Taking advantage with press credentials

The Super Bowl he's talking about in the clip is several years after the one I saw him at, fwiw. Maybe they finally told him to do a piece "to make it legitimate," as he says? Or maybe he did one like this each time.

I'm not saying it was a huge deal, by the way, more of a fwiw thing.

 

There is when the GM calls the HC "a stupid fuck" while sitting three feet behind his beat writers.

 

I admit that while I was working at a small weekly early on, I got press passes to a couple games for the local pro hockey team and a bowl game that was played in town. I received an email asking if I'd like to come cover the event and I replied in the affirmative. There was no angle for me to cover either of these events (I was all about preps at the time) but I went anyway because I wanted to go.

I wrote no story but still brought my notepad and laptop to maintain appearances. I didn't cheer. I didn't take anyone's seat. I didn't get in the way or even go do post-game interviews. I don't see how my presence at all impeded any one actually covering the games.

I probably wouldn't do it now, but I still don't regret taking advantage of my media membership when I did. It was a nice perk for a kid that was struggling to make ends meet.

 

So you turn and ask, "Can I quote you on that?"

 

It was funny because he just kind of muttered it under his breath and two of us turned around and his eyes got really wide and there was a non-verbal conversation that loosely translated probably went...

"You can't write that I said that. You're not going to write that?"

"No, we're not going to write that."

"You better not write that. You're really not going to write that?"

"Don't worry... We're not going to write anything..."

This was the GM's first season and it paid dividends later. On separate occasions he told me and the other writer who worked at a different paper, "I know I can trust you..."

Honestly, it never occurred to me to write it. He muttered something under his breath and we just happened to be sitting within earshot. I don't think it would be any different than if my SE called and I said, "What does that asshole want now?"

It was pretty funny though...