How to kindly tell the d-bag to stop clapping

Personally, if the local SID wouldn't do anything, I would make a point of telling that to his AD.

But I am a prick sometimes.

 

Both. The only reason they had a place in the press box was to work, not gab and act like everything around them was a distraction to their own little world. So if putting her in her place meant I had to tell her in essence to be quiet and do her job, so be it.

If that makes me a dick, I'd be a dick again 100 times over.

 

Got to disagree. I doubt the AD would give a shit either, and you'd have the added benefit of giving off the air of being a whiner/tattler.

Just handle it yourself. If they complain, so much the better, because then their dumb ass can be emasculated when the SID asks them why the big, bad writer from the daily yelled at them.

 

And you know about tattlers.
You know by tattling on your friends, you're really just tattling on yourself. By tattling on your friends, you're just telling them that you're a tattletale. Now is that the tale you want to tell?

 

Holy shit. Had that been a 'Bama jersey and white headband, that photo would be a perfect match.

 

How about this situation I ran into over the weekend:

Covering my small college football game in a town the size of my neighborhood. I was set up along with the SID of the school I cover and his assistant. To my right was a lady doing the music on the PA. Bitch wouldn't stop cheering. Home team scored a late touchdown in the first half to tie the game 7-7, and she went bonkers, screaming and what not.

Her cheering in the second half really starting to wear on me. We're not talking about under-the-breath cheering. We're talking all-out screaming.

What do you do then? Tell her to shut the hell up? The AD wouldn't have done anything and I would have gotten glares from her fellow homers in the pressbox, who actually were pretty good people and didn't cheer at all.

 

Is there any way someone could post the announcement they usually make in DI and NFL pressboxes about this being "a working pressbox and no cheering or outbursts of any kind will not be tolerated?" I'd like to print that out and post about 50 copies of it in the high school pressboxes I have to go to this fall.

 

Ask if she likes the shocker, banana-style.

 

"The College Football Writer's Association of America and Just_An_SID's University would like to remind everyone present that this is a working press box and cheering for either team will not be tolerated. Just_An_SID will instruct security personnel to escort violator's to the exit. Your cooperation IS expected."

I don't know how much simpler it gets yet it is a problem all over the country. I've had to ask a number of SID's to control their local media and since it usually happens when my team is losing (since the fans wouldn't have much to cheer about if they were losing) which makes me look like a sore loser.

When I am at home, I have on a number of occasions pulled people aside and told them to cut it out or lose their credential. My biggest problem usually comes from staff members passing through the pressbox because you can't prevent the cheer until it happens. I have however run more than one staff member from the pressbox and told them not to come back.

Having been in this profession for awhile, I find that I am incapable of cheering. About the best I can do is a well-hidden fist pump (usually under the counter).

 

I once covered a college game at Rice (punishment enough in it's own right) and found that my seat at the end of press row was immediately next to the first seat in the "boosters" section. That's right. The press box housed the media and the fat cats on the same level.

The only saving grace was Rice lost the game like 60-3 so there wasn't exactly much revelry from the well-to-do home boys/girls. But I can't imagine what that must be like when the Owls are actually in a game.

It was years ago so maybe things have changed...although the Owls still tend to suck.

 

Back at ya, SID...
I find myself to a point where I don't even cheer in the stands or watching TV... 20-plus years of brainwashing will do that to you...

On the other hand, I also know people who save their cheering for their post-game columns...

 

My first year in the business, I covered a game between my alma mater and another SEC school. Alma mater is down 31-10 with 10 minutes left, somehow comes back and ties it on the last play of the game before losing in overtime. One of the hardest things I've ever had to do as a journalist was make it through that entire sequence without cheering, but somehow I did it and it absolutely killed the urge to cheer in a pressbox setting forever. I figure, if I can make it through that then I can make it through anything.