What a nice start to our day on Thursday. The Sportsnet mean street posse hopped in the Cadillac SRX listening to Eddie Murphy’s “My Girl Likes to Party All the Time” as we made our way to IHOP for breakfast.
After filling our belly with some of Florida’s finest pancakes, we were off to the InterContinental hotel to do some interviews with the Saints. The Saints team hotel is situated right on the water in the heart of downtown Miami. With the best weather of the week in South Florida, the scene as we rolled up to valet park the Caddie was right out of the movies.
Reggie Bush might date a starlet and he might be a star player in the NFL but he’s really quite pleasant to talk to. I also interviewed linebacker Jonathan Vilma. You want to talk about good people. Polite, engaging and insightful; Vilma was a pleasure to deal with. After finishing our work, we stepped outside to shoot some interviews. All of a sudden we witnessed another massive police motorcade escorting the Saints team buses as they made their way to their practice fields at the University of Miami. When the NFL does something, they don’t fool around.
We made our way down to South Beach to feed some of our work back to the network studios. While we waited, we stopped at Starbucks in the heart of South Beach and did some people-watching. I am beginning to think every wannabe female and male model in America is living in South Beach and trying to get noticed. Later on I was sitting on the NFL Network set, waiting to tape an interview with Jamie Dukes. All of a sudden a woman was taking a picture of her husband with the set in the background when he spots me and starts yelling towards me, “Hey, that’s Steve Young.” Not knowing what else to do I waved at the guy and made his day.
We climbed back in the Cadillac and I was assaulted by MC Hammer’s “You Can’t Touch This” on the stereo. Cory, our ace cameraman, is in charge of the music and his iPod is jammed full of some of the cheesiest 80s music you’ve ever heard. I grew up in the eighties and thought the whole thing was a good idea at the time. However, looking back I realized that there was some really bad music from that era. The Flock of Seagulls? Are you freaking kidding me? I can’t help the fact that I’m a rocker at heart with a mullet, tight jeans and a Faster Pussycat T-shirt.
After a nice dinner at the Outback Steakhouse, we headed back to the hotel to finish of a feature story we put together on Reggie Wayne. The veteran Colts receiver is everything that Terrell Owens and Chad Ochocinco isn’t, no ego and all about performance.
Friday is the NFL’s annual state of the league address. With the league’s CBA on the verge of total collapse, Roger Goodell has a lot of explaining to do. I am looking forward to interviewing Vikings receiver Bernard Berrian Friday to break down the latest news in the CBA and get his thoughts on who he thinks will win the Super Bowl.
I am also looking forward to going to the Flames and Panthers game Friday night at the BankAtlantic Center.
