Former Reminder reporter finds her niche with the Patriots

Date: 2/13/2019

GREATER SPRINGFIELD – The New England Patriots – whether you love or hate them – recently won their sixth Super Bowl. Imagine working in a capacity that allows you to hang out with the players on a weekly basis, tell their stories and connect with their fans. Well, that’s the reality for Patriots.com Lifestyle Editor, and former Reminder Publishing reporter, Angelique Fiske.

Patriots.com is the official website for the team, which covers all aspects of news relating to the Patriots, including lifestyle stories, statistics and fan accounts. The website provides written stories, video, photography and audio highlighting the members of the team and fans alike.

Because of her ties with The Reminder, and because the Patriots is one of the best teams in the nation, Reminder Publishing caught up with Fiske to learn more about her vital role within the team’s empire.

The following is a lightly edited version of the interview.

What are some of your responsibilities as a lifestyle editor for the website?

I cover player features or community events. For example, we have a couple of guys that do an informal anime club – so stories like that. I do stories that aren’t like intense football, but things that the die-hard fan would care about and the casual fan would care about.

I also work closely with our social media team, which has grown quite a bit since I’ve been here.

How did you end up with Patriots.com? What was your career path to get you there?

I always knew I wanted to go into sports. When I graduated from college, I got a job with The Reminder. I got interested in politics – which is something I didn’t see myself getting into, and when I quit, I ended up moving to Boston. I was like, ‘Do I still want to do sports, or do I want to go into politics?’

I saw the opening for this job, and I was like, ‘This is something I think I would be very good at.’ I applied for the job and went in for an interview. At that point, I had been so down on myself because I hadn’t found a job yet, I was like, ‘I’m going to have to fake it until I make it.’ I came home and got the job offer that night – I was supposed to start the next week.

How does it feel to be working in your position? What is the most rewarding part for you?

Unbelievable. Recently, I’ve been taking stock of just how lucky I am to be where I am. I earned my place here and I am just so grateful to be where I am and to be doing a job I love and telling stories I’m proud of. Sometimes you end up taking a step back and you’re like, ‘This is really cool.’

I tell a lot of fan stories and sometimes you forget, especially if you’re not a big sports fan or when you’ve been around the team for a couple of seasons, how important something like a sports team can be to someone going through unimaginable circumstances. A lot of times we get people who are really sick or who have suffered a great loss.

And those stories always serve a good reminder. It’s easy to write something like football off as just a game – but a lot of times, it’s deeper than just cheering someone on a Sunday.

For me, it’s always been about the human side of sports.

Is football knowledge required to be able to do your job?

I feel like I have Imposter Syndrome with everything I do. I know that I already know a lot of stuff, but I feel like there’s always so much to learn constantly.

I think knowing and caring about football definitely helps, but I think you don't necessarily need to know the X’s and O’s to do what I’m doing. I think there are a lot of important stories in sports that speak to life in general or the struggles people face.

During this time of year, my stories do extremely well because there are a lot more casual fans engaged and paying attention to the team.

What was it like to approach the players for the first time? How is your relationship with them now?

Honestly, they were just like normal people. It felt similar to getting to know the city councilors on a beat in a city when I first started at The Reminder.

I’ve never had a bad experience with the guys in the locker-room. They have always been super respectful. It helps that I work for the team, so they know I’m never going to go after a story that makes someone look bad. I’m there to highlight the great things the players are doing – which luckily is not a stretch for me to do.

How was it to cover the Super Bowl this year?

We went in with a plan and we’re lucky we’ve had the benefit of going three times in a row.

Our social media manager has been there for I don’t know how many super bowls, so now we know what media day is like and what kind of content to get.

I worked with our social media producers and we had a camera and microphone – I had an idea for a video. I went to college with our running back coach’s daughter. During the off-season she would tweet the funniest stuff about him. We came up with the idea to print out her tweets and have him read them. I feel like I’ve finally found a groove with how approach it [the Super Bowl]. It’s a great time.