whoa and welcome to the last word in sports i'm dell'olio observer reporter in washington i'm your host today we have some special guests the third grade students at power hill elementary they're going to ask me some questions here about the sporting world and hopefully we can you know get through a lot of these questions today we're going to roll right into the questions go ahead with our first question or please up tell me your name in your question that jacob what did you why did you guys would retire you know jacob that's a good question you know you know thirty six years old may not seem like very old to a lot of people but i'm sure it seems ancient to you guys but you know everybody reaches an age when they play professional sports where they just can't play like they used to play they can't their body just doesn't do the things that it that it used to do and hines had reached that point in his career where you know he was starting to get injured didn't heal quite as quickly and you know it was kind of time for him to you know go into head the next phase of his life that's why you guys should enjoy all the sports that you can life while you can while you're young because at some point your body won't be able to do those things anymore but that hines had reached that point his in his life and do you think miami heat will win the lax and be a championship lion why not you know i think the miami heat have a very good chance to do to win the in the n b a championship i know last year they everybody picked them to do so once they got  you know all the guys they got chris bosh and doing wade but sometimes it takes a little bit of time for those guys to kind of to get used to playing with each other i think this year they're much more comfortable playing with each other and i think that they have an excellent chance of winning the n to barcelona spain and that was a lot of fun i had a lot of great memories from that week they played the san francisco forty nine ers over there and it was just a beautiful time you know just a great opportunity to go over there and do that i you know i remember the a f c championship game in one nine hundred ninety five when the steelers made their first super bowl as i when i was covering him that game ended in a hail mary pass and i happen to be down on the field at that point and to hear sixty five thousand people go completely silent while the ball was in the air was was kind of neat you could just feel everybody's breaths go and it was kind of it was kind of a really neat thing that i'll probably remember the rest of my life well you know i think if memory serves terry bradshaw threw for just over thirty thousand yards and in his career and i believe about two hundred fifty touchdown passes in his career the game was a little bit different back in the seventy's the receivers were allowed to be the quarterbacks were allowed to grab and clutch and hold the receivers a little bit more the game has opened up a little more in terms of passing in recent years and that's why you see guys like brett farve you know going over fifty thousand yards passing and it makes terry bradshaw numbers look you know kind of pale in comparison but it really is a different football game now than it used to be back in the seventy's until they change those rules you first spike i recall you about the first sports article that i wrote well when i was in college i'm going i'm going to say the first one that i had appear in an actual newspaper not counting my my college paper i went to newspaper got and got paid for it so those two teams always stick in my mind i remember the game it was a saturday games beautiful day outside and it was a very good football game and that was that was my first my first story say was the best quarterback ever the best quarterback ever you know that's very subjective question you know i think that when you look at what they accomplished throughout their career i would say joe montana will be considered one of the one of the best of all time foresees he's from would say that it was probably joe montana washington high school for example does not have a boys heisman high school volleyball team and they had two boys this past season play on their girls volleyball team you know in the past there have been girls who have played tennis you know because their school did not have a tennis team  you can do that it isn't to that that is ok but it has to be a situation where your team to your school does not offer that sport and you know that is that is your sport of choice but in college that's a little different because you know  can pick and choose what school you go to as opposed to the high school you kind of have to go to the high school where you where you live at person in the reporting business my favorite person in the reporting business can i say me no i'm just kidding you know i have a lot of guys that i had that i like to read a lot depending on the time of year i know the n f l draft is coming up right now to be at the end of it at the end of april i like to read a lot of stuff from the dallas morning news i think he does an excellent job with the with the draft information and i like to read him a lot as we head into the draft outside of that you know there's a lot of different you know the new york times is very good they get a chance to send reporters out and do very in depth stories just kind of more feature type stories on players and personalities in the sporting world and i like to read those a lot as well but you know this time you're my favorite and what inspire you to be a reporter you know i i when i went to college i love your piggly wiggly shirt there by the way when i went to college i was actually a biology major and really hadn't given a whole lot of thought  turning to writing but as i went through school i played some college basketball and i was always involved in sports throughout high school i played it played several different sports and you know i just i my roommate became the the editor of the college newspaper and i started hanging out over there a lot with those guys and just kind of morphed into suddenly i started writing for the paper and i changed majors and here i am today where guys are lining up at nowhere to put the ball at he's just he's probably one of the best in the game at doing that and i really think that you know having a having a great quarterback a guy who's who's a great leader and a great player i think will really help the team a lot certainly they will be one of the favorites to win the super bowl next year at least represent the a f c in the super bowl you know whether it works out that way we'll see he's coming off that of several neck surgeries which is kind of scary and you know you do have to wonder that you know if at thirty six he's the same age as hines ward maybe his body isn't isn't starting to break down a little