Media Bowl Gifts

Neither of those were ethical lapses.

It was bad weather and you grabbed a jacket. If you had thought about it you would have grabbed another one, but you didn't so everyone can get over it.

You bought something that's basically valueless to make your dad happy. If you covered the Packers and wanted it for yourself, that's fine, too. It's not like owning a single share to hang on your wall gives you anything other than a nice piece of paper.

 

Has anybody ever heard the story of Richard Petty's last race. Someone once told me a tale that after the gaggle left from around him, four or five were still asking questions ... all who were longtime writers. Without the writer saying anything, Petty grabbed one guy's credential and signed the back of it, and did that with the rest of them that was standing there.

In a way I think that's kinda cool. In a way, a little pompous. But then again, the guy was pretty close to the Jordan of his sport, so, I guess he could do what he wanted.

As the story goes, nobody said, "Whoa, cowboy."

I don't have an opinion on the bowl gifts. But I do have an approach I've always taken.

There was this one person that always used to give me tips on things that were going on on my beat. He was never wrong. Sometimes he'd call me on the phone and give me the tip. Sometimes he'd tell me to meet him at a local BBQ place and we'd eat a sandwich. He never let me pay.

For a long time, I'd give whatever my meal cost to the waitress as a tip. A few times, because I ate the same thing every time, I'd pay before I ever sat down. Those times, he'd give what mine cost to the waitress.

There was never a story to be written on him. Honestly, he didn't talk to many people and didn't want to.

I always think he felt sorry for me because he knew I didn't make shit. And I never could see how there was any benefit to him, only the agreement: You didn't hear it from me.

I felt bad about it back then. I don't so much anymore. I always felt like if you go to lunch if they want to pay one time, but be damn sure, you get the check the next time. (And I'm not talking about one off stories.)

 

I don't know about the Petty thing. I wasn't there. But I do know that those of us who cover racing, stuff that's just part of a day's work draws the dirty eye from those who like to swing some sort of journalism sword. Screw em. Some of the best stories that I've ever done came from having a beer with a driver or crew chief sitting in their haulers after Friday or Saturday qualifying.

I got something out of it. The driver/team/sponsors got publicity. My readers got good stories for their purchase of the day's paper.

 

This. A thousand times. This.



After some of the shit I've had to take from C. Montgomery Burns over the last six months...Fuck it. I'm looking out for No. 1.

 

I almost did the same thing once. I'm a big Arizona Cardinals fan and I figure I'm allowed to be at this point in my life because I do not cover the NFL and will not be covering the Cardinals as long as I work at my current paper. That being the case, I have a lot of gear with the Cardinals' logo on it.

Anyway, last year I had a high school football game between Malad and Soda Springs, two teams in our coverage area playing an important district game. Realizing it was probably going to get down to about 10-15 degrees that night, I thought ahead and brought a coat.

When I got to the field, however, I remembered Soda Springs' mascot is the Cardinals, and the school uses about five different Cardinals logos, one being Arizona's. Of course, my jacket had the old Arizona logo on the back, making it totally useless. I tried going the first half with no jacket, then after realizing I'd freeze in the second half, I grabbed the jacket, but had to turn it inside out to hide the Cardinals logos.

Shame I never bought any jackets with my baseball team's logo on it, since nobody in the state is named the Blue Jays. Lesson learned, though, I got a new logoless coat soon after.

 

What about things like when schools try to pump up their Heisman candidate? I'm not a voter, but don't they send "gifts" to try to influence voting? I remember way back when an Orlando Pace pancake magnet in the office. (magnet hardly a big gift, but still, it is all about influencing votes)

 

Which teams played in the Media Bowl? I missed that one.

 

Take the damn gift; take all of them you can. Eat all the free food in the hospitality rooms, drink as much brew (off the clock) as you can.

You can bet your ass the top executives in your paper's organization would and do.

 

It was two years ago in San Antonio when Missouri played Northwestern.

 

The execs are easy to spot, too. They're the ones dressed head-to-toe in school colors, walking through the newsroom talking about how "we" are going to win the bowl game.

 

Side story: I was once asked if I wanted to come up to the Masters for a couple of days just to see what it was all about (my newspaper chain had a significant "in"), and implied in that was if I wanted to stick around until Monday and play the course, I could.

I turned it down; I simply told them I was too busy. So I'm definitely on Shoeless Joe's fucking idiot list. I'm certainly on my son's.

I could live to be 100, run for president and solve all the country's problems, cure cancer and bring peace to the world, and at my funeral, my son would say, "He lived a pretty good life. Turned down a chance to go to the Masters and play Augusta, though."