The presents are unwrapped, the relatives are visited, and my high school friends have paid me their once-a-year visit.
Now I'm bored.
For a while, there wasn't any snow, so I was able to fill my spare time running. That was good for about two hours out of the day. Now, however, the snow has reclaimed the frozen hell that is Western New York.
While sitting at home this weekend, my curiosity got the best of me. I sat infront of the TV, watching bowl games and playoff football, all the while devouring sports content online. By Sunday night I was officially caught up on Plaschke and Simers columns, and dare I say it -- I was sick of sports.
Monday, curious, I sent an e-mail to Steven Bell at the Buffalo News. I wanted to see if I could send them some more of my clips to accompany my summer internship application. I expected a swift answer, and certainly got one.
Bell told me that they had already done interviews and he was offering jobs. He closed his e-mail with that famous, "better luck next year" line. I've gotten twice from him, like he's doing me some deal if he hires me senior year.
Thinking of ways I wish I could tell Steven Bell to go screw himself, I sat and realized my journalism prospects looked bleak. If I couldn't beat out 100 other kids for an internship at WNY's news source, I'm not sure how I can do it anywhere else. I'm pretty sure there weren't 100 kids at the LA Times convention, let a lone 20 that were applying to the Buffalo News. I'm pretty sure no one else from Cornell did.
So who beat me? What was so great about them? Was it their gender? Was it their skin color? Was it who their father knew? Was it what school they went to? Honestly, who's going to turn out a better product than Cornell?
I then lamented the fact that I'd "have to" go to law school, and probably give up on sports writing. It was too bad, I had just figured out football and the difference between the counter and the slam...
Then I got over it. I found a new distraction.
While online, I somehow found an Ivy sports forum. It's a goldmine, and one of the biggest topics was about Cornell's next coach. Speculation and names flew, but one stood out. It wasn't of a coach, but rather of one of the posters. He called himself Jack, and claimed he was class of 1972. He also seemed to talk a good game.
I followed up, asked Jack to e-mail me, and waited. I then started calling some of the names on the posting, for additional information.
Along the way, I called the Raiders PR office, e-mailed Sac Bee staff writers, head coaching candidates, and our own lovely sports info staff. None of them were as helpful as I'd have liked, but I did get a call back from the Raiders.
"Hello?" I said.
"Mr. [Redacted], Mr. Davis has you down for an interview at noon tomorrow."
"Great, what about Mr. Trestman?"
"Well, as head coach you're free to hire anyone you'd like, even those dismissed by the Raiders..."
"Head coach," I cut the PR person off, "I just want an interview with Trestman regarding the Head Coaching Position at Cornell..."
"Oh," they responded. "Mr. Trestman isn't picking that candidate, you better call Cornell's AD. He's the guy who makes that call..."
And then they hung up. But it was okay, I spoke with Trestman's wife a little while later. We talked about the kids, Gov. Schwarzzenager, and whether or not Jerry Rice is losing his hair.
The result: it is now confirmed by the Cornell Daily Sun that Oakland Raiders Offensive Coordinator Marc Trestman interviewed for Cornell's head coaching position. I'm going to be getting in touch with him tomorrow, and hopefully will be able to get a few more names from him. The other assistant editor is going to try to squeeze some info out of J. Andy Noel, the athletic director.
In the meantime, Jack turned out to be a bust source. There is no Jack Reynolds, class of 1972 from Cornell. He also didn't have anything useful to tell me. Oh, and I've somehow become some sort of reputable news source at Cornell. I put up a joking away message about how the Raiders called me all confused and some kid took it as fact. He then blabbed the whole thing on a message board, citing me as a reputable source.
It's kind of flattering, but a bit annoying. I like to showcase my fictional and humorous accounts on my im window. It's a bit disturbing to think someone would take them as true, and worse than that post them on the internet. Then again, it's something that needs to be tested...
Hopefully this all turns out well for me. Then maybe next year I can turn down Steven Bell and the Buffalo News, instead of things happening the other way around.
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