bit as well so that's always going to be a concern but he's a fantastic football player colts suffered mightily for that and won the getting the number one overall pick in this year's draft and there are two outstanding young quarterbacks at the top of this draft kind of like in one thousand nine hundred eight when when peyton manning was coming out of college the indianapolis colts were a very bad football team at that point and had the opportunity to draft peyton manning and did so and it turned their whole franchise around they're looking at it is a way you know they're either going to draft not all over like at his father they're going to draft luck or  or they're going to they're going to get a chance to draft a quarterback they feel can be their quarterback for the next ten to fifteen years and maybe help them in the next step or the next phase of their they were going to zation so you know they took a chance it's tough to cut ties with somebody who's been as good to the organization as peyton manning has been to indianapolis but you know as we saw here in pittsburgh with with hines ward retiring and the steelers releasing him actually first you know at some  in every player's career you know the end has to come peyton manning still feels he can play some football that would be the difference between what he did and what hines ward did but you know they were both released and both you know peyton manning just want to still these guys for the first time a lot of the the un drafted rookies in and draft picks and you know you get an opportunity to talk to these guys for the first time and they're all it's all so new to them and you know you're learning about these guys for the first time you're talking to them for the first time and and then you're you're letting your readers know about these people they really haven't met them either they don't know much about about these guys and you know it's an opportunity to let them know you know the back story of how these guys got to this point in their career how they became pittsburgh steelers and that that's a fun thing for me spanking and if he does do you have any at all i did have i did one march madness bracket this year and i did have kentucky winning it but i had them playing ohio state in the championship game so i i did not win my bracket but you know i did have kentucky and of course a lot of people had kentucky winning they were very good basketball team and a deserving champion as they showed last night ten to twelve stories a week on a game day i'll write three to four stories we also of course now do blogs and everything like that which goes straight on to the internet that's something that's changed in the last several years so in addition to the stories that i do for the paper i also do a blog as well and that takes up a lot of time but i typically it's between three hundred fifty and four hundred stories which averages out to about a story a day in the paper so it's a pretty busy time and we're going to try to come back and get some more of these great questions in when the last word welcome back to the last word in sports i'm dale oddly the observer reporter in washington and we're here today with these third grade students from bower hill elementary they've been here today looking around the studio here the fantastic studio they have here peter's township high school and of course now they're asking me some questions about  the sporting world and we're going to roll right back into the questions go ahead and is anthony davis going to be the easy call for the first pick in the draft you know i really think he is he he really played very well throughout the tournament play very well throughout the season he's a fantastic defensive player a great rebounder can also score you know with his back to her to the basket were facing the basket either way i really think his athleticism is is what you're looking for in an n b a big man and yeah i think he's going to be the number one overall pick say do you think the penguins will go to the stanley cup finalists well you know i think if you'd asked that question two weeks ago i think everybody would have said yes but in the last couple weeks they've struggled a little bit kind of hit a little bit of a lot and you know they have a tough series coming up the open the stanley cup playoffs with the philadelphia flyers who just beat them on the other day they have another game with them to close out the regular season i think you know if you were if you were picking the favorites to come out of the east i think the penguins would still be one of the favorites to come out the east and i think they have an excellent opportunity to win this the stanley cup playoffs but you know i think that the that the way they've played in the last two weeks is a little bit scary heading into the playoffs or their defense hasn't been quite up to par you know they've they've been a great off sense of team all season long but their their defense are started to waver a little bit here down the stretch and i think they need to pick up the intensity a little bit heading into the playoffs and and should be able to do that i think they you know at least make the eastern conference finals but again i  think they're one of the favorites remember him being in the contest early on when he first got into the n b a but once he became an established star i don't think he entered a dunk contest a lot i would say i want to say he wanted at least once maybe twice but now you're testing my my my who was who was around that same height i believe he was seven foot five the difficult thing for guys who are that big is that they don't move or a well and so they're basically more or less just kind of defensive guys who stand you know there and try to block shots and those kind of things but  i believe those would be the two bigger guys  what do you like about your job you know i like a lot of things about my job i like getting the opportunity to go out and meet new people you know and talk to new people and tell their story i like going to cover the games and being there and seeing the you know the action live you know i get to cover all the steeler games home and away so you know i get to see a lot of different places i've been to every n f l stadium in the league and some that you know some stadiums that aren't in the league and some that aren't even here anymore so you know it has been a great opportunity to travel and see some things that i would not have normally seen and and made a lot of people that i would not have normally met and tell their story so that's one of the big fun things about my  job do you think will win the stanley cup this year you know i mean a couple weeks ago i probably would have said the penguins will win it hands down with with ease but you know i think that they've stumbled here in the last couple weeks and i kind of