Is covering a Super Bowl hazardous to your health or what?

Michael Wilbon: angioplasty

Len Pasquarelli: quintuple bypass surgery

Peter King: hospitalized with bronchitis

Bill Simmons: had a major case of being Bill Simmons. Proctologists rushed in from Boston

Am I missing anyone?

 

It'll be hilarious to watch Simmons undergo a public colonoscopy over the next few days.

 

after last year's supe, mike vaccaro had a heart-related procedure. and alan greenberg died of a fatal heart attack last spring, too, right?

not a healthy lifestyle. and, except for vac, the others are in the dangerous 50-something range.

 

little noses and tiny little teeth
platform shoes On nasty little feet

 

I think Shockey has the real cause for the epidemic -- we old.

 

i've covered a bunch but only one as a beat writer

it is the hardest thing i've done in this biz

the copy load you're churning out is staggering -- more daily stuff than usual, tab stuff, etc. -- and on top of that it's a logistical nightmare just getting around town. you're not sleeping, you're eating out every day for a week, you're going from 7 a.m. until 2 a.m. every day if you're doing your job right. and the pressure to come up with something different when there's a thousand media looking over your shoulder is extreme.

and this is all after six straight months of working your ass off, from the first day of training camp through a few rounds of playoffs.

if you're out of shape, drink, smoke, whatever - yeah, it can be dangerous.

take care of yourself, people

life > work

 

Did my first Super Bowl last year, and you're right, the workload is an eye-opener. I was working for my chain, and yes, I was cranking from morning until after midnight riding those God damn Miami shuttle buses back to a hotel with no free wireless.

The bitch of it is it starts right away ... you hit the ground sprinting. You have to maximize every damn stupid spoon-fed presser too, because that's all you get.

For me, the only day that remotely resembled down time was the Saturday before the Super Bowl, and that's only because most tab/preview stuff is already done.

Still I enjoyed it. But I'd enjoy it much less if I did it annually.

 

The unfortunate part is, if you don't live your work in this biz...they'll find someone else who will.

 

A question for those who have covered a Super Bowl: Could you technically mail it in for the week? Aside from the dehumanizing cattle prod that is Media Day, could you just sit in a media room or wherever, waiting for transcripts of press conferences, and just write whatever is spoonfed to you without lifting a finger in effort?

I imagine the NFL would love that, of course. I also imagine that 98 pct of the people there have too much pride to do anything other than work like hell to find something decent out of the most chronicled event on the planet.

Just curious if someone could cover the Super Bowl on autopilot.

 

Unfortunately, I bet it wouldn't be that difficult ... if you had absolutely no pride in your work.

 

BYH -- you could do that, but ... most papers that are spending the money to send somebody to the Super Bowl are looking for something better than the wire copy, especially with the current fiscal realities. You'd be making a real case for them not to send you back.
The way I always look at it, I'm justifying my being there, through having an interesting angle, a local hook, something. We all use a few of the canned quotes here and there, but obviously, on the quote sheets, nobody's responding to YOUR questions, etc.

 

I've done a half dozen or so Super Bowls, a few more NCAA Final Fours, MLB, NHL, etc., but went in for a quad bypass when I had trouble walking from the press box to my car at a prep game in Northern California.
Go figure.