The "Homer" sports writer

So, let me get this straight. Are you guys telling me when I'm sitting on press row at a basketball game I shouldn't hold my arms up during a free throw and say, "Whoosh" when it's good?

 

I remember covering one Maryland game while wearing a purple shirt. It wasn't against Clemson, but one of the media folks there joked about my being a Clemson fan. I don't think I've worn that shirt to a game since.

 

Wow, that's extreme. I would have turned around and told the guy his blue shirt meant he must have been pulling for Duke.

Or, more likely, that the red shirt he was wearing proved a point.

 

Saw an SE at a small-town paper who was a notorious fan boy ask a former NBA All-Star in the locker room for his shoes after a game. He actually got them then asked for them to be signed. When that request was granted, he said "Thanks Mr. So-and-So" and walked away with a big grin on his face.

 

God bless plaid shirts.

 

I cover my alma mater once or twice a year. I find it very easy to take off the fan hat and become an impartial journalist.

 

I can easily turn off the fanboi looserdom. I find it a lot harder to turn it back on when I watch the games and I'm not covering them.

I've actually gone to games as a rabid fan and then turned around and wrote a story when I covered the local MLS team for a soccer fan Web site. I still remember people's amazement that I could write objectively just hours after leaving the stadium as a fanboi looser.

The next year, I was in the press box to cover the games. I think I might have given an under-the-table fist pump one time that entire season. On opening night the next year, the team's media relations people had to tell the guy who took my place not to cheer in the press box.

 

I'm a stickler on the dress code color thing. I told one of the assistant coaches for the team I cover my rule (I will only wear their colors if they're playing a team with the same colors) and he thought I was insane. Then he said I should be a homer. Yeah ... cram that right back in your piehole.

I felt really bad this year when I inadvertently broke my rule ... in a NFL press box of all places. Somehow, the synapses in my brain stopped working and I convinced myself when I chose what to wear that the team I cover was playing the Buccaneers, so I wore an orange sweater you can see from space. Ten percent as a tribute to the old creamsicle Bucs, but 90 percent for the reason I had little else clean.

About 10 minutes into my drive to the game it dawned on me that I was going to see the Denver Broncos, the Bucs were there the following week. So I looked like Orange Crush Boy in the press box. Ugh.

 

That's only for special occasions.

 

This has been really entertaining. You guys have seen some real winners.

Only thing I'll offer is that I think refraining from saying "good luck" is a little bit overboard. You don't have to be an emotionless machine.

And as far as the color dress code thing ... if people are going to get on you for that, well, they're just looking too hard. And they have deeper problems.