Falling asleep in the press box

Some people have sleep issues. I used to have to drive a writer to NFL games if I was going as well because he would never be able to stay awake the whole drive.

Press boxes I'm good, but I can doze off in meetings.

 

That's pretty cool. I wonder if it's been topped yet.

 

Yeah, one of my former co-workers can fall asleep anywhere, anytime. Hell, he routinely takes naps while working at his desk.

 

That's a bit too smart-assish from a flack on an event though ought to be glad that writers are willing to snore through.

 

Hopefully, he suffers from low-grade narcolepsy.

 

I've covered preps on a Friday nite, then driven afterward for 4-5 hours to make it to an 11:30 college kickoff.
Sometimes I'd catch winks in my car, after arriving in the early morning hours to the campus
I've still felt on some of those mornings like falling asleep in some pressboxes.

 

There have been a lot of pressboxes in which I wish I could have passed the time by napping. Probably wouldn't have missed much, either.

Closest I came to it, though -- that I am aware of -- was after a night working the desk, followed by a 3-hour drive to a bike race, followed by a 75-mile bike race, followed by a 3-hour drive back to town, followed by a back-to-back-to-back state lacrosse championship day.

I still can't believe I averaged 19 mph for the bike race on 5 hours sleep and a couple of McD Egg McMuffins for breakfast.

 

Must have been a straight road.

 

Auto-pilot is a hell of an invention.

 

When I was a practicing alcoholic, I think I "fell asleep" for a while at one of those pre-season preview glorified scrimmages, but it wasn't like anyone cared. At the paper I worked for at the time, those were glorified picture pages, so as long as I could catch the coach afterwards and get the standard party line, I was pretty much OK.

In a previous incarnation as a city hall beat reporter at a small circulation suburban daily, I actually had a city councilor tell me, "Y'know, you look like you're asleep half the time but when I pick up the paper, your stories are better than our official minutes." Go figure.

 

What's worse, falling asleep or having to run to the bathroom because you're sick/hung over?

I fell asleep once while covering a MLS game. I was on about three hours sleep and soccer isn't exactly caffeine...

I'm not proud of it, but it happened...

 

Last year's state basketball finals, I battled like hell to keep from nodding off on press row during a small-class girls' game with no local interest. All the elements were there for me to do it, too. I usually get up around noon, but had to leave around 8 a.m. to get to the site that day.