In the name of our Lord and Savior . . . can I have your autograph?

No reporter should ever wear any kind of team gear when on assignment...NONE.
But that does not make it a fireable offense.

 

Agreed. These days, it's all about getting a picture.

 

How many of us get calls now and then asking if we can get the caller "press passes" for everything from the Rose Bowl to Podunk vs. Podunk Tech? Telling them when deadline is and asking what kind of story they intend to file, and how, tends to quiet them. No, I may never get to cover the Rose Bowl, but if the chance arises, I don't want some freeloading fanboi's behavior marked against me!

 

Who would be making that call HanSen? Never had it come up in 40+ years.

 

Seriously? You've never had a fan, a friend or a random person ask you how to get a press pass?
Wow, I guess I just find that odd.
I've been asked dozens, maybe hundreds of times how someone could get the credential I had hanging around my neck.
At every level of every sport I have covered, I've been asked about it.
Shit, sometimes not even for sports. Covering news events I've been asked.

 

Consider yourself lucky. Fortunately, it doesn't happen often. There was someone from the area who called a couple of years ago who was pitching a story on the last game at Yankee Stadium. I turned it down ... but then he asks me if I can get him a credential. He seemed shocked when I told him no. He wasn't doing anything for us, he's on his own.

Not to topicswerve too much, but I swear there are fans who think we're all in it for the free food and a chance to peek at the players in the locker rooms. I think I've told this story here before, but a few years back I was covering a Bengals-Raiders game and someone takes the seat next to me with his buddy. Buddy stars clapping and getting excited after every Raiders first down. A couple of writers in the front row look back, and I roll my eyes over toward the cheerers as if to say, "It ain't me!" Next time it happens, Ann Killion (then in San Jose) stands up and says, "HEY, NO CHEERING!" The res of the game was much more quiet.

 

I've gotten the old credential request a lot, too. Most people think we have a "press pass" that gets us into everything.
The most memorable one was the father of Randy Gardner, the figure skater who paired with Tai Babilonia. They were training at a rink in our area.
Dad Gardner came into our office. We were a 40,000 circ. suburban; no way we were staffing the Winter Games in Lake Placid. He asked if he could have our press pass for the Olympics.
I told him my boss is very insistent that only people who are working belong in the working press areas. He offered to write a story for us. I told him we preferred to use professional writers and besides, the IOC probably wouldn't credential us.

 

I would've guessed it was Japanese media.

At a recent media event, a big group is huddled around a superstar NBA player. This Japanese reporter then creeps up behind the player, stares straight ahead and has this cheese-dick grin on his face.

Everyone in the media cluster is wondering what the fuck this kid is doing, then a Japanese girls amongst the cluster with us snap a photo of her friend and the superstar. Ohhh....

He got the boot, too.

 

What's the policy of asking Tebow to cure you of leprosy? Or is that more of a "wait until the rest of the media has left" sort of question?

 

Not a problem. When your nose falls off, folks tend to scatter.

 

I take it Blitz works in Cincinatti.

 

When I was waiting for my timeslot to interview a prominent soccer star, a youngster and a veteran from Spanish-language television had just finished their interview, and had this player sign a stack of things. Jerseys, a ball, pieces of paper, posters, etc.

One of those "Other media don't look at things the way we do" moments.