There are days when I wouldn't wish my job on anybody. Getting a bucket of ice water dumped on your head, for example. Or interviewing naked linemen in a losers' locker room. Not fun. Trust me.But there are some days when this job is a delight. And there are days when, no matter how delicately I craft my words, I still can't fully convey the experience.
MIAMI-- I was awakened Super Bowl morning by a phone call from a radio program that wanted to know if I was shocked.No. The only thing that shocks me is that a radio program, a TV network, a newspaper reporter or anyone in this tangential business of covering sports thinks they really know what "kind of guy" a player is.
In defense of my friend and colleague Curt Sylvester -- who I understand is actually picking the Falcons (heh-heh) to win this Super Bowl -- now hear this: That was not Curt on South Beach Thursday night, with his shirt unbuttoned to his navel, gold chains around his neck, a red rose in his thinning gray hair, doing the lambada and yelling at the bouncer, "LET ME IN! I KNOW DENNIS RODMAN! I REALLY DO!"It just looked like Curt.
MIAMI-- "When he arrived here, we're all like, 'We traded for him? He's going to be our quarterback?' " -- Jamal Anderson, Falcons running backFootball will forgive you many things. Fragility is not one of them.You can have a big mouth. You can oversleep. You can have a police record. But if you break too easily, they start looking elsewhere.
MIAMI-- Few reporters talk to offensive linemen. They are big, thick-necked creatures who toil anonymously in the mud and muck, so that a flashy, famous running back can zip through the holes they open and score touchdowns.Running backs, we want to talk to. Quarterbacks, we want to talk to. Receivers, we want to talk to.Offensive linemen? It's like interviewing Madonna's limo driver.The only thing you might ask a lineman is, "Pardon me, did you see the running back?"
Mitch Albom writes about running an orphanage in impoverished Port-au-Prince, Haiti, his kids, their hardships, laughs and challenges, and the life lessons he’s learned there every day.
