Trevor Bayne/Daytona 500: Cheering in the Press Box

I think I always said congratulations and shook the coach's hand if it was a one-on-one after a game, and I always made a point to click the pen in front of them shut and wish them "good luck the rest of the way."

The congratulations was just another way of saying hello. The losing coach would always get "can I have a moment, coach."

And, yes, I have no problem calling a coach a coach.

 

Same here. I say the "good luck" more in regard to my desire to see players avoid injury, and I have no problem telling a coach "congratulations."

 

I say "good luck" and "congratulations" and have no problem with anyone who does. I shake hands socially and professionally. I've seen writers fist-bump with coaches and players after big wins, and it's something I'd never think to do or feel comfortable doing, but I'm not going to write 'em up for it.

Cheering and applauding in the press box? It would probably go in my blog.

 

I recall reading a column many years ago ripping college football writers at a different game that day who broke out cheering while watching Boston College knock off No. 1 Notre Dame in 1993.

It's to the point with me that I feel uncomfortable cheering or clapping in any context. I've gone to see politicians, writers, and so forth give speeches or lectures, and I always feel completely uncomfortable and awkward when the applause begins.

 

He should have been there when Dale Sr. won the damn thing ...

 

I thought the congratulations/good luck stuff was fairly common following one-on-ones or something.

Funny you should mention the first bump. I've been around a mid-major hoops team that has had some recent success, and a handful of the players started the superstition of fist-bumping the radio guys before the opening tip of any game. That spread to now include the majority of the press row.

 

Nothing wrong with simply congratulating a winning coach or player in prefacing a one-on-one interview. It's a polite introduction. You'd do the exact same had it been the other coach.

 

Yes. Yes. Yes. In fact, I'd say rooting "for the sport" is almost a greater ethical breach than rooting for a team. "The sport" is the product of a corporation or association that, even when designed specifically for charitable purposes, deserves the same — if not more — media scrutiny than the players, coaches and team offices are given.

 

Anyone uncomfortable with NASCAR cheering, I see your point, but I raise you a case of the Russian media at any Olympic games involving a Russian athlete.

 

When Larry Mize chipped in to win the Masters in '87, the pressroom exploded. Applause? I can't remember. An astonished outcry at the sheer improbability of it? Definitely. I'm sure this sums up the feelings in the pressroom at Daytona. To those who might gripe I have three words: Get. Over. Yourself.

 

Another angle: How comparable is a scenario involving media members booing players/teams/coaches/etc?