Terrible experience meeting Drew
 

I've never cared much for meeting celebrities. I always say there are only four people in the world I'd be excited to see in person and two are Saints. *
I went to the Drew Brees Charity Classic Golf Tournament in San Diego on Friday to get a pic and an autograph. It wasn't packed at all. Just enough people were there I make it difficult and aggravate the VIP's.*
So my first experience was meeting Darren Sproles. I'm 6'3". It was interesting. The thing that really bothered me about it was the way in which everyone was so pushy and rude to him. One man (and normally I'd refer to a man as a gentleman) showed up in his dirty pony tail and dirty beard with a binder of crap. Keep in mind, I tried to bring in my Who Dat Scotty Cameron putter for a signature from Drew and was told to put it in my car by the older lady working the front table. "no memorabilia" she said. *Old ladies are my bread and butter. I can get anything I want flirting with the elders and she was strict and harsh. I digress. Pony tail man had some 11 x 14 photos of Darren and asked him to write 328 yds 2 TDs on it an sign. I was appalled. Here I am feeling obnoxious because my buddy wants a picture and this creeper wants multiple pictures signed so he can sell them on eBay.*
Next was Drew. He comes up to the first tee and my buddy (crazy saints fan and dressed like one) yells at him. He says he's got to get a picture with his Free Sean shirt and my buddy pulls me in the pic and tells him I'm a Marine skipping work to get a picture. *Drew starts to smile and says "Wait, I need a picture with the Free Sean shirts" of which there were like 5 in the crowd. He literally kicked me out of my own picture with my own camera. I was devastated. *Seriously. I was blown away. So he takes the picture and I say "Drew, how bout our picture" and he said "Sorry man". Devastated. I realize he's got people all over him all the time. I get that. I just couldn't believe that actually happened.*
I managed to get a picture with him at the second hole but it's so blurry it literally looks like I took a picture with a stand up cutout.*
I'll never want to meet a celebrity again unless it's in the grocery, nobody else sees him and they don't have any family with them. Awful experience.*
I don't blame Drew for how he handled it. He's gotta get that 1,000 times a day in PR events like that and 98% come from creepers with soon-to-be eBay goods. Almost makes me glad I'm in the tax bracket I'm in. Almost.

Hate that for you. Thats gotta sting. It just goes to show that these guys are no more than ordinary folks like me and you but with a certain God given athletic gift. My 12 year old nephew had a similar experience with Emmitt Smith on a plane.

Oh, and tax bracket really has nothing to do with anything at all. I know filthy rich people that would give you the shirt off their back if you needed it, and I know snobby self-absorbed poor folks who wouldn't give you the time of day, and vice versa. People are just people, wealth has very little to do with their behavior towards others.

I wasn't implying that he or anyone else is a jerk because of money. I was more saying I wouldn't want to be swarmed by greedy people and forced to ignore the majority of them regardless if I was a decent person. Drew is one of the top 5 most likely NFL players to help an old lady across the street and dudes in pony tails have over the years, made him HAVE to act like that to fans. I just meant that's a side of being famous I don't want.

if it makes you feel any better...i know a guy who idolized Will Clark. He went to Jesuit cause of Will ( i by the way hate jesuit). His dad bought him tickets right behind the home team dugout in San Fran for his bday. they flew all the way there and got to each game extra early to try to get an autograph. on the last day he finally got Wills attenttion. He tells Will he goes to JEsuit and he is his idol, told him he always wonders if he is sitting in Wills old desk, etc.. To which Will replied "kiss my @$$, i dont have time for autographs". hes a typical jesuit pr!ck

He's got to be stressed out........it's not easy being Drew.

Sounds like it was tough buddy. And tough for decent guys like Sproles.

I think Drew is also a decent guy but was under stress big time.

I have met celebrities. Some have been good and some yuk. One time I met Ironhead and he was great. So it is not all bad out there.

