(Editor's Note: Time to check the mail! The DallasCowboys.com staff writers answer your questions here in 'Mailbag' presented by Miller Lite.)
What's a behind-the-scenes moment during a game that never makes it on TV, but is actually one of the most fun or meaningful parts for your job? – Sabina Ruijtenbeek*/Ijmuiden,* Netherlands
Patrik: I love this question, so thank you for offering it up. I'd probably have to say the most fun and meaningful is being able to interact with the coaches and players off-camera, in candid ways with everyone's guard down. That's when you get to interact with the human and not simply the player, if that makes sense.
I've been able to build a lot of relationships through interactions in locker rooms and on the sidelines before cameras start rolling, and anyone who knows me knows how passionate I am about humanizing players and coaches; and so any chance I get to simply have a real-life conversation with them outside of a formal interview, I'll gladly take it. At the end of the day, life is bigger than football, and that means relationships are as well.
Nick: This is certainly an interesting question and one we don't get often. So picking just one part isn't easy. But one of the things that is always unique to me and sort of just puts things in perspective, is the drive to the stadium – and that holds true whether it's home or away.
But I think I see it even more on the road games because we're on a bus and in unfamiliar territory. And just watching the interactions that fans have with the busses – some of them involve fingers in some of your more northeastern cities. But that's all part of the fun of the ride. It's not always a welcome greeting but then you've also got your Cowboys fans with their cellphones out and recording a row of 4-5 busses. They also have the same look on their faces that have a combination of star-struck and confusion and excitement all rolled into one.
It's just a game-day experience that I always notice because it reminds me of how cool we really have it. Here we are, ready to "work" at a football game while others are spending ungodly amounts of money, just to be in the same place. They're getting there early, staying late, braving the elements and sometimes the other fans around them, just to get a glimpse of their favorite team or their favorite rival, ride into the game.To me, it reminds me that my job is to cover professional football. Sometimes, it's easy to forget that and think about the business side of it or all the parts that make it a job. But it's those moments before a game when you see the fans getting ready for their experience that reminds me how cool we really have it when we're "going to work."
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