The details are fuzzy; after all, it was a long time ago - before Brett Favre was the king of drama in the NFL or even before he knew how to send a text message. It was right after Favre and the Green Bay Packers won the Super Bowl in 1997.
Well I’m not much of a football fan, but I know just barely enough to get by. Not long after that Super Bowl, I was working in the TV5 newsroom when I took a call from the station’s receptionist. She apologized for bothering me, but there was no one in the sports department yet, so she didn't know who else to call. There was a gentleman in the lobby who wanted to talk to someone in sports, I could hear her ask “what was your name again sir, oh a Dorsey Levins is here”.
Well I knew enough that he was a local kid who made it to the NFL and was there for the Packers win in the Super Bowl. I said I would be right up.
When I entered the lobby, there he was; big as I would expect someone in the NFL, but soft-spoken and a first class gentlemen. I introduced myself, and Levens said he was hoping we could help him get some publicity for a celebration he was having at a local club to raise money for charity.
I said sure, we'd love to help, can we do an on camera interview about it and talk to you about the Super Bowl? I asked him to have a seat and said I'd be right back. Finding a photographer was no problem, but the sports guys weren't in and all the reporters were either out on stories or busy writing.
Now if he were with the Yankees or a NASCAR driver I could certainly pull off the interview, but I new so little about the NFL it would be embarrassing for both of us.
So with no sports guys around, and our reporters tied up I turned to the one guy who was available; the Maestro. Ron Curtis.
I filled him in and he said sure he’d love to do the interview. Now here comes the fun part. As Ron enters the lobby area, Levens, a guy who has been through the media mania that is the Super Bowl lights up. He gets up to enthusiastically greet Ron saying something like "oh I know this guy". The two had a nice chat together, and interview made for an interesting piece in that night's newscast. And I'm sure he visited the other stations in town that day to talk about his charity event and the Super Bowl.
But the highlight for me was watching this young professional athlete, who had just played in sports biggest event excited about meeting a local news anchor. It shouldn’t have been surprising, like thousands of Central New Yorkers, Levens had grown up with Ron Curtis. He had one request before leaving. I’m not sure if it was for him or a family member - but soon a staffer retrieved a photo of Ron that he happily autographed for this NFL star.
Go Packers.
