Being looked at as sports fountains of knowledge

As soon as I tell people I'm a sportswriter, I usually get a sports-related question no quicker than .03 seconds somtimes before I'm asked where I work.

"Hey what do you think about Podunk High's football team here in town?"

"Did you see the U. of Podunk play Northville High Seminary Lutheran last night?"

"Are the Colts gonna get to the SuperBowl this year?"

And the new one..."Who should I draft with the first pick in my fantasy draft?"

For example, tonight I got a call from a guy who asked who the top 5 career rushing leaders are/were. He said he's got a bet with some buddies (who I could here hollerin' in the background). I tell him and he goes on his merry way.

Five minutes later I get a call from my sister who wants to know if there was a "Tillman" who played safety for the Patriots a few years ago. Her boyfriend and his buddy are debating it.

I'm a youngster at this profession and I don't claim to be a know-it-all about sports. But I do enjoy my statistics and history and take pride in knowing lots of it.

Maybe it's just me. I dunno. Is it assumed we know more about sports because we write about them?

 

I told the story last week about the guy who wanted to talk about Div. I-AA Texas State football.
"Uh, dude, I live 17 hours away from there."

 

Well, they got this quarterback, Paul Blake, who's got a rocket for an arm...

Their wide receiver can't catch a cold.

And I hear their kicker is smoking.

 

After I won that book, the radio fellows wanted to chat about a certain college team. I was asked how I thought this team would do.

I replied I was less than optimistic, then predicted a not-so-great win total.

A lengthy pause followed. "Well, thanks for chatting ..."

 

Hey, Newb. It's "font of knowledge," not "fountain of knowledge."

And it's not "woolly."

Nobody gets woolly.

Women get "weary," they don't get woolly.

Nobody's got "stress" - they're wearing a "dress."

I hate it when people get the words wrong.
:

 

Yes, I get a lot of the "did you see the game between..." or "did you see the goal Ovechkin scored last night" type of questions, and I usually have to reply something along the lines of, "no, I was out covering local team x last night and I really haven't had much of a minute to watch NHL/MLB/flavour of the month highlights in weeks..."

 

There's a guy in the office, a news reporter, who just automatically starts that sports-talk radio crap with me every time he's around my cubicle.

Actual conversation:

Him: "Hey, so it's football time. I guess you're excited."

Me: "Yep. You know, every year at this time I celebrate by killing a drifter."

Him: Silence. Sweet, blessed silence.

 

All I know is that I saw their coach pull off one of the more bonehead calls last year when in the I-AA semifinal he took a knee in a tie ballgame despite having about two minutes. three timeouts and the ball on his own 35 or 40. Just tell him that the coach is an idiot.

 

he was smart enough to beat cal poly, so he's a fucking genius in my book...

 

Our sports desk got a good one the other day. Dude called to have us settle a bet. He wanted to know if Steffi Graf was married before Agassi. I guess his browser doesn't go to Google.

 

You should write a column about it.

 

The pressroom guys live and breathe the NFL. They always want to talk to me about it. No, I didn't see what happened in last night's 800th preseason game. I was out covering the Podunk High volleyball team.