Fans who get press passes

Not true man. I'm friends with tons of current and former coaches and players. In fact, I have more friends that are players, coaches and administrators than other writers. When you've done this shit for 20+ years, you tend to develop a lot of good friends and meet a lot of wonderful people. I hope they all do well, too. I don't like covering or writing about losers or losing teams, much less interviewing coaches and administrators about crappy programs, coaches getting fired, NCAA investigations, etc. I'd much rather see them win as it makes my job so much easier. Most of these people understand that. I'm there to record what happened and present it in context to what it means. That's it.

I'm not there too cheer and root them on and slap high fives. But I don't mind at all if they win. I like to see people experience those things just as much as I would like to experience them myself. However, I'm not emotionally invested in the teams I cover. At the end of the day, I've still got a job to do and that's to write a damn story.

 

Word for f-ing word, Doc.

 

What Batman Said.

Spend a lot of time in this business at the same spot, or on the same beat, and friendships with sources and others are inevitable. You want them to do well, of course, but win or lose, you've got a job to do. We are the storytellers, not the story.

This is where fanbois don't get it. Gushing over their heroes, or doing "but they tried so hard" stories are a disservice to readers and the business.

 

One of the names who has been lionized here for years used to wear his class ring when he covered his alma mater's football games.
If you're reading I know exactly what you represent, you piece of garbage.

 

I had a chance for a one-off interview with the NASCAR driver who was my favorite growing up when he was in town for a charity event. Did the interview, which was your typical ho-hum fluff piece, then finished up by shaking his hand and saying, 'I just wanted to let you know you were my favorite driver growing up and it's really cool to get to meet you.' The guy smiled and said, 'I appreciate that,' and that was the end of it. It's possible to be professional about letting someone know you're a fan.

 

Word, it is pretty cool seeing success as well. One of my favorite families had a rollercoaster ride this March. P. Jesperson hit a half-court shot at the buzzer to send UNI to the second round. I sent him a message saying nice shot, you deserve it. Just sent that because I know how hard the kid works. He said thanks and that was the end of it. Pretty cool seeing a kid you saw come up and start as a freshman on a good program hit a shot the world will see every March. That was the end of the conversation and then two days later the team has epic meltdown. The swing in emotions during March Madness!

 

Years ago I got a call from a woman I was in J-school with. I was at the Suburban Daily, she had gone into PR. She said her company got a contract to do PR for some product associated with the MLB All-Star Game and could I do a feature on it. She said she would bring somebody associated with the product to my office for an interview but she didn't know who it would be at that time. Unusual, yes, but I said OK because of our J-school connection. So as I prepared to interview Mr. X without any advance research, she showed up with Lou Brock. I was stunned, but I gathered myself and worked my way through it. Fortunately, I covered college football and his son was on one of the teams I covered, so that's where I steered the interview, adding in the MLB All-Star Game connection. He actually seemed to enjoy that he was asked about his son rather than the mundane questions about whatever the hell the product was (I don't remember). Worked out OK.

 

Was it the Brock-brella (Umbrella with a bill to make it look like a baseball cap)? I remember seeing an article about it in SI in the '80s.

 

I agree completely that you can't help who you have always been a fan of. I've always been an A's fan and interned during college with one of their tv stations. I wanted the team to win, of course, and I developed a few friendships with players who crossed my path but I never gushed or overtly rooted for anyone in particular - however, growing up Troy Aikman was/is still my favorite athlete and I would have done EXACTLY as you did at the conclusion of the interview, had I had the opportunity. Just say "I have to say I was a big fan growing up and it was an honor for me to meet you. Thank you for your time." But I wouldn't let it affect what I wrote - whether it was a fluff piece or an important event - the job is to tell the story, analyze it and tell it as it happened.

 

I did some work for one of those sites once, covering my alma mater. Didn't wear my team's gear or celebrate. Guy from a rival site, well, he approached it differently. I did notice my straight-up stories would at times get heavily altered to make them look more fanboi-ish.
More annoying to me was when I was at a newspaper covering a college football game with my co-worker. After the game, he kept saying things like "We lost the game because we did this" or "We should have done that." Waiting for players afterwards, other reporters were shooting him WTF looks but it didn't stop.

 

If I heard that, I'd be asking the reporter when he made the roster.