Taking a spill on the job

Following a prep basketball game I was covering today I took a spill down the bleacher steps. About four steps from the floor, I slipped or just plain lost my balance. I hit every step and then POW! onto the floor. Luckily the team I was covering had just won a championship and was too busy celebrating to notice me. In fact, only one person asked if I was all right.

I think I bruised my hip and arm, but I think I'll survive. Thing is this wasn't even close to be my most embarrassing fall on the job. I once tripped on a sidewalk crack and fell into a big mud puddle as I was going in to cover a basketball game. I looked like an absolute mess of a human, but I finished the job that day. Still one of the most embarrassing, yet most hilarious moments of my career.

Got any stories about falling down on the job? Let's hear 'em.

 

Ditto on the mud puddle thing.
Embarrassing and hilarious at the same time, and only hilarious now.

I once worked with someone who laid down on the mid-level landing of a turnaround staircase until someone happened by to find her. She then tried to sue the company, but I guess the medical tests didn't back up her story.

She left the company soon after to "pursue other interests," as the memo said.

 

When I was an SID, I was walking from the baseball dugout to the stairs that led to the press box on day before a game. Players were warming up, playing catch and I was about 20 feet behind one player. An errant throw came far too close to my head, grazing me on the neck. I just figured the guy's aim would be good enough playing catch that I didn't need to worry.

Scarry. Have also dodged a couple of errant hockey pucks through the years.

 

In college, I covered hockey for a while and would sit about halfway up the stands in the back row of the front section, with a metal pole/rail right behind me. I was either looking to the opposite end from the puck or writing something down when all of the sudden I heard the puck hit the rail about two inches left of my head. I started sitting either higher or lower the next period.

And this year, in December, I was covering a basketball tournament at a high school when one of the coaches (during his game mind you) motioned for me to come down so he could ask me something. I was trying to be all quick and nonchalant about it when (because the mid-steps on the bleachers make the steps different sizes) I mis-stepped. Ended up twisting my ankle and my opposite knee, tumbling down about three rows of bleachers. Thankfully, the coach caught me at the same time I was able to slow down or I would have ended up on the court. Definitely more embarrassment than anything else.

 

There was a 500-pound radio guy in L.A. who fell down the stairs at the Forum.
Everybody rushed to see if the Forum was OK.

 

Working a baseball tourney on a 3rd degree sprained ankle. Crutch caught between planks, 2nd level from top of the bleaches. I went for the tumble of all tumbles while a couple hundred spectators and the visiting dugout did what I would have done from the same vantage point and laughed their asses off.

After brilliantly defending myself with my face, I proceeded to join them. But only after I was out of sight and in my car.

 

I was going to say I've never suffered injury on the job, but as I typed that, I do remember an instance of running across the football field and rolling an ankle. I think that's about it, though I've had my fair share of mud-on-the-pants incidents.

 

I had just had knee surgery a week and a half before and was hobbling around with a knee immobilizer and crutches. I'm at a race track, walking down a flight of stairs and lose my balance (I still wasn't used to going down stairs yet). I yelled an expletive and fell — right into my coworkers arms. If he hadn't been there, things wouldn't have been pretty for my surgically repaired knee.

 

Had to jump over a couple rows of chairs to get a quick interview right after a state championship basketball game.

Made it over the chairs ... but the wet spot on the cement floor allowed my knee to slip a bit. Knees already hurt. Pretty sure I twisted it, but nothing severe.

 

I didn't fall, but my car hit a patch of black ice on a highway and spun out of control as I was going to attend a high school basketball game and my car ran into a car driven by the brother of Perry Range -- the star whose game I was going to cover.

 

Was headed to the local high school to do a story on a kid who had committed to play college football. I was walking up to the field house and the coach, position coach and kid were standing outside waiting on me. I waved to them, then hit a crack on the sidewalk and fell flat on my face. Wasn't injured, thank goodness, but a hell of a way to start an interview.

 

I was headed to shoot the big D1 basketball team we (used) to cover semi-regularly. I was shooting photos of the game. It was my first D1 ball game in a couple years since I was in college. I was holding my head high, thinking about how much I missed D1 basketball.
It was about 5-10 mins before the game started. I'm walking to the baseline behind press row the stands are pretty much full. And, instead of looking down and seeing there is small step up to the stands from where the court is, I'm looking around "soaking" in the atmosphere. Bad move, I trip. The only thing going through my mind is "don't fall on the camera!" so I twist my body to land on my shoulder. I hit pretty hard, but was fine.
I felt like the whole arena saw it, a couple people in the front row jump up to see if I'm ok. I was, unless embarrassment is an injury... there I was DYING!!