This weekend I had an opportunity come across my plate like none I’ve ever had before. Get behind the scenes access at the Fanatics Authentic Sports Spectacular show and meet some of the all-time great legends of the sports world. This is my experience and how it all went down.
I first got a text from my boy John Mathews on Friday around 11:30 am asking if I was interested in heading with him at 5:30 pm to meet Tim Brown, Alan Pinket, Bob Golic, Brady Quinn, Joe Montana, Joe Theismann, Lou Holtz and Tyler Eifert. The catch was that I couldn’t be wasted and needed to be somewhat business professional. Since I was on the train platform about to go to an all you can eat and drink March Madness party I had to begrudgingly decline.
John then sent me a bunch of photos with him and Pedro Martinez, Joe Montana, and Marcus Mariota. What did I just pass up on?
Luckily for me John’s hookup (shout out to Irv) was able to get him backstage access all weekend. The text came later that night asking if I wanted to go the next day. I checked out the March Madness schedule and I’d only be missing the two early games so I was on board and ready to get down.
I really had no idea where we were going or what we were about to do. I just knew that there’d be some athletes kicking it and that we’d get to meet them. We got to the convention center up in Rosement and I find out that it’s a giant sports memorabilia show. Being the sports junky that I am this is right down my alley.
UPDATE (3/24): We just shot a podcast (which you can listen to below) which delves into the stories from the different athletes we met during our Fanatics Authentic backstage experience.
While we didn’t end up walking the floor of the convention I did run into a gem worth sharing. Say hello to a signed Matt Leinart photo from his storied career with the Arizona Cardinals. No doubt this bad boy will be picked up by a #randomathlete fan in about 10 years.
This is where they herd the cattle, err where people stand in line for hours to get an autograph.
This WWE fan brought his own title belt with him to the show. I have a long documented history with loving championship belts as a prop so two thumbs up to this guy.
Say hello to Greg Faragher, the Founder of DrJStuff.com, a site dedicated to all things Dr J. He created this DIY basketball holder so that he could easily carry three basketballs around, all of which would be signed by Dr. J.
We are backstage now where all the action takes place. Essentially we just kicked it back here watching athletes sign stuff and when they’d walk around we’d give them dap or take pictures.
I’ve been using a Flag It Tag It penalty flag as a pocket square and been getting tons of love for it (including from Dr. J). It looks cool and it’s super functional because it’s easy to launch when someone does something stupid. I told Ozzie Smith about it and he was all smiles.
I can now die and go to heaven. When I found out that The Nature Boy Ric Flair was gonna be there I damn near had to change my pants. The first thing I said to Natche was, “my shoes cost more than your house.” He couldn’t have been any awesomer and I give my experience meeting him 10 WOOOO’s!
Jameis Winston was signing stuff today. Those black Seminoles helmets are dope.
Some sports memorabilia had sticky notes on them saying stuff.
