Soccer commentator Ian Darke, ESPN feature writer Roberto Andrade Franco, and Sports Illustrated writer and copy chief Julie Kliegman

Episode 227 of the Sports Media Podcast features three guests. First up is Ian Darke, a football commentator for ESPN in America and for BT Sport in UK. Last week Fox Sports announced that Darke will be part of the network’s coverage of the FIFA World Cup in Qatar later this year. He is followed by Roberto Andrade Franco, a feature writer for ESPN and the author of one of the best pieces of sports writing in 2022. Franco recently wrote “The All-Star dreams of Uvalde's biggest José Altuve fan,” a piece for ESPN on the life of Tess Marie Mata, one of the 19 students killed in the May 24 massacre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. Franco is followed by Julie Kliegman, a writer and copy chief for Sports Illustrated. She recently wrote a piece on Sarah Fuller's journey from kicker for Vanderbilt to mental health advocate and is working on a book about how athletes navigate mental health. 

In this podcast, Darke discusses how Fox was able to use him for this year’s World Cup; when he anticipates learning what games he will call; calling the women’s European Championship tournament; the growth of women’s soccer in England; the potential of the 2026 World Cup as a game-changer in the United States, and more. 

Franco discusses why he was compelled to write about Mata for ESPN; traveling to Uvalde three times to report the story and how he approached his reporting; how the Mata family treated his queries; the inevitable tension of prying into people’s lives about the worst moment of their life while knowing the importance of such stories to the public; why he opted to make his story about Texas, guns, the U.S., segregation, and the violence that surrounds us; how his background shaped the story, and more. 

Kliegman discusses why the  intersection of mental health and athletics is of interest to her; what happened to Sarah Fuller since she made history at Vanderbilt;  the challenge of navigating sudden fame for a college student; the climate of athletes discussing mental health; how this generation of athletes is more willing to be open about mental health and more. 

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