The Randy Gene Experience

When you work in this business, big news is the most fun experience throughout the day.  The newsroom get really loud and rowdy as discussions of the event echo throughout the newsroom.  Wednesday morning was very different.  A monumental trade went down sending Patriots wide receiver Randy Moss to the Minnesota Vikings.  At around 9 a.m. I arrived in the newsroom to find out about the news of Moss,  but there were no discussions, there was no ranting about why the Patriots made a terrible move. Why was today any different than other days?  The majority of the people who are normally in the newsroom at 9 went on the trip to Prague to follow the Boston Bruins.  This made my morning very interesting.  It was up to me and (a video intern) Tim to hold down the fort and get the video and news out to the public.  We did just that.  I posted the story immediately after finding out the news, and he gathered pictures in preparation for the mid-day update that would be coming his way when more people came in.

Later in the day I was navigating my way through the Patriots web site after the deal became verified by the team.  I then found my way looking in the Pro Shop site and discovering that the price of an authentic Randy Moss jersey has plummeted from $250 to $75 dollars.  I got a laugh out of it so I shared it to Art and Rich.  Art replied, "Write it up, then put it in the Patriots folder."  I was kinda confused, I didn't realize that was actually news.  I wrote it up anyway, and after a lot of editing by Art it turned out to be this.  Art taught me that when writing something like that to just punch at it.  What I had before he considered it as "too wordy" and now I understand.  I have to get myself out of the habit of writing around the topic.  Word counts in high school and college are really hurting me right now.  I am really learning a lot, and having a lot of fun at the same time.

Then today, I got to help out the CSNNE community again concerning the Randy Moss situation.  Tom E. Curran had a lot of work to do today in preparation for his show Quick Slant tonight.  After the trade, the show took a complete 180 degrees in another direction.  This gave me a chance to help out, so I told him I could.  Tonights "Stats are for Losers" segment will be the fruits of my labor.  I went through the Randy Moss stat archive to try and find how many games he led the team in receiving yards and what their record was.  When Randy Moss led the team in receiving over his 3+ years in New England the team was 17-3.  In the remaining games that he did not lead the team they were 25-11.  So, hopefully this stat that I acquired helps people make their decision whether the Moss deal was a positive or not.  I can't wait to tune into the show and see the stats that I got!

Once again, it makes me feel so good that Art and the rest of the staff has so much confidence in me that they don't feel the need to babysit me throughout the day.  I feel like my hard work has finally payed off.