Guest Columnist: Sage Steele

It all started in 1984. I was an 11 year old girl living in Colorado Springs, Colorado and fell in love. His name was John Elway (sorry Colts fans!) Every Sunday when the Broncos were on, I went into a superstitious frenzy – putting on my Broncos sweatshirt, Broncos boxer shorts and Broncos socks and sat on the couch “criss-cross-applesauce” with my right leg crossed over my left. If I didn’t sit that way every time, I just knew the Broncos would lose. On days when those nail-biter games, sometimes I even crossed my toes and my eyes to will them to victory. Pathetic, although I KNOW some of you Ravens fans can identify with me, right!?

Recently during one of our shows here at ESPN, I met John Elway and actually admitted my long-time crush on him – including the fact that I had a poster of him on the ceiling above my bunk bed in my college dorm room. Needless to say, he looked at me kind of strangely, gave me a nervous smile, and walked away. So much for more than two decades of undying support! All I really MEANT to say was that he is the reason why I became a sportscaster. The passion that exhumed the state of Colorado every Sunday rubbed off on me and I just knew that I wanted to be a part of it. So that’s my story. Along with the unintentional influence by my father – he was an All-American football player and track star at West Point in the late 1960’s -- I knew at an early age that this was what I wanted to do.

But NOTHING could have prepared me for my first NFL locker room experience. I was a fresh college graduate interning at WISH-TV, the CBS affiliate in Indianapolis back in 1995 when the sports director ran up to me saying he needed me to go into the locker room and come back with post game sound from QB Jim Harbaugh. No problem, right?! At least not until I stepped foot into the locker room after the Colts preseason game against the Bears. As a young, sweet, innocent 22 year old intern, let’s just say I had never experienced anything like that before – 75 naked men running around whipping each other with little white towels after a victory. I’ve never run so fast in my life – straight out of the locker room! From that moment on, I was fine. I learned many lessons – including the unwritten locker room rule that if you drop your pen while taking notes, don’t pick it up! Ever!

Overall, I spent 9 years in NFL locker rooms – 1 year with the Colts, 3 years with the Buccaneers and 5 years with the Ravens. The first question everyone always has for me is, “what’s it like in the locker room?” My response is always the same, “smelly and uncomfortable at times, but overall, very similar to high school gym class”.

My time covering the Ravens was truly the best time of my career. I grew a lot professionally, as well personally – having 3 children during the time I covered the team – which is why I eventually hung up the cleats and decided to stay on the anchor desk full-time. But I look back fondly… it was fun, growing (literally and figuratively!) right alongside many of the players with whom I worked -- many of whom still call 1 Winning Drive home. That was – and continues to be – one of the best parts of being a sportscaster: getting to know the real side of these star athletes. Overall, they’re passionate, sensitive, hard working PEOPLE who happen to be pretty good football