Special contributor Kristi Scales recently held a chat to talk all things Dallas Cowboys. Here are some highlights:
Question: What is the best story you've ever covered in your 25 years with the Cowboys?
Scales: My all-time favorite story in 25 years with the Cowboys is not on-the-field. It's from my time as a judge at Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader auditions. In 2007, we had a rookie cheerleader named Christina Murphy. Wonderful dancer, beautiful girl. And a unique, inspiring story. Christina is deaf. She's never heard a note of music. Never heard her own voice or the voice of her mother. Yet she was a beautiful dancer even though she never heard the beat. Back during her rookie year, she was a college student attending school in Ft Worth. I love Christina and still find her story so inspiring. She earned the right to be on the DCC. It was not a sympathy vote. In fact, you would never know she was hearing impaired. The only compensation the DCC had to make with Christina was that she did not dance on the front row. That's because she couldn't hear the music start. She had to take visual cues from the dancers in front of her so that she knew the dance had begun.
Question: What type of things are athletes more comfortable talking about off the record rather than on it?
Scales: Sometimes it's fun to talk to guys about their families/kids and off-field interests, but they don't always want to bring attention to their kids in the public eye. So some of them are guarded about talking about their private lives or family life in a public setting. Also, the truly professional guys would never call-out teammates or former teams and former coaches publicly. But sometimes you can get them to tell stories off-the-record. But as a reporter, you would use that kind of information for purposes of context and not attribute it to a player who wants to stay off-the-record.
