The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/178977
Letterman replied with some funny lines (no surprise there) for a piece before Ball State played UNLV and lost by just two points. One of his assistants called after I faxed the article to Letterman and said he liked the story. "Call me anytime you are in town, and we'll get you some tickets," she added. So I got tickets for the two of us and Wolverines sports information director Bruce Madej for the December 13 show. And after all the Friday interviews and obligations, we put on our coats and walked outside to hail a cab. One of the Heisman reps spotted Desmond and asked if we needed a limousine ride anywhere. This is how you get treated when you are with the Heisman Trophy favorite. We headed toward midtown in luxury and arrived outside NBC Studios early for the show. So we wandered around and took in the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree, a towering Norway pine more than 70' tall and decorated with an elaborate chain of lights. There were even sidewalk vendors roasting chestnuts on an open fire. Manhattan at Christmas is something to behold and cherish. Once inside the studio at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, we went to the reception desk and waited. Free Press photographer Julian Gonzalez, who was chronicling Desmond's coronation weekend with me, met us there. We were soon escorted to Studio 6B, the same studio where Late Night with Jimmy Fallon is now taped and where The Tonight Show with both Johnny Carson and Jack Paar was taped. Letterman's producer, Robert Mor- ton, told us that he wanted us to sit front row and center for the show and be introduced after his monologue. Actually, he was only concerned about Desmond being there but was going to give us the royal treatment, too. This was great. I was a huge fan of the show and Letterman, and I would fantasize about writing a bestseller and getting invited as a guest to discuss my prose with the current king of late night. "Well," Desmond said, "I am flattered by this. Don't take this the wrong way, but I would rather just sit in the green room and watch the show from there with the guests." What? I asked Desmond if he had, well, lost his mind. "I just don't want to jinx winning the award by doing this," he told me in all sincerity. I explained to him that he gets plenty of shots at network television, but this brief "brush with greatness" was my only shot. Besides, it was widely agreed that Desmond was going to be a landslide winner. It is also impossible to jinx winning an award that has already had the vote completed and tallied. "C'mon, Dez, have a heart," I said. "Nope," he answered, "just can't jinx it." And then Desmond dropped his head back and laughed that infectious, high-pitched laugh of his. And I knew there was no talking him out of this. The green room it was. Virtually every entertainment star of the last 60 years had sat in there,