March Madness Lives On

John Santamaria
April 6, 2012
Filed under Uncategorized

“I’d arrived early at my internship on March 21st. For once the trains had arrived on time, and I walked into the office of WABC-TV at about 10 minutes before 6pm which is usually early for me, just in time to hear someone announce: “Tim Tebow’s been traded to the Jets!” Once the news broke, it got hectic in the office, the editor had to get his Jets and Tebow footage together, our anchors had extra pieces to do on the newscast and even the regular news had segments on Tim Tebow because of how popular of a player he is. I wasn’t involved in this too much, just did some stats research and listened to the Jets General Manager’s Conference Call in the office to pick sound bites to use on the next day’s broadcast.

For me being a Jets fan, I was all for this move and am excited about it, I was one of few in the sports department who was for it. The producer who hired me was the only other one in favor of the move but it also doesn’t help when the rest of the staff roots for the Giants. They don’t think it will work well with Mark Sanchez and it could create distraction but I disagree and that this is a wakeup call for the team after a disappointing season last year. In result of this excitement, the next day before work I went to Times Square Modell’s to see if t-shirts were in stock yet and they were. I also get interviewed by the NY Daily News, SNY, and Bloomberg TV about the trade and it was cool to analyze the trade both as a fan and from a football perspective.

My last blog was titled “Never Say Never” and I related that toward Linsanity and the Giants winning the Super Bowl. That title can be related to this month as well. Usually in March, the NFL is in its quiet stage and you don’t hear much other then player movement news and draft previews. The usual focus in sports is College Basketball’s NCAA Tournament but football changed that this year with Tebow coming to the Jets. On March 26^th Tebow was introduced as a Jet in a press conference at the Jets Facility; I wasn’t working for that but from what I heard it was a very busy day as he is now the focus of New York athletes. This led to sometimes forgetting that there were other big games going on but sometimes one big story changes all that and in this case, Tim Tebow did that and an important Knicks or Rangers game or Syracuse’s play in the tournament in this case became minor stories.

It is cool to experience breaking news and in this case, being that the Jets are my favorite team it was cool to be part of the coverage they did in the station. I couldn’t say it that week that it’s cool to see breaking news because it got hectic over there with deadlines to get things done as they had pieces on Tim Tebow in each newscast every day for about a week. So while Tim Tebow was the face of the sports news this month, don’t forget that there was still College Basketball to be played along with Spring Training Baseball, and the big NBA news with Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni resigning which I was all part of. The focus in the newsroom now shifts to the opening of the Major League Baseball season in addition to the conclusion of the NHL and NBA seasons with the playoffs to follow.  The Madness will always live on in March and even if it’s not for the main meaning toward College Basketball, there is always something big going on in the world of sports.

I’ve also now completed 3 months on my internship, enjoying every minute I am there with the sports team whom are all great people to work with but also to learn from each shift I am there. I also am honored to work with some great interns all from different parts of the Tri-State Area but also great individuals who I have become friends with and hope to keep in touch once the semester ends. Every shift is a new experience with some fun and excitement and it’s great to be part of this team and I’m excited for the next two months with a lot of excitement in the New York sports world to still come.