Greg and I were fortunate enough to talk to ESPN announcer Rob Stone. Stone's work ranges from reporting from the sideline for college football, doing play-by-play for bowling, and interviewing Joey Chestnut and Takeru Kobayashi for the annual Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest. Stone camped out in Paternoville last night. We got his thoughts on everything ranging from Paternoville, his college soccer days at Colgate and some advice about getting into journalism.
Rob was a great guy and it was a pleasure getting the chance to talk to him and see him embrace Paternoville and experience what the campers actually go through.
Steve: What are your thoughts on Paternoville, not your first time out here but what stands out about this place?
Rob: I love it. I'm jealous. I wish I went to a school like this. The enthusiasm these kids have for Penn State is awesome and they get so into it. I'm baffled, I'm like, 'Why are people singing and chanting and making signs?' What really impresses me is the friendships that are made here. It's almost like Facebook without the computer. People are like, 'Hey, this is my neighbor. I didn't know them but we're hanging out for three days out here.' I think especially in this day and age, that's really impressive.
Steve: How does it compare to other things you've seen travelling around to other campuses?
Rob: Every campus is different. The bigger schools where football is really a past time it gets elevated. But every school has its own little niche. People have been talking for years about how wonderful the student body is here and their support for football. This is an obvious example of it. And I love how everyone knows the songs. I've never seen kids get fired up for a band. But you guys are wrapped up in it and I think that's pretty enviable.
Greg: We were talking earlier about you enjoying the ACC and other places, talk a little about your experiences on other campuses.
Rob: There's a lot of great campuses that I haven't been to. The SEC and ACC are so great because they're in warmer climates so you get this great atmosphere throughout the season. But when I'm working, I don't get to partake in this. This is a treat for me. Unfortunately I'm out of here tomorrow but usually it's like, get to the game an hour before hand and I have to walk through the tailgating. And I'm like, 'This isn't right, there's a lot of fun out here to be had.' And I gotta sit in the stadium. But I have a great job and I love it. But I don't get to totally wrap myself around something like this. Sleeping on the floor out here at Paternoville, I'm wrapping myself in here. I should get a letter for this or something.
Greg: One thing people say that compares to this in a way is Krzyzewskiville. Have you been and how do you think this compares?
Rob: I've never been, but I think it has to. I think it's a natural parallel just because it's tents and it's kids sleeping out and it's passion about the sport, about the program, about the university. And they make a difference. There's a home-field advantage at Cameron Indoor Stadium. There's a home-field advantage at Beaver Stadium. Daryll Clark said earlier, 'It's awesome, you turn around and you see the White Out. You see these kids who have been out here for days just to watch you play football.' I can't imagine what it would be like. I played college soccer [at Cornell], and I was fired up when someone besides my parents or my friend's parents were there. 'Oh, hey, look it's a student! Now I'm really jacked up, I'm going to play.' And you get 100,000+ here and it's kind of intimidating. I'd love to know how other teams use it, if they feed off of it or if they wilt under it. I think it's a massive home-field advantage.
Steve: What is one of your favorite things you've seen here so far?
Rob: I'm bummed I missed the Slip 'N Slide last night. I'd like to see it, I don't know if I want to partake in it. The free food coming in, too. Where else does that happen? That's cool. And just the community here. Everybody gets along and they're playing games, they're studying, they're watching football, they're partying, they're dancing or singing, it's not like one thing that sticks out and you say, 'Wow.' It's a collaboration of all the things you guys are doing.
Steve: Talk a little about your job, that you're able to go around to atmospheres like this.
I'm getting paid for this. That's pretty good. In this day and age, it's good to be employed, let alone a job you really like. There are times when people in my industry lose focus of what they have. It's one of those things, it's almost like you need an illness to realize how lucky you are and how much your family means to you. Sometimes you need to walk away from this job at ESPN and say, 'You know what, Saturdays at Beaver Stadium? That's alright.' I get to sit on the sideline and watch this game, ya know? I've been fortunate enough to do a lot of other sports and I've seen some great events. I'll cherish those. There's a lot of people who are really bummed working at the insurance agency, or looking for a job and either they don't have a job or they don't enjoy it. And I enjoy it. And that makes it a heck of a lot easier.
Greg: What would you say to the up-and-coming journalist who is trying to get into the industry today?
