I have the opportunity to interview a few of the Cleveland Browns. Some of them I'm excited for, some of them I'm not. Just wondering what questions you guys might come up with? These are the players...

ABE ELAM
GREG LITTLE
JASON PINKSTON
MATT ROTH
JABAAL SHEARD
ALEX SMITH
LAWRENCE VICKERS
BENJAMIN WATSON

"Do you like playing for the Browns?"
"Do you like playing in Cleveland?"

Both questions should be asked with a sarcastic/condescending tone.

Well Vickers and Roth don't really plan on being on the Browns this year, and Vickers was done kinda dirty, so I'd imagine he's not really going to be happy. Little, Pinkston, Sheard, and Watson would be cool to talk to. I'd as Little what kind of things he did in the year he had off and if he believes he can be a #1. I'd also ask him if he plans to embrace Cleveland like Joe Haden has.

iclfan2;820158 wrote:Well Vickers and Roth don't really plan on being on the Browns this year, and Vickers was done kinda dirty, so I'd imagine he's not really going to be happy. Little, Pinkston, Sheard, and Watson would be cool to talk to. I'd as Little what kind of things he did in the year he had off and if he believes he can be a #1. I'd also ask him if he plans to embrace Cleveland like Joe Haden has.

Excellent questions for Little.

Little: "what are your first year expectations?"

Pinkston: "How does it feel being a Pittsburgh guy (former Steelers fan) now playing for what was the "enemy?" "Do you feel you'll be in the mix to start from game 1?"

Sheard: "Do you feel you're better against the run or getting at the QB?"

Watson: "Do you still have that restraining order against Mantooth?"

Roth (looking to get paid/play for a "winner" in a 3-4) and Vickers (kinda got hosed) won't be here.

Kinda pissed about Vickers myself.

hoops23;820228 wrote:Kinda pissed about Vickers myself.

I'll be livid if he ends up in Shitsburgh or Crackmore. Best blocking FB in the NFL.

Elam's brother is gonna be a great safety at Florida.

To Watson, "why have you not lived up to the expectations the OC has for you?"

I'll be doing the interviews sometime this week, whenever the lady from Rosenhaus gets back to me. ANY more legit questions? Never interviewed anyone before so any help anyone can provide is aweomse. I've wrote down some of the questions already mentioned. As soon as the interviews are done and I've put it in an article format, I'll post it here.

Legit question here: At what age did you start not only to dream of playing in the NFl, but realized that dream may actually come true?

OhioStatePride2003;821955 wrote:I'll be doing the interviews sometime this week, whenever the lady from Rosenhaus gets back to me. ANY more legit questions? Never interviewed anyone before so any help anyone can provide is aweomse. I've wrote down some of the questions already mentioned. As soon as the interviews are done and I've put it in an article format, I'll post it here.

what are you interviewing for?

Pick6;822016 wrote:what are you interviewing for?

I write for a website, brownsgab.com, and was given the opportunity that way. All the players I'll be interviewing will be Drew Rosenhaus clients.

Ben Watson: How does it feel to be the best player in football? With your title being the GOAT, do you feel an obligation to mentor the rest of the players even though it is impossible for anyone to live up to your amazing abilities and physique?

Laley23;822170 wrote:Ben Watson: How does it feel to be the best player in football? With your title being the GOAT, do you feel an obligation to mentor the rest of the players even though it is impossible for anyone to live up to your amazing abilities and physique?

Sure.

OhioStatePride2003;821955 wrote:I'll be doing the interviews sometime this week, whenever the lady from Rosenhaus gets back to me. ANY more legit questions? Never interviewed anyone before so any help anyone can provide is aweomse. I've wrote down some of the questions already mentioned. As soon as the interviews are done and I've put it in an article format, I'll post it here.

Since you have never interviewed anyone, this may be a bit harder for you, but try to avoid just rifling through a list of questions. Try to listen to what they are actually saying and ask follow up questions off of their responses.

Although I'm guessing you will get fairly standard athlete cookie cutter answers, so playing off their responses may be difficult.