Ha that is fun as hell!! But it is sad to hear that, what an ass hat. But that story did make me laugh. M

Me and my brother sat at a bar with Matt flynn, in Miami before the superbowl. He is still under the radar at this point. But him and his Gf or wife, can't remember who is from (Baton Rouge) both of them were very cool and we talked forever. That was the good.
The bad Willie Roaf, that dink had me and my friends get kicked out of a strip club in the quarter years back, when he was with the team. He and his gang were all better than us, kind of deal. We all were pissed about that.

Actually Will Clark was my baseball idol growing up. Before I went to Holy Cross. I met him a dozen times and he left us tickets at will call a dozen times too. I think mainly because his friendly friend at the time worked with my mom. If there weren't some gettin some on the line, he might not have been nice to a kid in front of his current target.

My best friend always idolized Joe Montana, all the way from western PA to ND and on. Now Joe is on the speaking tour and gets scheduled at my buddy's wife's college. My friend gets backstage, shakes his hand, does the whole meet and greet. He says Joe gave him monosyllabic answers and barely even looked at him the whole time. Montana somehow came off as both arrogant and stupid.

hold on..I went to HC...graduated in '99. we must share the same hatred for jesbians

He was a ***** before he went to Jesuit. It wasn't Jesuit that made him a *****. Matter of fact you kind of sound like a ***** making a statement like that about Jesuit, and the good people who proudly attended Jesuit.

I'm 99 too

So was Darren Sproles nice at least? Having lived in the L.A. area for a while now I've met my share of celebrities. Some of them are awesome. Jamie Lee Curtis is awesome awesome awesome. Sally Field held the door for me once. Lol.

Regarding football players, I got to meet Felix Jones at Robert Meachem's charity event last summer and he was awesome. Meachem was nice too although he is very quiet.

Settle for a fist-bump and you'll never be disappointed. Not that you were wrong by any means, it's just tough to be let down in that way.

A bad experience like that would SOUR me horribly. I think Drew just needs to sign on the dotted line and STFU. It's not like we're gonna send him to Afghanistan to diffuse IED's or something!

Now you got me pizzed. Damn. :smile:

Alaska

Darren seemed a little annoyed but he didn't tell anyone no. But there were only 15 different people/couples looking toget something signed by him. Drew graduated a long time ago to devoting a special time for pics and autographs so he's more strict at all other times during the event.
I'll tell you where I went wrong. I thought I deserved a picture and acknowledgement for one reason or another. I also forgot that to him, I'm just another fan. San Diego has a lot of fans. It doesn't have that many die-hards displaced by the very storm that brought him to New Orleans. Oh well. I'll live the same life if I never meet or try to meet another celebrity.

It's good that you finally did get a picture with him. Being as famous as Drew means he is probably mobbed everywhere he goes and for ever snub he probably proudly signs 100 autographs so you have to be understanding.

When I was in junior high I went to a football card show and Dan Marino was there. I asked him to sign 2 things (an autograph sheet and a card) and he looked at me like he wanted to kill me. I've hated him ever since. Die Dan Die!

In all seriousness, I don't think any professional athlete should sign an autograph from anyone over the age of 18. All they are good for is either making a kid happy or making an adult money. If you're a Saints fan, and an adult, be happy with a picture and a 'Who Dat'. It's a name on a piece of paper for God's sake.

Absolutely. I wanted his autograph on my custom Scotty putter all Saints'd out. I'd never sell it in a million years if he did sign it. But I just wanted a picture. I did end up getting an email - since I made this post - from my buddy who got a few great pics from a random guy there. One pic had me in it. Thank God. Drew is mouth breathing and looking at the ground kinda. But whatever. At least it's in focus.

I agree.
I was in Piitsburgh airport over xmas and my wife and I shared the tram ride to the gates with Lynn Swann and family. I grew up a Steeler fan (team B) and admittedly I was staring until I could confirm it was him. He smiled and gave me the head nod 'yeah, it's me'. I was going to take his pic with my cell, but I thought, What the hell would I do with that?

brett favre = biggest wank ever. multiple occasions did he go to a local MS gulf coast golf course i worked at...multiple occasions for me (and everyone else who worked there) to loathe him.

