Your first time covering a "Big Four" professional sporting event

I think I covered Peyton Manning's first game. Either that or the meeting against the Chargers and Ryan Leaf later in the season.

Like a lot of people, I had covered major college pretty extensively as a student, so I don't remember it being a huge deal. Plus, covering football games is so sterile anyway.

I had Creosote's experience at my first NBA game - but it was Larry Bird.

 

My Larry Brown thing aside, first Big 4 was Cots-Bills or Colts-Patriots in Indy in 1996. Very impressed at how efficiently everything was run. And it's Indy, so the food was generous.

Boring game. Mostly field goals. Ay halftime, I hit the men's room. Lots of people but very quiet.

Bob Trumpy walks in and says, loudly, "well that sucked."

Everyone ignored him.

 

First Big 4 game was Saints-Rams at the Superdome in 1999. I was a year or so into the business and had never done an NFL game before. Our shop is a few hours away, so we didn't do many. It was mainly just to go, write a gamer and see how the whole process worked.
The game was nothing special, but the postgame was surreal. It was in Mike Ditka's dying days and someone from the New Orleans press corps made the first question in the presser about his job security. It was also the last question. He glared at the guy, said, "Anybody have any questions about football? No? OK," and walked out. Including his brief opening statement, the whole thing lasted, literally, 45 seconds.

After that I wandered over to the Rams locker room and managed to catch Kurt Warner while he was getting dressed. Got a few questions in, including a stupid one about how their high-powered offense would fare against some of the tougher teams they had to play down the stretch. Something along the lines of, "You've shredded a few lesser defenses the last few weeks, so why do you think you can keep it rolling the next few games?"
He looked at me, deadpan, and said, "Why can't we?"
I also resisted the urge to thank him for single-handedly winning me my fantasy league that season. All in all, a nice fella. He didn't punch me or call me an idiot, even though I asked a couple of dumb questions. If I'd have asked Ditka something that stupid he probably would've ripped my notebook from my hand and beaten me to death with it.

Also remember walking back to the press box and taking a minute to soak in just how big the Superdome is when you're down on ground level. I love being in empty stadiums and just looking around the place.

 

Bills at the Rams in St. Louis in Dec. 1995. I was a senior in college at the time and it was right in the middle of finals, but I wasn't going to turn it down.

And it was surreal for me because I grew up listening to Harry Kalas call Phillies games and I'm in line at the soda machine and I hear that distinctive voice so I turn around and he was right behind me.

 

I had tagged along with our Dodgers writer a couple of times to get the lay of the land at the stadium.
First game I covered by myself: Olden sticks a mic in Lasorda's face and asks, "What did you think of Kingman's performance?"

 

Wow!

 

Saints at the Superdome in 1984, I think it was against Tampa Bay. Saints lost, which they did a lot that year, and one thing I remember about it was when I was in the Saints' locker room and I noticed Stan Brock and another lineman discussing something. I wandered over to maybe get a quote from Brock, who was considered the leader on the o-line, and he looked at me hard and said, "this doesn't concern you." I just said, "hey, no problem," and walked away.

 

First time was actually a Stanley Cup playoff game in April 2011 between Anaheim and Nashville. The Ducks won 6-3 but what sticks out for me was Randy Carlyle's answer when some reporter asked him if he was disturbed that his goalie, Ray Emery, was skating around while the anthem was playing. "I don't think this is the time or place to discuss this," Carlyle said before stalking off.

 

I was nervous and only lasted a minute. Oh, not that first time?

 

My first was Magic at Pacers, 1993. It was Shaq's rookie season.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/199304020IND.html

I remember going in thinking it was going to be surreal, and I was more than a little intimidated, but was quickly brought back to the Earth and realized it really wasn't all that bad.

What was really off-base on my part, and funny in hindsight, was that I had this impression that the press corps would be really cliquish and have to "accept me into the fold." Like I had to earn their trust or something. I quickly learned they didn't give two fucks about some college kid doing a one-off NBA game.

The first thing I ever heard as I walked into a locker room was Orlando's Litterial Green shouting, "WHO BUSTED ASS?"

Its been all downhill from there.

My primary impression was how many people wanted a piece of Shaq. Radio stations were coming up to him and asking, "Shaq ... give us a quick, 'This is Shaquille O'Neal from the Orlando Magic, you're listening to Q95.'"

It quickly dawned on me that being famous would be a major pain in the ass.

 

A Knicks-Trail Blazers game in Jan. 2001 for the college paper. Both teams had rookies from my college at the time and I went to write about them, though neither guy was getting much playing time. I was amazed at the crowd in the locker room and how cramped the visiting locker room was at MSG back then.

 

Rams-Niners last year. I was a bit nervous, but then realized it was just another day in the office, so to speak. I was covering a local guy who plays for the Rams and of course they were terrible.
I had never been field level for an NFL game and the speed of the players just blew me away. Covered a ton of college football and it was like the college kids ran in the mud.
The guy I covered is an o-lineman and when I came up to him, the Rams PR people asked if he would go on camera and I was the one shooting questions. Kind of freaked me out. I asked something about how tough this season had been, the look on his face was one of "I could kill someone right now because it's so fucking bad."
When he was sitting in his sixth-grade plastic chair, it was if I was still looking up at him even though it was the opposite.
The game was boring, a field goal fest for SF and the crowd was pretty bored.