Why I’m passionate about Kansas City sports journalism

My name is Robert Rimpson, and I want to be a real sports journalist.

Mainstream media has obtained an extremely bad reputation recently — especially among Kansas City Chiefs fans. People are questioning everything they hear and see because they’ve been enabled with all the information in the world at their fingertips. We live in an age where you can be fact-checked in a matter of minutes. One wrong move can destroy your journalistic credibility and ruin your career.

Thanks to social media, media members are more accessible than ever. Every mistake you make gives anyone with a Twitter account permission to open fire. Spell a coach’s name wrong, have a hot-take that goes ice-cold — or, God-forbid, say something negative about someone’s favorite player — and an unreal amount of hate can flood your Twitter mentions.

It might not always be fair or appropriate, but it is what it is. You’d have to be insane to want any part of that.

Well... call me crazy. I want all that — and more.

Once I discovered ESPN at the young age of 13, I knew what I wanted to do: I wanted to be a journalist like Stephen A. Smith. Figuring out what team I wanted to cover was just as easy. Growing up in Kansas City, Missouri, I had no choice but to be a Chiefs fan, and little reason to want to spend time writing about any other franchise.

Writing about the Chiefs has been a dream of mine since then, but it wasn’t until my sophomore year in college that I knew my goals could be realized. I was offered a position with the LockedonChiefs podcast writing for their website. Soon after, I was given a chance to contribute to Chiefs Wire, where I got the opportunity to go to a training camp and even cover the 2019 NFL Combine.

All the while, I was at Florida A&M University, learning the foundations of journalism and developing a passion for giving people the undeniable truth; making a difference by giving people information that they need and (sometimes) want.

All these things helped to get me where I am now, and helped build a resolve to not only write about a team I’m passionate about, but to do my part to help adjust the public’s feelings regarding mainstream media.

I’m not there yet — but I will be.

For now, I’ll edit stories and write some articles. I look forward to continuing to serve Chiefs fans in my new role on Arrowhead Pride.