To his credit, I believe he has a thing for the military. I contacted Drew's aid who works out of San Diego when I was deployed in like 2006. I told her I'd like to get a autographed picture of him. Took two weeks and I received it. While the luck was good I thought it might be a good opportunity to see if I could get a signed jersey. I corresponded with her and purchased a NFL jersey from NfL.com and had it sent to her San Diego address. She had an event to attend with Drew the following weekend. Sure enough about three weeks after the correspondence with her, my jersey showed up in Iraq signed by Drew.

in all fairness, he may have just had to bail his sister out of jail....

I myself am a man with long hair. Which means I wear it in a pony tail at times. I have never met any of my favorite athletes, but I did meet the singer of one of my favorite bands, nonpoint, and I specifically told him " I don't have anything for you to sign. Just wanted to shake your hand. Great show". He and the entire band were cool as hell to all of us there. I've never been one to go gaga over someone's celebrity status. They're still people.

My point in this, is that just because someone has a pony tail or a beard doesn't mean they are automatically a douchebag. If someone acts like an idiot or a jerk, than that's what they are. It has nothing to do with hair. I've never done anything but treat people around me with respect, as long as respect was due them. But through the course of my life I've had plenty of people treat me like garbage, and most of them were short haired. I never assumed their hair length had anything to do with their piss poor attitude.

lol...i'm glad i dont have to settle for 20 million instead of the 23 mil I wanted...yea...its tough...

and before anyone says how stressful famous footbal stars have it, who here would not trade their jobs for the job of NFL QB...I know i would

im sure he was. i know...the stereotype is just a coincidence. little sensitive about jesuit i see

i've been through a few of those same experiences and i know a couple. here's 1 story. i had breakfast with a star player one morning in a hilton in dallas tex, that same day there was a press conference that i attended for some players to anwser ?'s about the nights game.well after the set, i went up to that same friend i just had breakfast with a few hours earlier to get a ball signed for my boss, well i got snubbed by my pal, he never looked at me just said he was out of time and sped off. i felt like the smallest guy in the room. terrible it was terrible. i let him know later too. lol he was a cousin of mine. explaination is they go into an eat or get eaten mode, thats all he said.

Jesuit! Hahahaa. It's a high school rivalry, gals. Don't get your panties in a bunch. If every young man at Jesuit, Rummel and BM didn't say anything bad about Holy Cross over the years, I'd be surprised. And the person that said it would be lying.

Man. No matter what you say in a forum, someone is gonna get upset. Pony tail activists are upset that I mischaracterized the guy trying to get 43's autobiography on an 11 x 14. Trust me. If you saw this guy... It's whatever.

Just be excited OTA's are beginning.

lol. Not sensitive at all. Go back and read what you wrote. I hated Holy Cross when I went to Jesuit. But I graduated a long time ago, and I have a lot of friends who went to HC. So I don't run around slamming the school or its people. Ironically enough, I went to HC for two years before being promoted to Jesuit.

Curtis Martin is one of the nicest people on earth...celebrity or not. Kobe is nicer than most folks give him credit for too.

There I was -- I was just sort of starting to turn.... just beginning to gear myself up towards mildly hating on Drew, with the recent direction of this thread...plus for weeks now I've been kinda cold, unemotional and ruthless about it all -- like, "yeah it's strictly a business," whenever I think about the Drew contract mess these days... and then I read this post of yours and I kinda remembered, oh wow, Drew can be freaking awesome sometimes. That's a really awesome story.

To men?

No kidding guys, saints report has a guy praising Drew for the same golf tourney yesterday. About how he and his family went to the military tent and got pics and autographs with Drew. I am in the military. Stationed here in San Diego. I look like I'm in the military. My buddy said I was in the military, trying to sway Drew to giving me a couple seconds of his time.
I guess I should have gone on Sunday to the tent where everyone puts on a smiling face.

this made me throw up in my mouth. and yea...i did hear some blue jay tears when i sensed sensitivity. FYI....i married into a jesuit family. im like a spy on the inside seeing what goes on back stage. that was my last jesuit attack...

