Turned Down For NFL Combine Cred

Before you do anything else get a copy of Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People book
and read it cover to cover.

 

Thank you all for the replies. I figured I have nothing to lose with what I said and how I said it. This is the only thing I ever ask them for and they can't do it, so why should I care if napalm the bridge that isn't already there?

Regarding what I do at the combine ... depends on the school ... for the 2-3 I work with the most, I do photos, video and short features (prolly 500 words). For the others, I send them a photo and a video link so they can post their own story on it. It turns out to be quite a bit of stuff.

I think my last suggestion makes the most sense. They should move the interview stages to outer concourse south end (which has sat vacant every year I ever went) and open up more work space in that lounge area. They could also assign seats to their favored media outlets.

Oh well, no biggie.

 

Yeah bull in china shop probably not best way to go

 

After reading that line, I am actually kind of shocked they didn't promise to send a limo to pick you up.

 

From here on out, you'd best use the past tense when talking about covering the combine.

 

You should never burn a bridge in this business if you can avoid it. The journalism world is too small. The guy who is a PR intern one day could be the NFL commissioner the next. Granted, that's a pretty extreme case, but when I covered the NFL, I was chasing a trade rumor. It was a minor trade, but the PR guy from the other team, called me back and said, "You should call this guy." It was the player's agent. He had just switched and it wasn't in the directory. Agent confirms the trade. The PR guy gets the player on the phone for me. I got it first. The reason the PR guy helped me? When he was a student intern at the college that I used to cover, I was nice to him.

 

With that letter back to the NFL PR guy, you probably ended up on their version of The Blacklist.
The more constructive thing you could have done is point out or suggest a separate work area for all the official team sites to work from since that takes up about 40-50 percent of the combine media workspace.

 

Yeah, I'm just a smalltime guy. The Super Bowl media day is a fiasco with people in costumes, which I understand they are trying to cross all platforms to get a huge rating. Just don't understand how NFL can turn away anybody who is legit at something like this. Yes, I know they are a private enterprise and they can do anything they want. Me, I will find something else to do those 4 days. They obviously made it this far without my coverage (ha ha).

 

Pro leagues and the NCAA turn people down all the time people "who are legit at something like this". It isn't the first case and it isn't going to be the last.

 

Remember a few years back when Jenna Laine showed up at SJ prior to the combine.

 

I'm not saying it doesn't suck and I'm not saying the setup couldn't be better.

But you cut off your nose to spite your face. If you would have responded with a polite appeal for your credential request, and a "please keep me in mind if anything changes and space becomes available" message, you may have had a chance to get in. It may have been a 2 percent chance, but a chance nonetheless. Once you dictated to them how crappy their setup is and a laundry list of what they could do to make it better, then told them to get it done, that dropped it to a 0 percent chance - and probably for years into the future.

 

Hey Charlie get a load of this guy. Who does he think he is -- Peter King?