Seriously though, if you are interviewing them for your own personal use (ie, not for the news or someone else who wants specific questions) than figure out an angle or story that you want to run with for your website. Then ask questions that will more than likely get responses you can mold around the story. For instance, if you want to run a story about newcomers or something ask questions that will get specific answers to how the rookies are doing etc.

That is what I do when I am given freedom in my interviews with sports guys for the news. You cant change quotes and you cant purposefully (or even on accident really) put their quote in a story that is completely out of context. But you can use their answers and cut them how you want to fit in with the way you want your story to go. It might even go well if you tell them "I am putting together a story about __________" and then the questions asked may get more specific answers. I usually try to do that, and it will also avoid them getting upset when you trim a longer answer down to like 1 sentence to fit the best part of the answer into the story. If they dont know what your angle is, and see a quote (while true) that is way shorter and not directed to the question asked versus the story, they will be more upset and future interviews wont go well for you.

Laley23;822665 wrote:Seriously though, if you are interviewing them for your own personal use (ie, not for the news or someone else who wants specific questions) than figure out an angle or story that you want to run with for your website. Then ask questions that will more than likely get responses you can mold around the story. For instance, if you want to run a story about newcomers or something ask questions that will get specific answers to how the rookies are doing etc.

That is what I do when I am given freedom in my interviews with sports guys for the news. You cant change quotes and you cant purposefully (or even on accident really) put their quote in a story that is completely out of context. But you can use their answers and cut them how you want to fit in with the way you want your story to go. It might even go well if you tell them "I am putting together a story about __________" and then the questions asked may get more specific answers. I usually try to do that, and it will also avoid them getting upset when you trim a longer answer down to like 1 sentence to fit the best part of the answer into the story. If they dont know what your angle is, and see a quote (while true) that is way shorter and not directed to the question asked versus the story, they will be more upset and future interviews wont go well for you.

I greatly appreciate the advice. I can ask whatever I want, so I've been trying to come up with stories. Would you recommend involving all the interview answers into one story? Or individually?

OhioStatePride2003;822675 wrote:I greatly appreciate the advice. I can ask whatever I want, so I've been trying to come up with stories. Would you recommend involving all the interview answers into one story? Or individually?

That all depends. I did a story for Channel 13 (ABC in Toledo) 4 years ago as an intern. I didnt have my own choice, but I had some leeway on what to do. Decided to go with the expectations of the team after the 10 win season. We only asked players who had been there the year before obviously, and we split it up into veterans and newer players because the answers were that noticeably different. Then asked the newcomers what it was going to be like to join the team after 10 wins. That was one story, but 3 seperate sections and answers to work with on it... Then we did some individual stuff with Quinn, Winslow and Braylon.

So if you want to get a broader story about the whole team, I suggest asking the same or similar questions. But if you want to ask specific questions about the transition to route running in college to NFL, obviously that will be specific to Little. Or about guys moving from warmer places to Cleveland would be specific to those players etc. If you are being granted the interview, you will probably have 1-1 I assume, so you can really get in quite a few questions. If it isnt 1-1, you may only be able to get in 2 questions or so because other media (Plain Dealer, Channel 3, etc, etc will have people there asking questions and the players wont sit there forever and you cant count on the way the interview is heading getting back to your angle). If it ISNT 1-1 try to get an initial and follow up question in early and the rest of the guys may steer the interview that direction and you could get lucky with some great stuff you didnt think of.

Awesome. I got an email from the lady at Rosenhaus today, and one of the players I'll be interviewing tomorrow evening is Lawrence Vickers. I don't even know how to begin to approach this one. He's probably not even going to be in Cleveland this year!

45 minutes 'til I call up Mr. Vickers. This is goin' to be a tough interview I feel.

OhioStatePride2003;823665 wrote:45 minutes 'til I call up Mr. Vickers. This is goin' to be a tough interview I feel.

How did it go?

It went great! It'll go live tomorrow morning on brownsgab.com! Thanks for the advice, it was a lot of fun. He really wants to remain in Cleveland from what I can tell. Really awesome guy.

Just read your article (interview). Good stuff. Gotta love a guy that wants to be a Brown and plays the game the way he does.

Thanks royal_k! For anyone else, here's the article. . .

http://www.brownsgab.com/2011/07/08/lawrence-vickers-better-friend-than-foe-for-the-browns/