While layoffs loom at the Washington Post, the newspaper's star sports columnist Sally Jenkins covers the San Francisco 49ers' playoff run.
Jenkins, the daughter of the legendary golf and college football writer Dan Jenkins, displayed old-school sportswriting grandiosity in a Post column describing the 49ers' workmanlike victory Sunday over the hapless Dallas Cowboys to advance to the NFC finals against the Philadelphia Eagles.
In her lengthy sojourn in California, nearly 3,000 miles away from the newspaper's hometown, Jenkins also chronicled the 49ers' opening-round playoffs win over the Seattle Seahawks. Displaying her father's descriptive gifts, she gave a vivid picture last week of California rainstorms drenching the famed Pebble Beach golf course.
I enjoyed Jenkins' impressionistic column in Monday's Post about the 49ers tight end George Kibble's juggling catch of a pass from rookie sensation Brock Purdy to subdue the Cowboys.
But after all of the turmoil about the Washington Post layoffs, Jenkins' extensive 49ers coverage seems strange. Like other sports columnists, she's likely ringing up a sizable expense account.
Jenkins' following a team on the other side of the continent from Washington recalls the glory days when the Post and other newspapers sent big-time writers to important sporting events. But the newspaper's imminent job losses expose the perilous state of once invincible papers like the Post.
The newspaper recently laid off Pulitzer Prize-winning dance critic Sarah Kaufman. Jenkins makes pro football a ballet.
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