like st louis at this point i think that they're they're very good defensive team and i think that defense wins in the playoffs and i think that you know that's probably the team it's you know it's either going to be st louis or pittsburgh to win the stanley cup taking phone calls in the office track meets in those kind of things that's not a lot of fun it's more or less just from work but you know it's all part of the job i do get to you know talk to a lot of people on the phone when we take those things over the phone  and you know sometimes you don't actually ever meet that person but you talk to them even you form a relationship with them on the phone and maybe some you know ten years later you meet them you feel like you know them already because you talk to them you know one hundred times on the phone but that's one of the my least favorite things is just sitting in the office when it's a nice beautiful day out like today and and you're stuck in the office taking phone calls i'm martin and what do you think is the best position to play in hockey the best position to play in hockey but that's a tough question because you know there's there's a lot of different things i think if you want to make the money you know i would say the best position will probably be center because they get the chance to to score more points or goalie you know i probably tend to think i would like to play if i had to play a position probably goalie you know i'm going to get hit as much sure you're going to have to face some pox hard hard hit  at you but there's no opportunity for somebody to check you into the boards or or you know get slashed or anything like that the goalies are usually pretty protected in those in that in that regard and they get they can play a lot longer i think that may be you know somebody who's out on the ice skating around because speeds not really a factor and so it's you know can use your reaction time in that kind of thing so i would probably say goalie hi i'm mason and what is your favorite football team to report about my favorite football team to report about why i really don't have a favorite football team per se because when you're a writer you kind of have to to separate yourself from any kind of fandom that you that you had when you were growing up i grew up i was a fan of the detroit lions because i like billy simms and barry sanders are two running backs but you know when i when i took the job as a professional i kind of separated myself from that and i still watch a game you know i watch pretty much any n f l game and enjoy the game for what it is and sometimes you're still a fan you want to see certain players do well you know you have to admit that because you talk to these guys on a regular basis and you have you know you form some friendships there but you know at the same point you have to you know kind of separate yourself from all that and still to still stay true to the story so you know if that part if that player makes a mistake or that team does not play well you know you  to write and report on that and but you know i went to college at pitt i have a pit degree and i still enjoy watching the pitt panthers play a lot because i've never had to cover them if i had to cover them that would probably be a little bit different but  in terms of that that would probably be probably be my favorite football team your legs before and that to me takes a lot of talent a lot of skill with their back to the net and you know just come kind of come through and then return a ball between your legs i would say that to me that's that's probably the move that impresses me the most  in tennis because you know you kind of have your back to them that in the get to get anything on it to get any kind of return on that is really astounding to me was your favorite pitfalls while playing my favorite pit football player but there's been a lot of good ones you know when i was a kid they had huge green who was who finished second in the heisman voting as a defensive player which really doesn't happen all that often to garner that kind of interest he was an outstanding football player obviously tony dorsett was a very good football player larry fitzgerald was was a fantastic football player they've really had a number of great football players over the years guys who have gone on to star in the n f l in  was your favorite hockey team my favorite hockey team well you know i'm not a huge hockey fan but if i have to sit and watch a game and probably be the penguins so you know that would probably i guess be my favorite hockey team you guys have a very good hockey team here peters township high school the boys team here peters township has been very good over the years and you guys should enjoy that go out and see the games when you get an opportunity because you know these are the guys you know the people that someday will be going to school with and that's a great thing you know that they're they're able to play at a high level like that baseball babe ruth played baseball you know babe ruth is it was an interesting character because he started out in major league baseball as a pitcher and was a very good pitcher early on in his career who you know they found out he could hit very well he played about i  to say eighteen that eighteen years in the in major league baseball and spent those first four or five years as a pitcher who didn't you know who didn't play every day and then kind of turned into an everyday player later on in his career probably could have been a hall of fame pitcher as well my name's dave said and when you went to football game do you get to dump the water on the coach i don't get to know that the players off them will dump the gator aid or water on the coach after they win a big football game a championship game of some type a meaningful we had one more question the bass player is the best player in the steelers you know i think the best player that i've seen since i've covered him will probably probably be rod woodson he's now in the hall of fame fantastic football player played very long time and in the n f l as both a quarterback and a safety the best player now i would i would probably say is troy polamalu just a fantastic player great person great human being you know he is as good as he is on the football field he's a better person field and that really means something i think you know he's he's just a fantastic person a fantastic player and i really enjoy talking to him just even not about football we just talk about anything and troy just a great guy to talk to and you guys have been great to talk to as well i've really enjoyed this time today i hope you guys enjoyed it i hope you enjoyed your time here at the high school today looking over all the the media services here at the school and for for the third grade students up our elementary i'm still only thanks for watching the last word