What to do -- if anything

I agree with expendable, spnited and write-brained. But does that thinking change if you find out the player has been suspended for missing curfew or something to that effect? Since I doubt any SID or coach would say what the player was doing when he missed curfew, would you write something saying he was seen at a bar that night from you own observations? Or do you just leave it at saying he missed curfew?

 

Here's my advice in this situation: Note it and then leave it alone. If you start hearing independently that the guy has a problem breaking curfew or getting drunk then you have something to build on ... but you still have a ways to go before you have a story.

 

Sidebar: I never agree with Write-brained.

 

See, I disagree with you there.

 

Well, I think we can disagree to disagree.
Now, I'm going to nick a vein and go talk religion with Tom Petty.

 

Do what spnited said.

 

That might be the first intelligent post Mike has made in a month

 

I think I had at least one more buried in there somewhere. But I'm not going to look for it.

 

I've always had the philosophy thatthe bar is like Vegas: What's said there, stays there.
I used to see more drunk coaches than an NABC convention at the bar I went to. And it stayed there. Took me a while to get them to trust me, but they did and I wound up getting some good stories because of the trust.He might consider that he owes you one from this...

 

now WTF did i do to deserve that?

sitting here, minding my own damn business and wham, sucker punched by the fishman.
dammit.

 

There's nothing here. You were out and admit you were drunk. He was out and might have been drunk. Two guys, living their lives.
Should Point Guard and/or any other reader call your editor? Did your time at the bar negatively affect your work the next day?
If he's busted for DWI anytime soon, you won't be shocked.
If you're busted for DWI anytime soon, he won't be shocked.
In the meantime, I don't see this any differently than running into an athlete you cover in the co-op or at a local breakfast joint.

 

I ran into players I covered all the time several years ago when I first started at the beat (at a very young age).

I'd say hi to some and move on. I'd chat with others for a while and be on their way.

Some of those same guys, down the road, helped me on stories. A few helped me on scoops after they were done playing.

Think any of them would've helped me one bit if I would've wrote "Johnny Dipshit shot just 1-12 from the field, one night after a Podunk Press reporter spotted him at the bar."

A couple of guys, paranoid, said "you're not going to print this are you?" when they come say hi to me. My response is always the same "Just stay out of the police reports and I don't care what you do on your own time."