The great wail of despair you heard last night around 7:30 p.m. from the tri-county area? It was the collective cries of anguish from lazy Philadelphia sports media members who learned the locker rooms of the major sports franchises will no longer be open to them amidst the coronavirus scare.

Hopefully some of these reporters have started hoarding their nuts, because WINTER’S COMING and it’s going to be HARSH.

The loudest voices in the sports journalism community, the loudest complainers are the ones who know their jobs are going to be put to the test without any locker room access. Some won’t, of course, some will be worried that this could be a long play to keep journalists out of locker rooms forever, and that’s a fair concern.

Kevin Cooney wondered just that, and it’s a fair concern.

Cooney works hard and his view is more in the long term, which I understand. He’ll be fine.

It’s the journalists you’re going to see in the next few days who LOUDLY complain about having lost access in the short term. It’s going to be the journalists that completely disappear when access is limited because they have nothing beyond asking canned questions like “how did you feel out there?” or “Hey, what happened out there tonight?” to drive milquetoast copy.

The guys and girls who have sources, who can work other slants, they’ll be just fine. They can transition into features driven stories in the short term, work a few angles they didn’t have time to touch while covering the team, still churn out copy without the crutch of an introductory paragraph, a quote, a paragraph or two of game recap, and a concluding quote used by 99% of other reporters in the locker room

The reporters who churn out less and less copy through the limited access? Who will be sitting around their cubicles at the Inquirer/Daily News offices desperately watching YouTube highlights of games to throw together copy? Editors will quickly realize they’re the chaff that can be tossed out into the dumpster.

It will be an interesting few weeks while access is limited. Who will survive and who will find themselves cleaning Les Bowen’s personal bathroom at the Inquirer?

Who do you think is going to completely disappear with no access? Let us know on Twitter.

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