I'm in the airport the other day and there he was the one and only Rick Reilly. When I was a KID I wanted to be Rod Carew, Chuck Foreman, Neal Broten or John McEnroe....somedays I wanted to be Tom Chorske but thats a whole 'nother story.
When I was an ADULT (I still am by the way), I wanted to be Rick Reilly (see bio: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/writers/rick_reilly/archive/index.html). Rick Reilly is funny (still working on that part), a great writer (still working on that part), and highly respected.
Anyway, back to the airport. So I'm not the kind of person who approaches public figures (see Glen Mason Story below). The urge to meet the guy overcame me like a man from Pittsburgh who goes home every weekend to watch the Pitt Panthers play Big East Football...it was ugly. So for like 20 minutes I rehearsed (yeah like it was a huge sales call or something) what to say and go up and talk to him. Being respectful of his time I talked to him for about 10 minutes. As I figured, we had a lot in common and we hit it off. In fact, he asked me for my business card. My brush with fame has just been elevated from playing golf with Wayne Severud every year to meeting Rick Reilly.
Glen Mason: I sat right next to Glen Mason two weeks ago and pretended I didn't know who he was....talked the whole flight with him. At the end of the flight I introduced myself as Tony he introduced himself as Glen and we went on our merry way!
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6 comments:
I had the same experience with Reilly on the tram at the Denver airport 2 years ago. We laughed about his article he wrote about English/Irish caddies. Great article if you did not read it. He is very involved in Denver community and gives a great deal back to kids and families. He was a celebrity who gets it.
Mason should only go by his first name as he made millions being barely average.
Z lunch on me if Reilly reaches out to you. I hope he put your card a different place than most people who meet you.
SI is losing Reilly to ESPN this summer. A shame as I love reading SI from back to front.
Phil
Hey Tony, busy couple of months for you at the airport...Reilly, Mason and don't forget about that Senator Craig experience.
Wow, good for you......................who's Wayne Severud?
Hopefully your meeting w/ Rick was not in the Mpls airport bathroom...
You've played golf with Wayne Severud... WOW!!! How lucky are you?
This is really cool. Reilly is the one writer,regardless of genre, who I will regularly search out to read.
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