After a second incident between the Philadelphia Eagles and sideline personnel happened on Monday Night Football, WFAN host Gregg Giannotti couldn’t believe this continues to happen.
Gregg Giannotti was the sideline reporter for two seasons on the Pitt Panthers Radio Network, and shared said getting near the action was never something he was all that interested in.
“I had limited experience — two years working sidelines for college football — and I never in my life thought about getting near a player,” said Giannotti during Boomer & Gio Tuesday. “I mean I was scared to death of getting run over. To get in the face of one of these guys was the dumbest thing ever.”
He then shared a story of a time when he was in harm’s way before someone saved him from a potential issue.
“It was Pitt/Navy down in Annapolis. It was to stand on the goal line to make sure I saw you if the guy crossed the goal line if they went down to me, ‘Do you think he’s in?’, and then we’re looking at it,” Giannotti explained. “So they had those cannons right there in the endzone. They scored, they went off, right? So I’m standing, I had no idea they were behind me, and one of the midshipmen came up and said ‘Sir, if we score we’re going to blow your head off. You might want to move’. Thank you.”
Co-host Boomer Esiason argued that the average person doesn’t realize how “tuned up” players are during the course of the action.
“That goes for every sport. It’s not just football, but it goes for every sport. But during a football game, the players are out of their minds.”
After working for a college team for 7 years you learn one thing on the sideline.
never, ever, NEVER turn your back to the field.
And as a general rule, I stayed behind the offense. I only got hit once, and it was a time I broke that policy and was standing in the wrong place.