, how can you not hire me after all that?  I have a fan-tabulous creative mind and I'm intelligent!  Plus, I've been somewhat in need of money since I started grad school, so I would be willing to work for a relatively small amount of pay.  If you're interested in hiring me, please contact me and I'll send you a copy of my resume.  I look forward to hearing from you.  Thank you for your time.


Sincerely,


Matthew J. DeFonzo
Aspiring Sports Reporter

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