Tonight as we sat at our table, someone said to look at our guest speaker at the next table and asked if he was out of high school yet. This guy looked way too young to match his career. He was introduced as the senior writer for Sports Illustrated and has been with them for 19 years. Again we all looked at each other and said no way.
Lars teaches Sports Journalism Ethics at Bama and had some interesting names that has attended his classes. His speech was pretty much about his career with SI and his love for doing what he does. The two things that he has done that seemed to be his favorites was his story on Carson Tinker and the friendship he has developed with Dale Earnhart Jr. One of the most interesting parts of his speech was him describing the SI swimsuit production. He said that everybody that works for SI wants to be assigned to handle that job, especially since they paint on some of the bikinis now.
Lars seems to be a better writer than he is a speaker, he had his speech written and pretty much read it. During the question and answer session he was asked his opinion on the possibility of the Super Conference and was very excited to talk about the playoff system and the possibility of the new conference. Lars also said that Nick Saban is the most intriguing person that he has ever interviewed. He really likes him a lot and what he has done at Bama and in Tuscaloosa. He was with CNS during the tornado recovery and was so impressed with the time and effort that CNS gave to the victims of the storm.
I'm glad I got to meet him and I admire his love for what he does, not everybody likes their job.