Final thoughts
-
- November
- 19
The Jets helped send Curtis Martin out a winner today with a 19-16 win over the Steelers in overtime.
Me, too.
Sorry to make a surprise announcment in the middle of your NFL season, but this blog represents the last words I will be composing for The Journal News, the end of a wonderful 14-year career at the newspaper.
Life goes on, of course, but I couldn’t leave without thanking everybody who has contributed to or just read this blog. This type of dialogue was a very fulfilling exercise, I always felt like I learned something about the team I covered by the insightful comments posted beneath my roundabout ramblings. Trust me, I have a lot of mixed emotions about leaving the Jets beat. This is the team I followed growing up so getting paid to watch all their games was somewhat of a childhood fantasy. I will miss being in that press room on a daily basis, for all the frustrations of covering a team that is, how shall we say, somewhat tight-lipped, we always had a good laugh. And not just the other media members, the Jets players, coaches, PR department and management, those are good people.
But, mostly, I will miss knowing that I was providing a window to a world all of you were curious about. I love being a reporter, I love telling a story, I love discussing that story, I love talking sports. My job, and specifically this blog, allowed me to do all that.
I’ll still be in the business, I’m just going to be doing something else for a while. Life is about challenges. I’m challenging myself.
There are so many memories that come with working at one place for 14 years. I’m not going to bore everybody by going through them. I would like to acknowledge two people who greatly influenced the person I’ve become.
First is John Humenn, who is still a local editor at The Journal News. John was the one who first brought me to The Journal News, first as a freelancer covering an American Legion state tournament in Cooperstown, then as a part-timer and, finally, as a full-timer. The full-time job, at first, did not include writing, it was about laying out pages. John was good enough, even though he was the sports editor when the Rockland Journal-News was still a separate paper, to assume some of my pagination duties so I would have time to write. I can’t think of many people who would have ever done that.
Along the way, John has become a great friend. I can talk sports with him for a long time. I can talk music with him forever.
While I’ve obviously stayed in touch with John, the second person I want to thank I haven’t spoken to for probably eight years. Dave Georgette was the former sports editor of what was then Gannett Suburban Newspapers when I was a young buck anxious to start covering more pro games.
He brought me over to Westchester for a meet-and-greet, I believe the first time I had stepped foot into the Westchester office. I was a little intimidated stepping into Dave’s office.
I forget how it came up but shortly into our meeting, Dave learned that my wife was pregnant with our first child. So instead of talking sports and how I could further my career, Dave spent a few minutes showing me the different ways to properly hold a baby.
Maybe this doesn’t say much of me but that put a lot of things into perspective for me. If family doesn’t come first, then something is seriously wrong. While I strive to be the best reporter I can be, I’m obsessed with being the best father possible to my two daughters. So thank you Dave.
And, again, thank you for reading this. And, Aunt Rebecca, I guess this means I’ll see you at Thanksgiving rather than calling you from Dallas.
As the great Caruso sang at the end of Pagliacci, “La Commedia è finita!’’
Take care everyone,
Andrew
This entry was posted
on Monday, November 19th, 2007 at 12:32 am by Andrew Gross.
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Jane McManus 
good luck in whatever you do in the future, andrew. I really enjoyed your perspective on the jets this year, and how dilligently you updated this blog. it was a great jets win!
[...] One of the great Jets beat reporters has decided to hang it up. Andrew Gross noted in his final blog post that he will be ending his 14-year tenure with The Journal News. [...]
We’ll miss your insight and entertaining blogs. Good luck, Andrew. You’ll be missed.
Thank you, Andrew. I’m going to miss this blog and the other contributors who helped give this forum a little something extra. Whatever you do, we wish you well.
Dam, Dam Dam Dam/ I hope this was what you wanted. YOur insight wil be greatly missed, YOur take on the JEts and info surpased you fellow writers. I feel like I just watched one of the JEts get carted off the field
Thanks, Andrew!
Health & Happiness to you & your family… and break a leg, in your new endeavor!!!
Dear Andrew,
We are so proud of you! Best of luck as you move on to this new phase of your career. And don’t forget to always keep your writing germane to the situation at hand.
Mom
Andrew, thanks for listening to my rants and taking the time to actually address some of the issues raised.
Your diligence on game day through somtimes difficult circumstances is greatly appreciated and your insight invaluable.
Of course good luck in your future endeavors.
Andrew.
Good luck and thanks for making the blog interesting enough that it became part of my daily habit.
Rock on!
As another fairly decent reporter used to say Andrew, “Good night and good luck.” Here’s hopping that your new digs, wherever they are, will be as satisfying for you as living this “childhood fantasy” has been. You’ll be missed.
Andrew—best of luck. Reading your RSS feed has been a great way for this expat New Yorker to still follow the team.
Thank you …..... I always felt YOU wrote it like I saw it and skiped over the BS of other papers/blogs… I do feel like Vinny says about seeing the injured jet leave the field not to return…it hurts…. good luck in whatever/wherever you go..
I am so sorry to see you go, and even sorrier that I discovered this blog so relatively late. I have enjoyed it tremendously and will miss it sorely. It operates on a different level from other Jets’ blogs, and much, if not all, of that had to do with you and your team-like sensibility. You were our quarterback. Good luck with your lucky new team, wherever that may be. You are a class act.
You’ll be missed a great deal. Gross was one of the best, if not best beat writer for the Jets over the past few years.
Good luck!
Andrew,
Best wishes for you in your next job. I hope you can do something similar at the next place you are going to. Your blog was fun—because of you and your readers/posters. Btw, where are you going ? TV ?
Andrew,
Good luck in whatever career path you have chosen. I am not a frequent poster but an avid reader. Your friendly and insightful approach made it seem as if I was discussing the New York Jets with a fellow fan.
Best of luck,
Eric
Andrew –
I was sorely disappointed to read you were leaving. Yours is the only blog I can read. You’ve always kept the threads entertaining and at least two or three levels above the other beat reporters. That’s not to say they’re doing a poor job – you were just better. I wish you the best of luck in whatever career path you choose next…and I hope you check back here every now and then.
Andrew-
thanks for being a great read and a reliable, accessible contributor…
thanks
Say it aint so, Andrew. Say it aint so. I have enjoyed reading your stuff since Syracuse. I even read your stuff when you were writing about the O-Yanks, SUCO basketball and Oneonta sports(your column after Magic Johnson’s announcement that he had HIV still reigns as one of the most heartfelt pieces of sportswriting I have ever read.) And, I have enjoyed following the Jets on your blog this season, and I’m not even a Jets fan! Your insight and humor will be missed, but I am sure you will continue to employ your talent and experience into being a great father, husband and whatever else you decide to pursue. All of this begs the question: Is this is a merely a prelude to a musical comeback as the locally reknown drummer and prolific songwriter that you are? Hmmmm. Just make sure you blog on it. Good luck, man. Let’s Go ORANGE!
Good luck to you in
AG…Please come home…The new Jet Blog is like waiting for paint to dry. We get a little something every couple of days. Today is the 22nd and the last blog was the 18th. Nothing against Jake and Debbie, but we were spoiled with Andrew. Does anybody know if he has some kind of a Blog to reach out for.