Living in Los Angeles has its benefits.
Every year, 30+ of the top rookies fly into LA to take photos with their new uniforms to put on football cards. The past few years, I've been able to get some of the top rookies autographs in person.
Some of the names I've been able to meet/get autos of are: Mark Sanchez, Chris Wells, LeSean McCoy, Ryan Mathews, N. Su, Eric Berry, CJ Spiller, D Thomas, Jimmy Clausen, Eric Decker, Dexter McCluster, among others...
In past years, there have been appearances held at local card shops around the LA area, but for some reason they stopped.
This year, a friend of mine emailed me early in the morning last week letting me know that the rookies were coming into town that day and he included a list of the rookies that would be present.
I took a look at Blowout and found out there would be a signing at a local Best Buy featuring 10+ rookies from the draft. They only included 4 names: Jake Locker, Blaine Gabbert, Von Miller and AJ Green.
I really wanted to get AJ Green and Jake Locker's autos, so I definitely had to find a way to go to this signing (despite working during the day). As it turns out, the hotel where the players were staying is next to where I work, so I decided to go to the hotel after work with a football I had signed by players the previous two years. I wanted to add the new rookies autos onto the empty spaces on my football. Here's who I was able to get:
-Torrey Smith
-Blaine Gabbert
-Alex Green
-Julio Jones
-Ryan Mallett
-Von Miller
-Christian Ponder
-Titus Young
I could have gotten Shane Vereen, Austin Pettis and Marcell Dareus to sign the ball, but I was running out of space so I left.
Didn't see any others.
Then came the Best Buy signing. Panini wasn't allowing anybody to get any personal items signed (even though there was maybe 30-50 people in line, tops)... But the players at the event were:
-AJ Green
-Jake Locker
-Blaine Gabbert
-Von Miller
-Colin Kapernick
-Ryan Williams
-Shane Vereen
-DeMarco Murray
-Vincent Brown
-Jordan Todman
-Kendell Hunter
Panini gave out 5x7 photo cards to get signed by each player.
Jake Locker was doing an interview for Jim Rome while it was my turn to get autographs, so I wasn't able to get his. I asked if I could wait for him to come back, but the Panini rep said I could just get back in line and get everyone's autographs again.
So I saw Locker returned and I got his auto plus another set of autos.
I have to say, the nicest guys I met were:
Ryan Mallett, Von Miller, TITUS YOUNG (by far the nicest), Christian Ponder, Blaine Gabbert, Colin Kapernick and Ryan Williams.
Random notes:
DeMarco Murray looks like a BEAST in person. He has HUGE hands and a STRONG handshake. I was impressed. He'll be a favorite player of mine for the Cowboys.
Also, Ryan Williams has a good memory. The first time I got autos at Best Buy, I had all the players personalize them to me (Jake). The second time I got back in line (maybe ten minutes after), I got to Ryan Williams and he asked "Do you want this made out to Jake again?" I was shocked! I had no name-tag on or anything. I'm one of those guys who meets you and forgets your name one minute later. Ryan should have no problem memorizing the Cardinals playbook.
Monday, May 30, 2011
Thursday, February 3, 2011
First Blog: De'Anthony Thomas & The Rivalry
I've been a fan of USC athletics since I was in diapers. My dad is a USC alum, and his dad took him to games when he was a kid. My dad and I bonded throughout the years by going to USC basketball & football games.
Crenshaw high school football star De'Anthony Thomas was set to make his college decision last night at Crenshaw high. He was choosing between USC and Oregon. He had been expected to go to USC all year, but took a surprise visit to Oregon and apparently came away very impressed. Now, don't get me wrong; while I love USC, my second favorite college sports school is the University of Oregon. My mom lives in Oregon and I've had great respect for their program since I visited the campus in 2005. So, if Thomas decided to choose Oregon, I wasn't going to be too upset.
I live 20 minutes away from Crenshaw, so out of boredom, I decided to drive out there to see the decision. I brought a magazine to hopefully get autographed by De'Anthony after he made his decision. I may technically be an adult now, but I still enjoy collecting autographs. Anyway, I got to Crenshaw at about 5:45 and the announcement was to be made at 6pm. I parked inside a school parking lot and asked a group of high school students where to find the MPR room (where the announcement was to be held). A nice young lady showed me where to go, and immediately I spotted a few news vehicles.
I go inside the MPR room and notice I am the only white guy in there. I felt kind of strange, especially since I was there by myself, so I decided to log onto twitter and act as if I'm texting people or doing 'business work'. Six o'clock goes by and there is no sign of De'Anthony Thomas. It was then that I received a call from my dad telling me to "come home!" because he just scored front row tickets to the USC vs. UCLA game at Pauley Pavilion. The game started at 8pm, so I told him I would leave Crenshaw no later than 7pm.
It's already 6:30 and there's still no sign of the man everybody wants to hear from. My mom called me and we start talking outside. I saw Crenshaw's football coach talking to people right next to me, proclaiming he has "no idea where De'Anthony is gonna go". I speak to a woman who looks like she works for the school, and she tells me the announcement will probably be around 7pm. I tell her I have a basketball game to go to in Westwood and she said I should be able to get there on time.
