My first L.A. sports heroes weren’t just featured in the morning paper. They were the actual stars of the newspaper themselves: The morning sports columnist.

Jim Murray. Doug Krikorian. Allan Mallamud. Their words told me everything I needed to know about whether Magic and the Lakers could finally beat Boston, why Fernandoma- nia was important to my city, and whether the Triple Crown line of Dionne, Simmer and Taylor could capture a Stanley Cup. (No, they couldn’t.)

While their highlights were voiced by local anchors, and their games described by local sportscasting legends, it was the columnists who shaped perceptions of our favorite athletes for an entire city.

Murray used his flair for storytelling and ability to weave history analogies together with sports stories to paint vivid images of athletes. Krikorian built one-on-one relationships with many of the players to be able to tell their stories from a first-person perspective. (And he also would famously antagonize them, as he did with the Rams’ Isiah Robertson). Mallamud’s “Notes on a Scorecard” gave us regular snapshots of actions mixed with opinions about every major team in town.

There was no bombast, no pre-defined hot takes, no slander. And we would learn later that they often protected the athletes as much as they revealed glimpses of their flaws. Above all, these storytellers gave us historical perspective — putting a player’s big night into context with decades of sports memory. For a young fan, that meant learning not just about the 1980s, but about the eras that came before.

Today, the sports columnist’s role is being handled by... the athletes themselves. They are sharing their own stories, announcing their own transactions, owning their own brands. They don’t need to wait for a reporter on deadline. They can post a message they know fans will see — and sports media will simply repeat.

LeBron doesn’t need the LA Times to let the world know how he’s doing — he hits record, smiles, and sends the message himself. We know he loves Taco Tuesday because he told us, straight into the camera.

There’s something powerful about that. The connection feels personal. Fans hear from their heroes in real time, without a filter.

But when the subject is also the narrator, we can lose perspective.

We’ve heard about the NBA star trolling fans on a burner account. We’ve read ghostwritten apologies that appear under an athlete’s own name. We’ve seen curated posts that feel more like advertising than authenticity. So the question lingers: When athletes tell their own stories, are they showing the real competitor, or a polished version designed for engagement and brand growth?

For PR professionals working in sports, this is the new balancing act. Some engagements are contractual — league-mandated interviews, appearances with broadcast partners. Those remain valuable storytelling moments, especially if they come with softball questions.

But day to day, the work is different. It’s helping athletes tell their stories in a way that feels authentic, connects with fans, and holds up under scrutiny. Sometimes it’s helping them or partners building business. Sometimes it’s telling stories of adversity and comebacks. Sometimes it’s correcting the record. Sometimes it’s even auditions for future jobs.

In this new landscape, the PR pro has to take on the roles the old columnists once filled — storyteller, historian, occasional referee. They need to understand the sports landscape in their city and league, bring perspective on how past stars shape the present, and act as brand protectors — alert to pitfalls and aware of how a single comment can be interpreted. They also need to monitor their athletes the way brands monitor themselves: tracking conversations, spotting trends, and deciding when and how to engage.

The upside is reach. Many athletes now command bigger audiences on their own than traditional sports outlets ever did. With the right guidance, they can use that reach to make a real impact. They can do more than shape headlines — they can shape culture.

For PR professionals working alongside them, that’s both the challenge and the opportunity. That’s the new game.

Ron Antonette is chief program officer at the USC Center for PR, overseeing events, projects, reports, and graduate student contributors. He is also founder of R. Antonette Communications, a consultancy he launched in 2009 to lead campaigns for brands and civic initiatives, including projects for Los Angeles, Long Beach, and Claremont. He previously held leadership roles at Golin, FleishmanHillard, Conagra Brands, and Mattel. Ron is a USC Annenberg alumnus and was a USC Trustee Scholar.