It sounds a little like how Bruce Arians must have felt when the Arizona Cardinals hired him as his first full-time NFL head coach at age 60.
Like Arians, who served as interim head coach of the Indianapolis Colts while Chuck Pagano was undergoing treatment for leukemia, I served at one of the highest levels of the newspaper industry several years ago when I was named a sports columnist for The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com.
That lasted about a year and a half, I think, until they said to me, “Mac, we’d like you to come back and cover the Cardinals.” At the time, several sportswriters had left and others had changed positions, so I happily stepped back into my role as the assigning reporter covering Arizona’s NFL franchise, a job I’d done on and off (mostly) since the Cardinals arrived here in 1988.
And as the Cardinals head off for another training camp this week at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, I’ll be there again when the doors open to reporters on Wednesday morning. But things will be a little different once they get going.
Like Arians, who finally culminated in being named an NFL head coach in 2013, I once again have the honor of being a sports columnist for azcentral and The Republic. And yes, I am 60 years old. I hope that doesn’t scare you.
Not at all. This job is my life. And believe me, it keeps me young!
I’ve been covering sports in this city for 50 years, since I started working at The Republic during my senior year at Cortez High School in north Phoenix in 1981. In all that time, as I always tell friends and new acquaintances, I’ve never “worked” a day in my life. If you love what you do, like I do, it’s never a “job.”
This truly has been a dream job. I have worked my way up from “copy boy” to “junior reporter” and have covered high school sports, college sports, Olympic sports and of course professional sports. I have spent most of my career in professional sports and have been the reporter for the Cardinals, Diamondbacks and Coyotes (yes, I miss them). I have covered All-Star Games, professional drafts, the Super Bowl, the World Series, the NBA Finals and countless playoff games.
Would my role as a sports columnist make a difference? Probably, but I have no intention of donning the “black hat” and attacking sports teams, athletes, coaches, or anyone else for the sake of “clicks” or to create a stir.
That’s not me. That never was. But I have to admit that I’ve incurred a fair amount of backlash in this town.
For example, in 1993, as a reporter covering the Cardinals, a story I once wrote about then-head coach Joe Bugel enraged him so much that he tried to choke me in a hallway at the team’s Tempe training facility. A TV crew was on the scene, but they had their cameras pointed at the ground and didn’t capture the interaction. This was before TMZ, folks.
Keith Tkachuk of the Coyotes yelled vulgarities at me multiple times in an open locker room when I wrote about his controversial contract demands. Around the same time, I loved working with Jeremy Roenick, but received death threats against me while on the road covering a hockey team because of something I wrote (which he openly shared with me).
Not everyone will like what you write, even if it’s true.
When I covered the Diamondbacks, Randy Johnson berated me for detailing the terrible condition of one of his aging knees. Luis Gonzalez rebuked me for pointing out that his arm had become so weak that he needed a caddie for his cutoff throws to left field. Even the affable Craig Counsell berated me, at least privately, when I questioned whether the Diamondbacks should have re-signed him after the 2006 season.
Well, those things happen. I’ve had a lot more of those turmoils in my career. But it’s true that time heals all wounds. Working relationships with the people you cover are usually repaired pretty quickly, if you’re a professional. And there’s always the next game, the next optimistic season, the chance to document what’s really going on with the sports team and the people you support.
But what this sports market needs isn’t more cheerleaders. It has enough of them, from the plethora of fan-based podcasts popping up here and there to flagship local radio stations whose hosts aren’t always used to telling the truth.
Especially when it’s necessary, even if it hurts.
In my new, smaller role, I also want to be an empathetic and enlightening storyteller. Although the Phoenix area is filled with fans from other cities around the country, I must recognize that I cannot ignore the challenge of elevating daily interest in Arizona sports to new heights.
Together we can make it happen, and with your feedback and insights, we’ll have some fun along the way.
This job has allowed me to travel to places, meet people, and cover events I never dreamed of as a poor kid growing up in a small town north of Chicago, walking a mile to school in the snow with cardboard from a cereal box lining my worn-out shoes, then returning home for lunch.
And, yes, like Ralph’s character in the movie “A Christmas Story,” he had to deal with bullies.
But even if I could, I wouldn’t change a thing. I’ve worked my way up from the bottom in this job, so the fun has been plentiful and the unexpected cool stuff.
For example, I happened to have lunch with actor Ernest Borgnine and former Beatles legend George Harrison at an IndyCar event at Phoenix International Raceway. It was just the two of us. George asked me to “pass the pepper.” I knew I’d passed the audition.
One of my glorious moments was the night before the 1992 MLB All-Star Game in San Diego, after I wrote an article about the Home Run Derby, having a beer with four of baseball’s living legends at the time: Ted Williams, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, and Ernie Banks. Again, it was just the two of us, with a bartender. I didn’t say anything, I just listened. But they bought me a beer.
And I’ll never forget when Joe Garagiola Jr. jokingly told me that he named the Diamondbacks’ stadium, Banc One Ballpark (aka “The BOB”), after me because I convinced Jerry Colangelo that he needed to start a fight to bring major league baseball to the Valley in the summer of 1993. Colangelo started the fight, and just two years later I had the pleasure of being there in Palm Beach, Florida when Phoenix officially won the franchise.
There have been special moments like this and many more, too many to mention here, but I hope and believe there are many more special moments for all of us to come. Consider what happened with Bruce Arians. After getting his foothold with the Cardinals, he went on to win a Super Bowl as head coach of the Buccaneers.
Our professional sports trophy cases resemble Charlie Brown’s Christmas trees: dreary little sticks with tiny branches hanging off them and a single ornament.
If you support me, I’ll write, and we’ll see if we can win another title or two together.