I think its all in the situation. Like my previous post about my wife meeting Drew. The dude has a lot on his plate, dont give me the 23 mil versus 20 mil crap, hes still a person. At a celebrity event, golf tourney/signing/whatever, and catching them in the street (or in my case driving down the highway) are two diff deals. Dont let it sour your outlook or anything on the guy, hes only human.

I'm not sour on Drew... he is a FOOTBALL GOD in my book and deserves his paycheck...i'm just sayin that if meeting fans is your stress, try the stress we all deal with day to day...$ cant buy happieness but i helps ease the misery..

Thats to bad.

I hate to pay for and autograph, but I did and I have. For me thats the best way. Thats just me.

Well, just shake it off and continue to march ... you got an interesting thread out of it & I'm enjoying reading the posts, :lol: ... had similiar experiences with sports celebs & it's one of the reasons I refuse to wear a jersey with another man's name on it ... when I was a kid, the athletes were a lot more accomodating, but it seemed to turn sometime in the late '70s/early '80s ... the RedWing (hockey) players I run into are still pretty friendly though, maybe because most of them are born in foreign countries where they still teach manners, eh? ... here's my 'bad athlete experience':

When Kirk Gibson(current Arizona Diamondback Mgr & former Tiger) started out playing for the Detroit Tigers in the late '70s, him and Dave Rozema used to hang out in a place where my sister worked ... one night picking her up, I spot Rozema/Gibson at the bar and I ask them to sign a couple coasters for me ... Rozema was like, "sure", signs a coaster & hands it back to me ... Gibson goes off on this tirade about how, "it's people like you is why we can't go out & enjoy ourselves, blah, blah, blah" ... now, these guys are only about 4/5 years older then me, so I'm not liking the disrespect from Gibson ... I tell him something like, "whatever dude, your boy Rozema didn't have any problem with it, relax, I didn't want yours anyway" ... my sister comes up and tells them I'm just her 'stupid' brother and to ignore me, and it ends ... or so you'd think ... fast forward to 2000 ... SloMotion has a 12yr old daughter and she's an outstanding hockey player (defenseman) and I enroll her in an elite summer hockey program known for it's european-style training ... of the 30 or so students, she one of the top 3 skaters, has the hardest slapshot & quickly becomes known as the biggest hitter (girls mature earlier then boys, boys catch up around 14). During one session, she's consistently matched up for drills with this blonde-haired forward who she mercilessly pounds in the corners and along the boards as they fight for the puck ... so much so that the kid's mother is along the rail going beserck over her kid getting beat by a girl and motioning to him to change places so he wouldn't have to match up against her ... one of the other parents comes up to me and says, "you know who's kid that is your daughter's knocking around?" and I say, "no", to which the parent replied, "that's Kirk Gibson's kid & that lady going nuts on the glass is his wife" ... :lol: ... what sweet revenge ... of course, I never did mention the 'autograph' incident to him or his wife, Kirk was still a pompous ass at that time, but I did tell the rest of the parents and we all had a good chuckle the rest of the way every time my daughter matched up with his kid & beat him ... never believed much in 'karma' before that, but you know, sometimes what goes around, comes around ... :lol:

I'm glad you liked that:)

no caddie bounties on his azz?

Pony tail activist? No one said anything about mischaracterizing your comment about the guy with the pony tail. You followed that up by saying over the years guys with pony tails have made him HAVE to act like that to fans... You said it as if it were fact, yet you know no such thing. All because you saw one guy with a pony tail act like an ass. I don't appreciate punks who think they are better because they don't like long haired dude's. I don't give a damn what someone looks like, as long as they aren't running around naked. I go by what people act like. I'm not one of these "accept everyone for who they are" kind of people. Some people just don't deserve respect, but don't disrespect people you don't know anything about.