Dear dimwit on the phone

Just takes a bigger press run, and a great deal more planning, but if you have enough notice, it's a good chance to hit your community with a quality product.

We've been planning these 2-3 times a year and they're always received well.

Not often enough that people just wait for the freebies, but often enough that we stay on the radar "Hey resident, want to know what going on in your community. We've got it covered."

 

Dear Big Private Catholic School,
I know that the opening of your new field was a big deal and I have no problems with the pre-game voodoo shit you guys did.
However, the game was supposed to start at 7, not 7:10, and since everyone knew it was going to be a blowout, that really pissed me off, so fuck you and your stupid pregame prayer bullshit.
Sincerely,
Rhody

 

But Rhody,

You know they had to call upon the Lord in order to "protect this house!" right?

 

Was it you or someone else sending score updates to BD? We were getting them at our game and just laughing.

 

Think that was bad? The game in the Junction was 31-0 with 6:00 to go in the second quarter ... and the home team had already scored three touchdowns ... on punt returns.

I still contend I got the worst game of the night though he and I had remarkably similar situations (Home team killing bad visitors, bad visitors score two garbage time JV TDs).

 

They should make a HS football League of Losers, like Bill Simmons always wants to do for the NBA. Just after the regular season, all these horrible teams play a single elimination tournament. The winning team gets to spend a year in Division IV, instead of getting their brains blown out in I, II or III. (Although, even that wouldn't help that IV team that's losing by about 500 every week.)

 

I have an automatic response whenever a kid pulls that. Give a wide smile and say "You have to do something first." They always smile back.

 

I remember when there was no football in the Junction.

 

One JV game last night ended 27-27, so I asked the reporter how many fans wanted overtime. Believe it or not, there were.

 

After having to eject a coach for a five-year-old flag football game the other night, I believe anything is possible.

 

Dear obnoxious college football fans,

I know you think it's cool to ask the photographer who is walking to the box office for a press pass to take your photo but, believe it or not, just because I'm attending a college football game to shoot photos for our newspaper doesn't mean just any photos will do.

And, sure, you and your buddy might feel important getting your photo taken but, I assure you, no one cares about you in any way, shape or form.

If I ever take photos of fans, it's going to be because they're either 1.) Dressed up or 2.) Cheering on their team during a big play. I'm not, however, going to take photos of two people standing outside of the stadium.

Now, if you wanted to pay me ...

 

I normally just take the photo, because it's quicker to do that and move along than to explain to them the ethics and priorities of journalism photography.