Quotes You Never Could Print

I understand the point, but night eds and MEs and EEs have to think about more than just what would be a kickass quote in a sports section.

As much as I'd love to print something like, "[Expletive] him, he's a [expletive] [expletive]," I also know what would happen at my shop if I did that. And for that reason alone, I'd support yanking it.

 

True, but if it was me asking the question, I would have approached it more gently, knowing the coach already was emotional and in a bad mood. My colleague basically came in with guns ablazing and questioned the coach's judgement. I would have asked something to the effect of:

"Coach, could you talk about how you came to the decision of going for the touchdown, rather than the field goal?"

 

In that case, you're right.

Reminds me of a story a guy told me about doing a preview of the NCAA women's lacrosse season. He was interviewing the Duke coach and he was kinda stumbling over himself, apologizing for asking a question about the team basically choking the previous year.

The coach's response was one I've never heard from another coach: "Oh no, it's OK, it's OK, you have to." In other words, she acknowledged that he had to ask the question and willingly answered it.

 

OK. Cool.

 

I want that coach on my beat.

 

One of our guys asked a coach at a rural high school about playing the first game in a new stadium. He jokingly asked if the coach was going to christen it by breaking a bottle of champagne on the stadium wall.

The coach replied "Nah, we don't have many champagne drinkers around here. We might break a glass bong on it though."

 

When one of the football teams we covered clinched a playoff spot for the first time in something like eight years, I asked a player about the feeling of doing something that hadn't been done in a while:

"This is a high, I feel like I'm drunk"

My coworker told me there was no way we could print a 17-year-old kid saying that.

 

High school field hockey coach:
I prefer playing golf to coaching field hockey because my success or failure doesn't depend on the menstrual cycle of a 14-year-old.

 

Wow.

 

That's one that should run, along with his salary and stipend details.
What a crumb.

 

I had a debate with an ME once over the use of the following quote:

Coach was asked if he could see the light at the end of the tunnel after yet another tough loss. Coach replied, "All I see is a train about to run over my ass."

Spineless ME didn't want to use the word "ass" even though it perfectly summed up the moment. I felt it belonged and was not gratuitous. Still young and relatively dumb, I went over ME's head to EE, who okayed it. So I got the quote in the paper, but pissed off a boss.

Was it worth it? I thought so.

 

It wouldn't have been if the ME fired you for insubordination.

Personally, I would have used [rear end].