Around 6:50, I see lots of people walk into the MPR room, so I decide to follow them. De'Anthony is on stage decked out in Oregon gear. Shortly after that, he announces he's going to Oregon. Most of the people in the audience cheered, but I can tell they would have loved if he had stayed home to play for USC. De'Anthony speaks for a minute or two and you can tell he is emotional, as tears drip down his eyes and face. After he gets off the podium, his fellow teammates go and hug him before De'Anthony comes to speak with some media looking to ask questions. I decided to join this little circle of 'reporters'. De'Anthony sits down on the stage and I ask him if he can "sign his first autograph as an Oregon Duck". He signed my magazine and answered questions asked by a woman that looked like a reporter. I took out my cell phone and recorded some of this conversation. You can watch the video here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fm3ZiWsnXZc
I even decided to ask a silly little question of my own at the end of the video.
At that time, it was 7:05 and I called my dad to let him know I was on my way home to pick him up and head to Westwood for the USC vs. UCLA game. We got to the game five minutes before tipoff. I wasn't wearing my USC gear, as I didn't expect to go to the game before I left the house. This ended up being a good thing, as UCLA's crowd is full of hecklers who HATE USC and won't let you walk out of the building without you feeling like crap if USC happens to lose in the Bruins building. Well, it was a great first half. USC was down one point at halftime and even took the lead to begin the second half. Then, they couldn't hit a bucket. They scored 15 points in the second half, after scoring 35 in the first half. You won't win games like that.
All in all, it was a typical day in LA for me. It started off with no plans, but I ended up having a fun day doing stuff you really can't do anywhere outside of Los Angeles.
I hope you enjoyed reading this - I'll be sure to update it with more stories as they happen.
Crenshaw high school football star De'Anthony Thomas was set to make his college decision last night at Crenshaw high. He was choosing between USC and Oregon. He had been expected to go to USC all year, but took a surprise visit to Oregon and apparently came away very impressed. Now, don't get me wrong; while I love USC, my second favorite college sports school is the University of Oregon. My mom lives in Oregon and I've had great respect for their program since I visited the campus in 2005. So, if Thomas decided to choose Oregon, I wasn't going to be too upset.
I live 20 minutes away from Crenshaw, so out of boredom, I decided to drive out there to see the decision. I brought a magazine to hopefully get autographed by De'Anthony after he made his decision. I may technically be an adult now, but I still enjoy collecting autographs. Anyway, I got to Crenshaw at about 5:45 and the announcement was to be made at 6pm. I parked inside a school parking lot and asked a group of high school students where to find the MPR room (where the announcement was to be held). A nice young lady showed me where to go, and immediately I spotted a few news vehicles.
I go inside the MPR room and notice I am the only white guy in there. I felt kind of strange, especially since I was there by myself, so I decided to log onto twitter and act as if I'm texting people or doing 'business work'. Six o'clock goes by and there is no sign of De'Anthony Thomas. It was then that I received a call from my dad telling me to "come home!" because he just scored front row tickets to the USC vs. UCLA game at Pauley Pavilion. The game started at 8pm, so I told him I would leave Crenshaw no later than 7pm.
It's already 6:30 and there's still no sign of the man everybody wants to hear from. My mom called me and we start talking outside. I saw Crenshaw's football coach talking to people right next to me, proclaiming he has "no idea where De'Anthony is gonna go". I speak to a woman who looks like she works for the school, and she tells me the announcement will probably be around 7pm. I tell her I have a basketball game to go to in Westwood and she said I should be able to get there on time.
Around 6:50, I see lots of people walk into the MPR room, so I decide to follow them. De'Anthony is on stage decked out in Oregon gear. Shortly after that, he announces he's going to Oregon. Most of the people in the audience cheered, but I can tell they would have loved if he had stayed home to play for USC. De'Anthony speaks for a minute or two and you can tell he is emotional, as tears drip down his eyes and face. After he gets off the podium, his fellow teammates go and hug him before De'Anthony comes to speak with some media looking to ask questions. I decided to join this little circle of 'reporters'. De'Anthony sits down on the stage and I ask him if he can "sign his first autograph as an Oregon Duck". He signed my magazine and answered questions asked by a woman that looked like a reporter. I took out my cell phone and recorded some of this conversation. You can watch the video here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fm3ZiWsnXZc
I even decided to ask a silly little question of my own at the end of the video.
At that time, it was 7:05 and I called my dad to let him know I was on my way home to pick him up and head to Westwood for the USC vs. UCLA game. We got to the game five minutes before tipoff. I wasn't wearing my USC gear, as I didn't expect to go to the game before I left the house. This ended up being a good thing, as UCLA's crowd is full of hecklers who HATE USC and won't let you walk out of the building without you feeling like crap if USC happens to lose in the Bruins building. Well, it was a great first half. USC was down one point at halftime and even took the lead to begin the second half. Then, they couldn't hit a bucket. They scored 15 points in the second half, after scoring 35 in the first half. You won't win games like that.
All in all, it was a typical day in LA for me. It started off with no plans, but I ended up having a fun day doing stuff you really can't do anywhere outside of Los Angeles.
I hope you enjoyed reading this - I'll be sure to update it with more stories as they happen.
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