Rob: It's changed. It changed, it's so much about the absolute of what is happening now and two minutes ago, because if it's five minutes ago, then I don't care and I already read about it. It's scary. I think that's going to change a little bit, but part of that element is certainly with us. What I would say now to people trying to get into sports journalism is just watch and read and see what the people who are really good in the industry now are doing. And emulate some of those things. But also be on the lookout for what is the next Facebook, or the next Twitter, the next podcast or the next blog. Things are always changing. If you find it and people latch onto it, you're in luck. I think another good thing is, there's nothing wrong with starting small. My first on-air job, I was in Albany, GA, a tiny town that doesn't even have a highway. And I learned everything. My first job at ESPN out of college, I was a production assistant -- I was cutting highlights for Dan Patrick and Keith Olbermann. It was grad school. I was working 6-3 am. No holidays, no weekends. It was miserable. But I learned everything. I think our society these days, people just want it now. But if you're really gonna be good at this, I think you need to spend some time at the lower ranks to see how people do stuff.
Greg: What direction do you see newspapers going in the next couple of years?
Rob: I still get a newspaper. I thinks one of it is out of loyalty because there's days I go without reading it. But I'm on espn.com and all the websites of the schools that I'm covering a couple times a day. It's a dying industry. I don't know if there's anything that they can do that's in print that's going to change that. Unfortunately, the answer is that, people who were really smart in that industry have gotten out. A lot of the great columnists and writers and publishers and editors they've moved on to magazines, or websites, blogs or TV. TV has changed the times dramatically. It's scary. I fear for those people because newspapers are what we would go to, and we still do, we read all the local newspapers that cover the teams that we cover. That's golden information for us. If that goes away, we'll be relying on bloggers who really don't have as much journalistic presence or background. Not to say that anything is wrong with it, but people just put stuff out there and are we to take that as true or not? It's a trust factor. If you trust that person, great, but they can't get everything right all the time.
Greg: A lot of professional teams have given access to bloggers, how do you think it will affect the industry?
Rob: I think a lot of people have fought it for way too long. A lot of clubs and teams get burned by a blogger and they say, 'That's it, we can't have that.' And that kind of ruins it for the professional bloggers who really do their job well. I go on the blogs, I go on a couple of them every day to see what's going on. and most of them, though, are by people who used to be in the newspaper industry, who wouldn't dare put something that hadn't been verified a couple times. But it's a lot of He said, she said right now in journalism and it's scary. You hear coaches a lot of times say, that's not what I said, that's not what I intended to be put out there. Who's to say whose right and wrong with that?
Steve: Yeah, just like at Penn State the night before game days, the beat reporters used to sit down with Joe and talk to him off the record. But it doesn't happen anymore and it probably wouldn't ever happen because he doesn't feel that same trust with the people who cover him.
Rob: Certainly, we go through that. After a couple years my crew working with the Bg Ten, the coordinators and the coaches and the staff personnel would finally say, you know what, he's alright. He's never said anything wrong, he's been very fair. And then you're welcomed into that little group where you have access and you can do things. People are very leery in this day and age, and not until they trust you, will they let you in. and I can't blame them in.
Steve: One of your favorite people you've met over your career?
Rob: There's a lot. Frank Beamer at Virginia Tech is an awesome human being. He really gets what we're trying to do and makes our job so much easier. He understands, he doesn't give me a hard time. He gives me great information. Last year, the Penn State game, the coaches were amazing. PSU was unbeaten at the time going into the Michigan game, and I had coaches giving me their home phone and telling me, 'Rob, if you have any other questions give me a call.' I see Jay Paterno out there today, and we're talking. You don't play favorites, but deep, deep down you say, 'Nice, I get to deal with them.' As far as athletes, hockey players and soccer players are great. They get it, they're fun and they're loose. Broadcasters, I haven't dealt with any bad ones. You learn something from everyone, whether they're ex-athletes or they're the guys who do this for a living. Everybody on the College Gameday set is great. Erin Andrews is more than a beautiful face she gets it and she works hard and she's passionate and she cares about it. Mike Tirico and Chris Fowler are ultimate pros that I really grew up emulating when I was a prompter and cutting highlights for those guys. I remember Fowler taking me in and saying, Read this. Read this highlight that you just cut for me for SportsCenter.' And I was blown away and I read it like he would have. And he told me it was pretty good. I was like, 'Thanks Chris. Thanks man.' That meant a lot. That was back in the 1990's.
Greg: Did you know Herbie (Kirk Herbstreit) was gonna come out tonight?
Rob: No, I didn't actually. I actually haven't seen him in like a year. We're all together with this family but on gamedays it's a whole other monster. So no I didn't know he was coming but I talked to him and I did try and throw him under the bus and I said, 'He's Ohio State folks, don't forget that.' But he was quick and he said, 'I've always said Penn State is the number one student section in the country.' I was like, 'Damn, he's good.' That brown-nose is good when he needs it.
