AJC > Sports > Tech > Blog > Archives > 2007 > April > 26
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Calvin does Manhattan
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Highlights from Day One of Calvin Johnson’s two-day NFL-coordinated pre-draft PR tour of Manhattan:
7 a.m. — A bunch of burly guys who might once have been offensive linemen huddle in the lobby and by the entrance of the W Hotel on Lexington Avenue in Midtown Manhattan. A camera crew from NFL.com waits outside. Georgia Tech receiver Calvin Johnson and four other top NFL draft prospects are about to start a pr tour of the Big Apple, and the entourage is ready.
7:35 — Johnson, dressed in khakis, striped shirt, blue sports coat and brown shoes, walks through the lobby and immediately gets approached by an autograph seeker, who is instantly brushed away by a member of the entourage.
7:38 — LSU quarterback JaMarcus Russell, in white shoes with no socks, boards a white Hummer H2 with an NFL draft logo on the side. He has been driven around in the Hummer all week, while Brady Quinn rode around in another Hummer, but today they are part of a five-player group and the rules have changed. An NFL official tells Russell to get in the black “chauffeured services” bus with Johnson and the other draft prospects.
7:55 — The bus, the Hummer and a couple of cabs arrive at Times Square Studios at 44th Street and 7th Avenue, site of ABC’s Good Morning America.
8:24 — Russell and Notre Dame quarterback Brady Quinn walk onto the set. “Who’s that?” a man staring in from the sidewalk asks about Russell, “Michael Jordan?” The others eventually join them, but they’ve got a long time to wait. Only after segments on Tyra Banks, “Dancing With the Stars,” stain removal and “the happiest place on Earth” (it’s Denmark, by the way) does Good Morning America devote its final 10 minutes to what Diane Sawyer introduces as “the ultimate fantasy football.” Chris Cuomo comments on how small the players make him look and says of Johnson’s athleticism, “He scared me. He jumped so high that he jumped far, as well.” But Johnson doesn’t say anything and gets only a few seconds of air time.
9:34 — About 150 Central Park East Middle School kids, all wearing new white T-shirts with the NFL logo on the front, roar as the players enter gymnasium. Adrian Peterson and Brady Quinn talk to the kids about the importance of staying fit. Soon, the kids head to workout stations, where the players are supposed to lead them in exercises. Johnson appears to have drawn the short straw, the exercise balls. A phys ed instructor tells the kids to sit on the balls, put their arms across their chests and do sit-ups. Then she asks Johnson to do it. He self-consciously does two, then gets up and walks around encouraging the kids. “How many have y’all done? Y’all quit counting, huh?” Johnson says, smiling. Then, a breakthrough. Johnson shows the kids an exercise he knows, lying on his back on the floor, propping his feet atop the exercise ball, raising his hips off the floor and then using his feet to roll the ball toward his body and back. The kids love it. Johnson relaxes. Felicia Walker, 13, gives him a big waist-high hug. “He’s so cute,” Felicia says. “He’s so talented. You get to meet such a professional and smart person.” A teacher looks on, admiringly, as Johnson captivates the kids. “It’s a great exercise, it’s great for the abs and it’s different for the kids,” says Alan Semel of the New York City department of education after school program. “Now, they’re doing an exercise NFL players do.” Other kids hug Johnson, who is suddenly the king of the gym.
12:03 p.m. — Johnson and the four other players each sit at their own tables on elevated platforms and field questions from newspaper, TV, magazine and Internet reporters below. It’s the media luncheon at Chelsea Pier (roast beef, green beans, a pasta dish, various desserts). Johnson refuses to get baited into naming the team he wants to pick him, the team he thinks will pick him or which selection he will be in the draft, though he admits to wanting to be first and considering himself the best available player. “I don’t have a clue right now [what will happen in the draft,” he says. Few if any of the questions could be construed as hard-hitting. Typical: A reporter who asks whether it’s tough to live up to the reputation of being perfect. “Nobody’s perfect,” Johnson says. “I have certain things I work harder on. … I’m going to work hard, I’m going to do all I can, to live up to all the hype that’s out here.” He says he is enjoying himself on the trip (though as usual he looks as if there are other things he’d rather be doing than interviews about himself). “It’s all good,” he says of his third trip to New York, but he calls the visits to schools his favorite part. After 42 minutes of answering questions, he poses for photos with the Hudson River as a backdrop and the Statue of Liberty far in the distance. Then he gets to see his parents and siblings and eat lunch.
2:25 — The five draft prospects pose atop the marquee of the Radio City Music Hall at 50th Street and 6th Avenue. Ten professional photographers shoot the picture from across the street, amid about 15 amateurs and 60 or 70 gawkers. “That kid is Calvin Johnson,” a Rockefeller Center doorman says, then declines to give his name because he’s supposed to be on duty. After the photo shoot, the players are off-duty. Johnson looks forward to attending a performance of the Broadway musical The Color Purple. There’s another PR tour on Friday.
.JPG)
-1.JPG)
Services »
