So I'm hanging out in the green room this morning at Cold Pizza, the ESPN2 morning show I appear on a couple times a week, and two guys are in there talking about the Giants. One guy is wondering how bad it really was when Michael Strahan dissed ESPN reporter Kelly Naqi on Wednesday, and he railed at the pitiful state of the Giants' locker room.
I chimed in and gave some background on the situation, since I was at Strahan's locker during his meltdown. Then we got to talking about sports in general, and one of the guys opened up a newspaper and showed me all that was wrong with sports. "It's too much about the money," he said. "I'll open up a page, and I'll show you a story about money." He proceeded to go through the paper, and there were contract issues everywhere in the sports pages. "You've got more talk about money in the sports pages than you've got in the Wall St. Journal," he said.
We talked a few more minutes, and then a woman walked into the room and told me she had to do an interview with one of the guys, and would I mind giving them some privacy. "No problem," I said, realizing that one of the guys I was talking to must be "someone."
She starts talking to the guy, and they're discussing music, so I'm guessing he's in the business, although why he's at Cold Pizza is anyone's guess. So I tell the guy, "You know, I'll bet you are very famous, but I admit I don't know much about music, as one of my colleagues at Newsday frequently reminds me." (see: Giants beat man Arthur Staple).
I put out my hand. "Bob Glauber, with Newsday and Cold Pizza."
"Nice to meet you," he said. "Chuck D. I'm a Newsday reader. I read your stuff."
I'm talking to Chuck D!!!!! And his tour manager, Silbert Mani, who works out of Rockville Centre, is the other guy.
Anyway, turns out the hip hop/rap star is a native of Roosevelt, and his first job was delivering Newsday!!!
... ok, I really love this job.
PS: Staple rips me for admitting I like Dan Fogelberg - which I do - but I'll bet Grunge Boy never met Chuck D ... in your face, Staple.
A few more tidbits on my new best friend Chuck D:
A huge Mets fan, he wanted to be a sportscaster as a kid; he grew up listening to broadcasters Bob Murphy and Ralph Kiner. He loved the Phil Rizzuto/Bill White tandem in the Yankees booth.
He grew up down the street from Eddie Murphy, and also lived near Dr.J.
He's a huge sports fan and was at Cold Pizza being interviewed about Muhammad Ali.
He'll begin a new tour - 56th Tour - starting next Tuesday in San Diego.
Comments (1)
B Glaubs,
I'm jealous you got to chill with Chuck D. He's one of the pioneers of rap music and definitely an all-time top 5 MC.
He, Flava Flav and Terminator X formed Public Enemy, perhaps the most influential rap group of the 1980s and 1990s next to Run-D.M.C.
Next time you hang with D, tell him your 98 was 87 on the record, yo, but now you go bronco.