Black Friday

The one common in a sportswriters home on Thanksgiving is that he is almost assuredly working.

I have been in the business 8 years and have not had a Thanksgiving off. It's just assumed you're working it. Ever wonder where your Black Friday paper comes from?

I went non-stop from Wednesday morning through Thursday afternoon working. I covered Windsor-Bloomfield on Wednesday night. It's refreshing not to have 50 different media people intruding on interviews. It rejuvenated me. I was kind of sick of just writing UConn football. It happens when your a beat guy. I needed some fresh faces. I am sure UConn players are sick of talking to the same guys every week too. Case in point is Donald Brown. Great guy to talk too, except when UConn loses. The best juke he made last Sunday was the quick right he took out of the locker room in Tampa. He nearly made it home free before he was called back for interviews.

Back to football. The Warriors, who clinched a Class L berth and will play Masuk on Tuesday, destroyed Bloomfield. We had early deadlines on Wednesday night and I was under the gun. So what did I do? I didn't wait to interview guys. 41-7 game? With two minutes to go I talked to a couple of the guys on the sidelines. Then I went and got Windsor coach Mark Welch before he even shook hands with Bloomfield coach Roy Roberts. I was in my car headed back to the paper before the handshakes were done.

Did I need to be that quick? I finished everything at 10:00 p.m. Deadline was 10:10.That 's not copy deadline, that's page deadline. You make the call. We were two minutes late.

Never did interview a football player while the game was going on before. That was a first.

Thursday was spent at the Manchester Road Race. It was my first time on the media truck watching the race. We spend the entire race 20 yards ahead of the lead runner watching what's going on. I waved to at least 20 people during the race. The scene is nuts. You got people playing in bands, dancing, and tailgating almost the entire course.

The bagpipes are sounding and I am not sure anyone actually notices the race going on. If you haven't done it before, it's certainly a terrific way to spend Thanksgiving Day.

Let's get back to UConn football. I have no idea what's going to happen with the Bowl lineup except that Cincinnati is going to the BCS and South Florida to St. Pete.

Pittsburgh's win over West Virginia today in the Backyard Brawl certainly muddies things. The Sun Bowl is in play now for Pitt, UConn, WVU and Rutgers. If Rutgers loses it's going to be Notre Dame.

I doubt they would go back to USF for a second year in a row. Especially after the debacle last year.

Could the Pitt-UConn winner be Sun bound? That's not a far-fetched possibility. They may just take the highest ranked team in the Big East, and it figures to be the winner of that game. If USF beats WVU, then that's a strong possibility.

I would say Pitt goes to the Sun if they beat UConn next week. If UConn wins, all bets are off on who goes anywhere.

Let me make some calls this week.