most bizarre post-game encounter?

High school athletes sobbing is one thing - try interviewing an NHL player who is crying so hard he can't talk.

Chris Osgood was so upset after giving the puck away to cost the Red Wings Game 7 of the 1994 first round that grizzled scribes were patting him on the shoulder.

 

The following season, I believe Osgood scored into an empty net. I remember one lead saying something about "The last time Chris Osgood's stick-handling was an issue, he was in tears ..."

 

A few years back I was at a small, rural paper covering Local High, a relatively podunk school that had a great football program. They won two state titles in a row and I covered the shit out of them, but they graduated something like 17 starters from the second championship team. In the football preview the next fall I pointed out that while the program would still be feared by its competitors because of its tradition, the team would be hard-pressed to make it three state titles in a row.

As expected, the kids on the team gave me shit about it all year, but it wasn't good-natured ribbing -- they were genuinely angry. At one point, in the fourth or fifth game of the season, I'm on the sideline taking photos and covering the game. Local High scores a touchdown and as they come off the field, a player approaches me and -- I swear to God -- starts taunting me. Saying shit like "Scoreboard" and a bunch of other idiotic stuff. It was surreal. I honestly had no response and have never experienced anything like it.

The best part was after the game when I told the coach what happened and said I was sorry if what I wrote pissed off the team. He said: "Aw, I don't care about that shit." Guess that makes one of us, coach.

As predicted, Local High did not repeat as state champs that year, but I resisted the urge to go in the locker room after their last game and tell them all to go fuck themselves.

 

I asked Johnny Unitas about Don Shula.
Dumbest question I ever asked.

 

I'm kidding but I'm guessing you're not. Love to hear the story.

 

Last spring I was interviewing a boys lacrosse player after a brutal semifinal loss. I asked him something along the lines of what it meant to him to play with several other seniors for all four years and know they have no games left together.

He started to answer, stopped, started sobbing and then just hugged and bawled into my shoulder. He kept apologizing as he blubbered away and all I could do was stand there and kind of pat him on the shoulder. Didn't know how to react. That was a bit uncomfortable.

 

Is he crying!? Are you crying!?

There's no crying in LACROSSE! 8)

 

Something about boys lacrosse and hockey, I don't know what it is, but when a team gets knocked out of the state playoffs, half the team is bawling. Never seen it in baseball or soccer, rarely see it in basketball. Lacrosse and hockey brings out the waterworks every time.

 

Saw a baseball kid do that. He was a bit of a loose cannon anyway - real nice kid, though - but he was the ace, missed a few weeks during the middle of the year. His team is mired in a losing streak while he's out. He returns, as do a few other kids, team gets hot at the end of the season.

They make it to the state semifinals (strangely, along with a rival school just a few miles away), lose to eventual state champ. Kid pitched a pretty good game, IIRC, and just broke down after the game. At least three reporters were interviewing him and he just loses it. He starts bawling but keeps talking, dropping a few F-bombs for good measure.