Surrounded by Ballers

I was on my way home from Nationals in Reno yesterday and grabbed one of the few seats left between two guys that had their heads down and obviously didn’t want anyone in the seat between them. Halfway through the flight after listening to their conversations I realized I was surrounded by retired pro football players that had just played a golf tourney in Reno. John Lynch was in front of me, Marshall Faulk was on my right and I’m pretty sure Jerry Rice was on my left, but he had his hat over his face sleeping most of the time and I couldn’t figure out why Jerry Rice would be flying to San Diego. There were more, but those are the only three I recognized. I didn’t say anything until we stood up to get off the plane. I introduced myself to Marshall and told him I was a huge Rams fan. He was kind of an asshat. He shook my hand, but kind of grunted and looked the other way. A little disappointing, but crazy to be sitting between two of the greatest football players of all time. Yeah, I'm a dork!!

I was expecting you to say you were hanging out with LON and his crew

There's nothing worse than having someone you admire or look up to blow you off.

Dude. I would have cried if I meet Emitt Smith and he blew me off lol Bet you were bummed Marshall was'nt more friendly. He probably thought you werent really a Rams fan and were just trying to be cool.

emmitt smith is a class act i doubt he would do that to one of his fans.marshall faulk was only loyal to $$$$$.don't get me wrong he had mad skills and was very productive. but you watch him on nfl network he has that i'm better than you attitude.

I've only met one celebrity that I can think of, Eddie Van Halen, and he was the one of the nicest people considering the long line of fans waiting to meet him. Granted it was a meet and greet, so he sort of had to shake hands and what not. Still, he was as nice as could be. Having idolized him since I was in 6th grade I was star struck and couldn't manage to get any words out. Here's a pic from that meet and greet. He has his hand on my shoulder.....

I met Tony Dorsett when i was 6. he was extremely nice and spent a few minutes talking to me and my family, even though he was with his own family at the time. that day was when I vowed to be a cowboys fan for life.

Yeah, I was a little bummed, especially since I didn't make any attempt to chat him up throughout the flight or annoy him in any way. I realize these guys probably get a lot of fans bothering them when they don't want to be bothered, but all he had to do was extend about 15 seconds of effort, so that was pretty weak.

I guess my celebrity batting average is still pretty good. I've met my two favorite rockers (Eddie Van Halen and Tommy Lee) and they were both super cool, my biggest political hero (Ronald Reagan, served him lunch at the opening of the Reagan Library) and he was very cool and, now, Marshall Faulk. Three out of four isn't bad!!

i'll take those odds in vegas. oh thats right i can't even get close to those odds in vegas! LOL

Many moons ago the NBA All Star Game was in Houston and I was picking up my mom at the airport and NBA players were catching their flights. I see a mild mannered tall black guy sitting there in NBA gear and walk-up not knowing who in the hell he is (not a big NBA fan at the time) and ask if I can get a picture with him. I walk up like the teenage jackass I was and say "Hey dude, can I get a picture with you" and he says "Sure, no problem" and poses for the picture. I even had to flag down some random traveler to take the picture. Later, I discovered this was Mark Jackson of the Knicks. What a great guy to handle such a stupid teenage punk so nicely. He is on my good guy list.

You're lucky he was a player and not just some random dude! My brother once gave a John Elway autograph to someone who asked!

When I was about 15 or 16, I was in DFW Airport with my Dad and by some act of God sat down near Darren Woodson and Michael Irvin at the gate. Only caught the tail end of the glory day's for the Cowboys, but still remembered watching them with my Dad every Sunday when I was just a little guy. Darren noticed me point them out to my Dad and they came over and talked for about 15 minutes. It was awesome to meet them and have them turn out to be as cool as they were on TV.

Buddy of mine has a hilarious picture of himself drunk in Austin with his arm around Earl Campbell and Earl is looking at him like WTF? I ran into Ed (Too Tall) Jones in an Applebees in OKC once - he was sitting in a booth and his knees were touching the seat on the other side of the table. Saw Michael Irvin so many times in bars around Dallas that after a while you didn't even pay attention. Once hung out with Babe Laufenburg (Cowboy and Redskins QB) at a concert when he worked at a local radio station and we wrangled our way into the VIP area. Funny part was my buddy (same guy that got the pic with Earl Campbell) kept calling him Dave and Babe was like "why are you calling me Dave?" and he said "I can't bring myself to call another dude Babe." Tony Dorsett used to have a business in a building that a friend of mine owned saw him all the time - he was pretty cool I guess - I never bugged him - just said hello in the hall.

my gut tells me that 1st picture is LON at age 12.

"why are you calling me Dave?" and he said "I can't bring myself to call another dude Babe."

That might be the funniest thing i've read in awhile.


I once met Wes Lazara. He took time out of his busy schedule to make small talk, etc. very unselfish.. cool cat, he is.

You have all been "one-upped".

Richard, you look exactly like a guy I went to high school with! Of course, the guy on the right! And none of those guys are me.

Its too bad that they don't view the fans as their employers.

I once met Shawn Murray. One heck of nice guy who looked me in the eyes and said hello.

I met Vince Young April of 09 at a hotel here in Chatt. Super nice guy and took time to have a couple of photos made with my sister and my sister-in-law. About three or four years ago, some buddies and I were at a small Mexican joint having a few beers and Peyton and Eli Manning came in with their wives and we spoke briefly with them and they gave us a couple of autographs.

I was at MSU when the cowboys had their camp at Wichita Falls. So it was pretty common to see the players out in about at the local bars.... all where nice... My main memory was talking to some girls and hit troy in the back of the head with my elbow and after saying sorry he stood up to leave and i was shocked how small he was... same way with emmit

I've been to some movie premiers- highlight would have to be Emmanuelle Chriqui. (aka Sloan on Entourage). I almost fainted- felt like a little boy crush. haha
I had a long talk with Seth Green once, Dax Shepherd, talked with Adam Sandler and played with his dog for a bit, etc.
Fun being around celebs for sure...

My family and I took a nighttime horse-drawn sleigh ride trip up Steamboat Mtn to a restaurant. It was Christmas 97' and we were signing carols and such during the sleigh ride. In the row in front of us was AT&T spokesman Cliff Robertson with wife and daughter. If you remember him, he was the voice of "Reach out and touch someone" for AT&T back in the day. He was totally cool. They sat at the table next to us to and my dad talked stocks and the market with him for a short while.

On another trip to Vail I met Buzz Aldren and got his autograph. I was pretty young so I was shy, but it was still cool to have met him.

LOL Barry, back in my ballin' days...

I saw Wee-Man at a bar in Torrance a few ago and my drunk a$$ gave him knuckles.