Media Bowl Gifts

I handled media relations for an annual event (not football) for 18 years and every year we gave a t-shirt with a small logo to the media. It was the same t-shirt given to competitors. but in a different color each year. Volunteers also got one. I never had a media member ever turn it down. The t-shirts were of excellent quality and I still see people wearing them. I had to laugh a few years ago when the media relations person for the local pro football team told me that almost every member of the media who participated in media football skills contest was wearing one of our "free" t-shirts. Not all the same color. He may have been wearing one too from his newspaper days.

 

I like how people think they can make a sweeping statement about something and think it's that simple.

I took tons of stuff during my days as a sportswriter. Most of the time we're handed a bag with a bunch of things in it that we need and some things in it that we don't. I'd guess that 98 percent of the stuff I got I gave away, usually to desk guys. I've turned down tons of stuff as well. I think I can count on one hand how many times I got something where I thought, "Sweet, I'm keeping this."

One of those times was my favorite pen.

 

I still have the cloth (cotton natch) golf shoe bag I got from the 1985 Cotton Bowl. Don't use it, but I still have it. It's a souvenir, for God's sake, not a bribe. About the most valuable freebies I ever got were the World Series pins, which have considerable value to collectors. Again, to me they were souvenirs, just like my collection of press passes.

 

I think the most excited I ever got about something I was given at an event was a CD-Rom that had every imaginable NFL stat and record and box score in history. This was before you could find that stuff in 30 seconds on Google and I used it a ton for work, rather than carry a gigantic book around with me.

 

Some media gifts in the past for events have been over the top. I find that it's one thing organizations are cutting back on now. But I fail to see how having a couple of free beers at a hospitality suite comprises your objectivity or somehow makes you less professional. And lately, the only reason I don't eat the free food is because it's awful.

 

If it's something useful, like a nice tote bag or a soft cooler, I'll accept and use it. A shirt? Not really.

The stuff I don't use gets regifted and people go bananas about it. My late grandfather loved the little New Orleans Bowl clock I gave him.

 

That Masters hasn't had a media gift since at least 20 years ago. I believe they consider your credential a media gift.

 

Worst media gift ever: 1994 Sugar Bowl between FSU and Florida, watch with Sugar Bowl logo. No second hand. Imitation leather band. Worked for maybe a week. Made a Timex look like a Rolex.

 

The Masters got started as a big deal because they bribed big-time writers coming north on trains from spring training to cover it.

 

Have covered some Outback Bowls, where the press box is catered by the title sponsor. If any purists were brown-bagging it, I missed them.

 

Yeap, all the blooming onion you could eat. In 2009 they gave out a set of four rocks tumblers engraved with the bowl logo and Tampa tourism bureau on it. That was a little much.