Summer Postcard: Real answers to silly questions

Editor’s note: This is the second in a series of postcards that The Daily Princetonian sports staff writers and others wrote about their experiences in the wide world of sports this summer. Keep reading through the next few weeks for more dispatches from across the country and around the world.

Twins Jason and Devin McCourty both play cornerback in the NFL: Who does mom like best? What position does Hall of Famer Deion Sanders play during flag football? If NBA 7-footer Brook Lopez could be a Disney character, who would he be? (Answers at the end.)

I asked many of these sorts of questions in my job this summer at Sports Illustrated Kids. As an intern for the monthly magazine, I spent my time writing, editing and interviewing figures in the world of sports.

The summer was filled with little stories great for short dinnertime conversation. Ray Lewis was amazed at the size of the Sports Illustrated in-house sports library. Barry Sanders said his kids crush him when they play “Madden.” And Maria Menounos, in person, is hot. Really, absurdly hot.

Although it is cliche to say, popular and glorified athletes are still ordinary people, and each have their own stories that rarely get told in the mainstream press. Unlike at ESPN or Sports Illustrated, at SI Kids we actually tried to get more personal answers and avoided stats or 40-yard dash times. Kids don’t care about those things. They want to hear tidbits about their favorite players.

Asking star athletes these strange questions often produces silly results. But sometimes they can reveal a new angle. Take the case of NFL running back Reggie Bush. In college, Bush played flashy, explosive and exciting football, won a Heisman Trophy and led the University of Southern California to two national titles. After he left for the NFL, it was revealed that he accepted impermissible benefits from agents, and the NCAA levied sanctions against USC. The commonly told story of Bush is one of a star player believing his own hype, flaunting it around campus without a care for anyone but himself.

When I spoke to him over the phone, though, I found him to be down to earth and not at all like the man in the mainstream story. Bush told me that his best friend in sports was NFL linebacker Thomas Williams. Now in his fourth season, Williams has played on five teams and recorded just two career tackles. The two were roommates at USC for three seasons, and — despite the differences in their professional careers — remain the best of friends. The fact that Bush, the famous (former) Heisman Trophy winner and No. 2 overall draft pick, was best friends with a white middling special teams player, doesn’t mesh with the mainstream story. That nugget of information, all from a silly question, made him seem more human and more real.

Sometimes, though, athletes will give answers that make you roll your eyes. Like when young NBA player John Wall said that his best friend was superstar LeBron James. Wall is 21 years old, James 26. Wall was a decent player in his first NBA season; James is a two-time MVP, seven-time All-Star, and the best player of the past five years. I guess it’s possible the two became best friends sometime in that period. Possible, but doubtful.

It’s probably not fair to pick on Wall, but he provided me and the fellow interns with one of our favorite quotes of the summer. When asked why he wears the number two on his jersey, he responded that he does so because he has two parents.

Aside from these little moments of excitement, on most days I did the classic intern job — opening mail. Readers of SI Kids, aged 7-14, send in drawings of their favorite players hoping to get in the magazine. Some drawings came sealed in first class UPS mail, while others came in crumpled up envelopes folded over four times. Almost all were terrible. Personally, I remember sending in several of my own pictures as a kid, and I shudder to think what the interns of 1999 thought of my work.

“Yes, Eric’s mom, I know your little boy worked very hard on this stick figure of NBA star ‘DeRik Roze,’ but you are out of your mind if you think that will be printed.”

Don’t tell Little Eric, but the majority of the letters ended up in the recycling bin.