Media Savvy
Watching From The Outside In
By Andrew Stockey

Do you miss sports?

It's the question am I asked most often. Even more than the query what time I wake up? ( The answer is - OUCH - 2:15am.! )

For those of you who don't know - or may not remember - I was the sports anchor on WTAE from 1995-2006. That was until 22 months ago when I moved to co-anchoring the morning news.

You would think that would be enough time for most to realize that I no longer do sports. However, as we all know, Pittsburgh is not a town where people forget. There are still those who think Joe DeNardo is doing the weather at WTAE.

Back to the original question.. While I don't cover sports, I still watch. It's just a little bit harder to catch my favorite teams. I usually go to bed by 7:30pm and I can count the number of sporting events I have been to on one hand.

Let me tell you what I don't miss.

I do not miss the week of build up to a Steeler game. I'm one of those people who would rather show up on Sunday and cover the game. I don't miss training camp. Sitting in the summer sun for six weeks and watching grown men sweat is not my idea of fun. I don't miss the NFL draft. In my opinion, it's the most over-blown event in all of sports. Also, I don't miss fans complaining about players' salaries. Understand that none of these owners are taking a hit when they sign a player to multi-million dollar contracts.

What do I miss?

I miss getting to know the players on each team and building relationships. I miss road games and the push towards the playoffs. I miss covering Pitt Football on Saturdays and going to Friday night high school football games knowing that I won't be the one telling viewers what happened that night. Finally, I miss watching a high school athlete with potential start his or her rise to success … and see them grow into starts. An opportunity I had with the likes of Swin Cash and LaVar Arrington.

But in my new role, I have found the games we watch a truly a microcosm of the world we live in. There are winners and losers, good and evil, law and order. However, rarely is sports about life and death and maybe that's what I truly miss most. It may surprise some to learn that the sun does rise the day after a Steelers loss. Pro sports - for all its money, power and glory - is nothing more than an escape for fans and we should view it as such,.

So, yes, I do miss sports. Not so much because I miss the games themselves, but rather I miss what the games meant on a much larger scale.