“Smile,” I reminded Halle.
She shook off her initial hesitation. One of the men shouted out that we should kiss. I would have to talk to Halle later about not doing everything they asked for. If you did it for one side, you’d better do it for the other.
When they finally motioned us forward, there were three limos backed up. We’d messed up their well-choreographed plans.
At the official photo location, they wanted me alone and with Halle. I also had them take a few photos of her alone. She wore a dress that matched my jacket in color, which made us stand out. I would have to thank Adrienne later for making us look good.
The paparazzi inside knew not to pepper us with questions; they’d be escorted out and banned if they did. Unfortunately, they were permitted to ask one that I hadn’t been prepared for and should have. It was …
“Who are you wearing?”
Uh-oh!
“I’m afraid it’ll have to remain a mystery,” I said with a smile.
We moved to the interview section, and I was happy to see Margaret Chin waiting there. She’d been the sideline reporter who had interviewed me for the King game in Indianapolis and when I visited Northwestern.
“You know how this works. Do you have any questions before we get started?” she asked.
“Do you want Halle to join us?”
“No, this will be sports-related.”
I nodded.
“Please keep in mind that I really don’t want to get crosswise with the NCAA, so we have to limit the topics to just sports.”
Margaret gave me ‘the look’! Cripes, I was getting it from female reporters now? I immediately changed into Dawson male defensive mode by shutting up and sat down with her to do the interview.
“I’m with David Dawson, the number-one recruit in the upcoming senior class. Elite 11 Co‐MVP last year; winner of multiple awards in football including Gatorade Player of the Year; and also currently trying out for USA Baseball’s Under-18 team that will compete in this year’s Pan Am games. How do you have time to do both football and baseball?”
She did five minutes of similar questions. At least she never asked me how I felt.
◊◊◊
In the hallway, after the interview, I pulled out my cell phone and called Adrienne.
“Hey, could you please call Dakora, ask them the price of the tux, and get them to email Caryn an invoice, today? I just now realized wearing it and not paying for it for a sporting event may be a no-no with the NCAA. So I want to pay for it today if at all possible.”
Adrienne gave me a ration of shit, especially when I told her I hadn’t said who I was wearing on TV. But then she said she’d get on it right away. I told her to get with Frank. Maybe we could salvage it by making the mystery a story in itself while explaining how NCAA rules wouldn’t let me say at this particular event.
I called Caryn and explained what was going on and told her to pay the bill immediately. I also asked her to talk to Mr. Morris about the situation and how I’d handled it, and to let me know what he said.
Then I reflected for a minute. Situation assessed. Damage control efforts put in place immediately. Nothing more I could do now except follow up at the end of the day and make sure everything had been done. Time to move on, at least for now.
God, I hated the crap I had to go through for the NCAA. Technically, I wasn’t enrolled in college yet, so these rules shouldn’t even apply to me. It wasn’t like Dakora was a major donor or anything. In fact, it would be hard to find any relationship between them and sports, for that matter. It was just that Mr. Morris had everyone paranoid that the NCAA would darken our doorstep someday soon and question my amateurism.
I thought about it for a minute and called Caryn again. I’d better pay for my mom’s dress, too.
We found the Gatorade room, and my dad handed me an autograph book. Greg had the camera with him.
“What’s this all about?” I asked.
“My mom told us to do it,” Dad said. “She said that if at some point you go into politics, you’ll want the photos and autographs to display on your office walls. I remember Dad had them displayed in his reception area. It gave people something to look at before they went in to meet him. It was a subtle way of showing he had friends in high places; your grandma said it gave him a psychological advantage. I’m not sure if it was true or not, but I remember looking at them. You’ll want to remember today anyway.”
“Halle, you want to be first?” I asked.
She thought I was a dork, but she was the first to sign my book and have Greg take our picture. From there, I was on the hunt to add to my collection. It wasn’t that I needed an excuse to walk up to a sports star and talk to them, but it was a nice icebreaker. I was taken aback when several wanted Halle’s and my autographs. I soon discovered that many of them were just as much in awe of everyone here as I was.
LeBron James and Peyton Manning were easy because they stopped by the Gatorade room to meet their fellow award winners. We discovered that several sporting goods companies had rooms. I wasn’t surprised when I found my dad in the TaylorMade room, looking at golf clubs.
“Shopping for Christmas already?” I teased him.
“Just looking for the country club,” he said, playing it off.
He had a bag with two boxes of Titleist Pro V1 balls in it. I remembered that he sold them in his golf shop for over $50 a box, so he’d made out if they gave them to him. Greg and I smirked. We knew what he was getting for Christmas from us. He had a set of clubs, but I thought they were at least ten years old and not the best quality. There had been a lot of innovation over the years. We could have our kids get him towels, club covers, and more balls.
Greg had been picking up the game. There was a benefit to having a dad who managed a golf course when you were on a college student’s budget. I personally didn’t have the patience for it. If they had speed golf, where you ran to the ball and hit it right away, I might be interested. Every time I tried it, I wanted to blow my brains out because you inevitably got behind someone slow. I found it funny that golf bothered me, but I would go fishing all day long and had a great time doing so.
◊◊◊
The ESPYs were hosted by professional wrestler John Cena. I give him four out of five stars for his opening monologue. I wasn’t impressed with our seats. We were off to the side and two-thirds of the way back. I would have to make it a goal to move up in the next few years.
Halle got excited because Justin Timberlake was a presenter. I made fun of her because he was almost 40. She reminded me her mom was about the same age, and I shut up.
It wasn’t all about sports. They gave the Jimmy V foundation award for perseverance to Craig Sager. Craig was an NBA announcer who had the same cancer my mom had, acute myeloid leukemia. They showed a video of him getting chemotherapy and then calling a game.
He got up to speak, and there wasn’t a dry eye in the house when he talked about the love he had for his wife. She’d begged him not to leave her, and he said there was no fear in love. Everyone in the place was on his or her feet during the speech. Craig put a face to the terrible disease that cancer is. His impassioned speech about facing the prospect of death made me realize just how lucky we were to still have my mom around.
◊◊◊
My big moment didn’t make it on TV.
During a commercial break, they would run a video showing the nominees for the lesser awards. Some examples of the categories that didn’t make it to air were Best Male College Athlete and Best Male Athlete with a Disability. Later during the telecast, they would say that so and so won, but then move on to the more prominent awards and give those the full treatment.
My closest competition for the Gatorade award was a basketball player out of Texas. How did I know he was my biggest competition? In the last ten years, four basketball and five football players had won. The only other sport to win was baseball.