My Dream Job When I Was 16

When I was 16 years old, my father and I watched Super Bowl XIII, January 21, 1979.

My dad was a chronic TV watcher, so as soon as NBC’s coverage started, the TV was on, and, because my dad was hard of hearing, cranked up loud enough to rattle the windows.

I believe that during that broadcast, there was a feature about the network coverage saying they were using a record 18 cameras to bring us the game.

I made this photo of Santa running a TV camera at the Big 12 Championship football game in Dallas a few years ago, thinking about how much I would have loved that job when I was 16.
I made this photo of Santa running a TV camera at the Big 12 Championship football game in Dallas a few years ago, thinking about how much I would have loved that job when I was 16.

(It’s possible that I am blending memories here, since it was 46 years ago.)

They showed us a few of those TV cameras, and I combined that with a memory from three years earlier when my dad let me be part of an in-house TV production for his work at Cameron College (later, University), to construct what I imagined at the time to be my dream job: television camera operator.

It's hard to tell in this frame grab from a Super-8mm movie my dad made, but that's me in a TV studio, making an in-house instructional video. My co-star was an older co-worker of my dad’s, whose character was known as “Gramps.” I guess I was Jimmy or Billy or something, and the scripts usually had the two of us talking about fixing a flat or repairing a bicycle. We would come across a problem and I would ask, “Golly, Gramps, what does tightening these spokes have to do with managing different personalities in the workplace?” “Good question, Jimmy! Let me explain…”
It’s hard to tell in this frame grab from a Super-8mm movie my dad made, but that’s me in a TV studio, making an in-house instructional video. My co-star was an older co-worker of my dad’s, whose character was known as “Gramps.” I guess I was Jimmy or Billy or something, and the scripts usually had the two of us talking about fixing a flat or repairing a bicycle. We would come across a problem and I would ask, “Golly, Gramps, what does tightening these spokes have to do with managing different personalities in the workplace?” “Good question, Jimmy! Let me explain…”

Flash forward to this week and an article on PetaPixel.com called, “Nearly 250 Sony Cameras Will Capture Super Bowl LIX’s Biggest Plays.”

You might think that a teenagers dreams would have stuck around, but now, with all the experience I’ve had in a career full of covering news and sports, I would definitely say “no thank you” to any offer to be running a camera at the Super Bowl this year.

The reason? Unlike when I was 16 and television and magazines force-fed us a steady diet of Dallas Cowboys, which we all ate up like hungry puppies, I find big-time sports to be sanitized, pretentiously melodramatic, and, most importantly, uninvested in me.

What do I mean by that? Simply put, who are these athletes? Maybe they are from California, or maybe they’re from Ohio. Maybe they even went to college in Oklahoma, but that doesn’t make me interested in them.

And the outcome of the game has become much less meaningful over the years. For example, the Kansas City Chiefs are playing in this year’s Super Bowl, and I have a strong connection to the Kansas City area. My dad was born and raised in nearby Independence, Missouri, and I have a cousin who lives just outside Kansas City in Platte City. So I’ve lived in greater KC, and visited many times, but I have no meaningful connection to the Chiefs organization or any of the players.

To whom, then, Richard, do you have a meaning connection? I hope this doesn’t sound trite, but it’s you. It is the members of our community. And that instantly gives me a connection to the sports I cover, since instead of a heavily-recruited all-star tailback from Frezno, it is your kids. They are in front of my lens, and I hope they always will be.