It’s my goal to provide an immersive media experience with The Athletic. That expectation mirrors the standard that has been set at The Athletic locally and nationally, and I’m ready to uphold that standard. That brings me to Alabama, a behemoth in the football world with one of the biggest figures the sport has seen in Nick Saban and a rabid fan base that demands the best on the field and wants to consume high-level, well-thought-out commentary off the field. As long as sports exist, there will be a need for someone to tell those stories, and that’s what I aspire to be. I’ve evolved as a reporter through the years, but what never has changed is my passion for my job.Įntertainment value drives sports, but the human element can connect people from all walks of life. My career has taken me all over the map, from New York City as a Sports Illustrated intern to Rio de Janeiro as a Paralympic reporter for the Associated Press to Anderson, S.C., as a high school sports reporter to Iowa and now Tuscaloosa, Ala.
I pride myself on professionalism and always will conduct myself as such. So much so that team logos in class weren’t permitted (you would be sent home for the day). An early lesson learned: Personal fandom bias and objective journalism don’t mix. I attended the University of Georgia, where I honed my skill. That turned into my first paying job covering local high school sports as a ninth-grader. My journey began as a seventh-grader at Whitewater Middle School in Fayetteville, Ga., where I created a proposal to my assistant principal asking to announce our school’s football games. My time in Iowa was amazing, but returning to my native footprint to cover SEC football was an opportunity that was too good to pass up.įrom a young age, I knew sports journalism was my calling.
My name is Kennington Lloyd Smith III, or as SEC Network’s Paul Finebaum called me in January 2021, “An award winner and the best name in the industry.” I’m a suburban Atlanta native who has spent the past two years in Iowa City, Iowa, covering University of Iowa football and men’s basketball. Working for a company like The Athletic is a dream fulfilled, and to top it off, covering Alabama, the premier brand in college football and a program that has been deeply intertwined with my life as a college football enthusiast from day one. I’m incredibly blessed to introduce myself as the Alabama football beat writer for The Athletic.
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