In honor of this year’s Orange Bowl, here are the highlights of my time working for ABC Sports covering Iowa Hawkeye Football:
* Eating cold pizza in the break room with Lynn Swan.
* Holding the parab mike on the sidelines, standing next to Big Ten linemen and realizing just how short I really am.
* Having my head almost taken off by our kicker’s practice kick into the net. The ball bounces back like a shotgun.
* Having my legs almost taken off by our running back. Keep it in bounds man!
* Listening to Keith Jackson grumble how awful Iowa was during commercial break.
* Getting yelled at by a foreman for trying to help with a carpenter’s job. Unions suck.
* Getting encouraged to eat bagels in the break room so we would all get $25/hr overtime. Unions rule!
* Meeting Bob Griese and having no clue who he was. Went undefeated, really?
* Meeting Joey, technical director of Monday Night Football and head of the Mafia (except for the Mafia part)
* Trying to identify the object the student section just threw in front of me. Not every day you see a skinned severed pig’s head.
* Spending a beautiful sunny birthday on the thirty yard line, and getting paid lots of money to do it.
Good times. Go Hawks!