Darryl Orlando Ledbetter was doing his best to be a friend and mentor when he pulled Stephen A. Smith aside nearly two decades ago to offer him some advice.

“I was like, Yo man. You’ve got to stop yelling at people all the time,” Ledbetter told the future sports media icon.

Ledbetter laughs when he tells the story. “That’s the worst advice ever,” he told the Old Scribes Newsletter. “He’s yelled his way to the top.”

Ledbetter, 62, has reached the top of sports journalism during a 40-year career, highlighted by receiving the 2024 Bill Nunn Jr. Award given to a reporter who has made a long and distinguished contribution to pro football through coverage of the National Football League.

Ledbetter, a past president of the Pro Football Writers of America, is entering his 20th season as the Atlanta Falcons beat writer for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He previously worked at the Charlotte Observer (1984-1986), the Cincinnati Enquirer (1986-1992) and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (1992-2000).

“I was honored and grateful to receive that award,” Ledbetter said. “It meant someone was paying attention and thought highly of your work. We’re not in this to get awards, but for writers to vote you the highest award in the football writing realm was pretty special. I’m still pinching myself.”

Ledbetter was honored during the Hall of Fame ceremonies in Canton, Ohio, not far from where he grew up in Cleveland. It stirred memories of when his father would take him to the St. Louis Cardinals training camp in the 1970s, buy a roster for 15 cents, and tell young Darryl to cut it down to 43 players. “I’m still doing that today,” Ledbetter said.

Receiving the Bill Nunn Award is the highlight of a career that began with writing sports for his junior high school newspaper. From there he majored in print journalism at Howard University where he was Editor and Chief of the student newspaper the Hilltop. After graduating in 1984, he interned at the Cleveland Plain Dealer before landing his first full-time job covering high schools in Charlotte.

“I thought it was a good place to start,” he said. “They didn’t have pro sports at the time. But they were real aggressive covering college basketball, and auto racing and they put an emphasis on covering local sports. It ended up being a pretty prime spot.”

Why a law degree?

An activist during his student days at Howard, Ledbetter was interested in pursuing a law degree. “I wanted to address the injustices that we were fighting and marching against as students at Howard like making Martin Luther King’s birthday a holiday,” he said. “I thought it would be good to have an advanced degree.”

He left Charlotte in 1986 for Cincinnati where he landed a part-time job at the Enquirer working the 5 p.m. to 2 a.m. shift while attending law school at the University of Cincinnati. “That’s when you had to wait for all the baseball boxscores for the agate page,” Ledbetter said.

After graduating with a Juris Doctorate from Cincinnati, he moved on to Milwaukee where he covered Marquette and the Green Bay Packers before becoming the national NBA writer during the Michael Jordan era.

Finding the Falcons

When his wife, Deborah landed a prime banking job in Atlanta, Ledbetter put his sports writing career on hold to move South with his wife. For two years, he used his law degree and “did whatever I could do in the legal profession.”

When the Journal-Constitution called in 2003 with an opening to cover high schools, Ledbetter took the job. Two years later, he was on the Falcons beat.

The last two decades have been memorable. He used his law degree while covering the Michael Vick federal case in 2007 for running a dog fighting ring. The Rise of the Falcons under Mike Smith was a high point. Then came the historic collapse in Super Bowl LI in Houston where Atlanta blew a 28-3 lead and lost 34-28 to the New England Patriots. “They had shots from 2008 to 2017 to win a few Super Bowls,” he said. “But it didn’t work out for them. They’re good people over there, but the football has been sub-standard for the last six years.”

Through it all, Ledbetter has enjoyed being in the press box instead of a courtroom. “I probably could have made more money practicing law,” he said. “But to be able to wake up and go to work and not call it work has been very special.”

Working the beat

Ledbetter said he covers the Falcons by being straightforward, frank, and polite. “I respect the job they’re doing and I know how tough it is,” he said. “I’m not really there to beat them over the head. But we’re going to address all the topics that need to be addressed. If you made a bad call on fourth-and-1 we’re going to have to talk about it.”

When he writes a critical story about a player or coach, he doesn’t hide. “Hopefully, we’re going to talk about it first. If not, the next day I’m going to be there at your locker if you have any questions,” he said. “Most guys appreciate a straightforward approach.”

Professor Ledbetter

For the last 18 years, Ledbetter has given back by serving as a professor first teaching Communication Law at Clark University in Atlanta before joining the Carmical Sports Media Institute at the University of Georgia.

“We have a lot of highly motivated kids that come to learn the introduction to sports writing and reporting,” he said. “Once you get out of my class you can find your own lane. I enjoy giving back to the profession and training the next generation to go out and have some of the fun I’ve had for the last 40 years.”

His advice to students is direct. “I tell them the more you can do the better,” he said. “Nowadays, it’s not uncommon to have to write a story, go do a radio interview, and then pop on somebody’s TV show. You want to be fluid in all phases of storytelling.”

He also tells students to be honest with themselves. “If you’re weak in some areas that’s where you need to work,” he said. “If you’re strong in some areas go in that direction. If you don’t like being in front of a camera, you best start getting comfortable.”

That’s better advice than he gave Stephen A. Smith.