Best sports personality you've ever covered...

My first pro beat... Knicks last championship team

 

So that's why the Knicks haven't won jack in 30-something years! ;D

Forget drafting better, the Knicks need spnited back on the beat! ;D

 

Here are a few I covered really early in my career (and theirs) who were nice guys then, and stayed nice later.

-- Matt Elliott, former Mr. Irrevelant who played OL for Carolina and Washington. I was a year ahead of him in high school, and for our school paper, he would come up with quotes in the middle of class, write them down, and give them to our sports editor asking, "Would these work for you?"

-- Mickey Morandini, while he and I were at Indiana. Just like he was as a pro, scrappy as hell and always good to talk to. He once inadvertently got me in trouble, being extensively quoted in a story I did about players being tired of beating up on a crap nonconference schedule, then not being ready for the Big Ten season. The coach, Bob Morgan, screamed at me for writing that one, punctuated by him asking the musical question, "What color is your underwear?" Technically, he screamed at my partner, who he thought was me, in a priceless exchange that, Matt Solinsky, I hope you still have on tape.

-- Speaking of early in my career, I'm happy to see the success that Joe Novak has had at Northern Illinois. He was the defensive coordinator for Indiana when I covered Hoosiers football, and he was always a great guy.

 

Funny that from reading your first paragraph I immediately felt like you were describing the Tony Soprano of coaching.

 

Barry Zito
Ricky Williams
Chris Shivers
Carlos Delgado
Any golfer named Fred, especially Funk

 

Sidney Lowe
Kevyn Adams
Sean Dockery

 

Ray Nitschke

Dale Earnhart

George Foreman

 

Wait...SEC Media Days aren't going to be called SEC Media Days any more?

 

If it's like it's been in the past, the conference office will call it Kickoff 2007 - SEC Football Media Days.

 

Ah. Well, there you go.

 

Philip Rivers
Manny Lawson
Kay Yow
David Thornton
Ron Francis
Jeff O'Neill
Arturs Irbe

 

There's really only one who deserves to stand alone:
Deion Sanders

Honorable mention: Bobby Bowden, Steve Spurrier, Tommy Tuberville, Phillip Rivers. Jim Grobe doesn't have much of a personality, as I'd define personality, but he's a great guy, so I feel compelled to mention him every time one of these threads pops up.