Press box horror stories

You mean Ted DiBiase's valet?

 

Got big-timed once by a columnist at the largest daily in my state at the state prep football championships.

My game was over, so I headed down to the field/locker rooms to get my quotes. Made my way back up to the press box, and my stuff--laptop, pens, pads--had been moved TWO rows behind my seat (which had been assigned, by the way).

Sitting in my seat was big-time columnist, who I was a huge fan of during my college years (since I went to school in a town near the city he wrote for). One of his local teams was in the next game, and since it was a weekend of exams for the college beat he would normally be covering, he made the trip up to chronicle the game.

I kindly asked him what happened to the stuff that was there, and he just looked at me and said "I didn't think anyone was sitting here." I guess my stuff being there wasn't obvious that I was coming back.

Plus, my name was on the desk in front of the chair. He then told me that "I could finish doing what I needed to do up there" and nodded up towards where he, I assume, had put my stuff. He then told me "this is where I always sit when I come here" with a "Don't you know who i am?" look.

Host college SID, who was there assisting with media logistics, piped up around this time and apologized to me. Said he's seen this guy pull that before, and he had no idea why.
I told SID it wasn't a big deal, just kind of rude of big-time columnist to do that, especially after I had left my stuff in that exact spot.

I guess he was just pissed that he was covering a prep football game, and not his standard NFL or college hoops game at that time of the year.

As I mozied up to my new work space to write my story, I noticed big-time columnist's assigned seat was a mere four places down from where he was now sitting.

Jerk.

 

Moving someone's stuff from their assigned seat is a press box felony, I think. Totally uncool.

 

Just relieved not to see my name mentioned .... yet .....

 

Reminds me of the time I covered state prep wrestling championships. When I got back to the arena from dinner for the Saturday evening finals, me and several of my colleagues from around the state found our laptops, brief cases, etc. all piled up in a corner with our mat-side press table being occupied by several MVPs from the local community. When we tracked down the AD of the host high school to complain, he just shrugged and said the superintendent ordered the table cleared.

 

Several years ago I had to shoot and write about a high school football game. At halftime I went to the press box to get copies of the rosters. Naturally, they didn't have any. That is a huge pet peeve of mine. The PA had one and, conveniently, the writer from the big paper had one. I asked him if could borrow his copy for a couple of minutes to write down the names. He said no!

Then the dude leaves the press box to go the bathroom. His rosters found their way into my camera bag. I told everyone that if he wanted his rosters back he could come down to the sideline and get them. He didn't.

 

There should be a companion thread on foofs who scam a credential, get in the way, look at people's computer screens and have nothing better to do than eavesdrop and keep a count on the number of hot dogs consumed.

 

This is one of the responses:

<i> Bonnie Bernstein. Grade A c*nt.</i>

Then later,

<i>Know a guy who used to fuck Bonnie Bernstein. Heard similar stories.</i>

Classy place, Deadspin.

 

Feel free to start one.

 

This one might be my favorite:

 

Agreed. You don't touch anybody's laptop, etc., especially if it's not your seat.

 

Can also vouch — albeit second-hand — for Mark May being a dick. A colleague on my old college beat got a hold of his cell phone number for some story he was working on (probably a BCS breakdown type thing). When he called May, the first thing out of May's mouth was "how the fuck did you get this number?"