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Seventeen current and former NFL players took part in a Sports Journalism and Communications boot camp from May 14-17 at Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio. Although no current members of the Cleveland Browns were in attendance, one alumni and current free agent was: RB Chris Ogbonnaya, who was with the club from 2011-2014 (he did not make the regular season roster last year).
The four-day program focused on improving each players’ writing skills for newspapers, radio, and the expanding digital media industry. Industry professionals and Bowling Green faculty led players through panel discussions, breakout sessions, and writing labs covering everything from press conference prep to ethics in sports journalism. Thomas Schmeltz of the Sentinel Tribune covered in detail what went down at the boot camp:
It was an intensive weekend which had the players write a feature, a column and a 90-second radio script. They also conducted a mock press conference with Falcons coach Dino Babers and were critiqued on their questions asked along with all of the work they did over the weekend. It was a full slate of classes that saw little time for breaks.
What a pleasure it was to talk with @ChrisOgbonnaya at the NFL Bootcamp. Best of luck moving forward. pic.twitter.com/5VkTO73Qqn
— Kaleb Page (@KDPager) May 17, 2015
Patriots.com also did a fine job summarizing the event.