December 2006 - Posts
by Stone Phillips, Dateline anchor
I love football. Always have. And when you hear my story, you'll understand why the "Pride of Pampa" is among my all-time favorite hours on Dateline. Covering the Harvesters' first home game this year and telling the green team's story felt like a blast from the past.
Like so many of the players in Pampa, Texas, I grew up watching my older brother play. Vic was a team captain for the Blocker Junior High Demons in Texas City, Texas. He played tight end and, like Pampa's James Coffee, was a pretty impressive punter.
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| WilMcCarley.com |
| Stone Phillips, in the stands, watching a Pampa High School football game. |
Although, I must say I never saw my brother punt with his opposite leg the way James did the night we were there, because his kicking leg was injured. James, my man, that was INCREDIBLE! Still, Vic was a fine player and later earned a football scholarship. Talk about tough acts to follow.
After our family moved to St. Louis, I reached playing age and couldn't wait to suit up. CONTINUED >>
In a heartwarming report, Dateline travels to Pampa, Texas to tell the real story of high school football, Texas-style.
by Matt Fields, Dateline producer based in Washington D.C.
It was early July. I was sitting at my computer writing a script about a murder trial in Northern California when I got the call from New York. The network was preparing for the return of NFL football on Sunday nights as well as the launch of a new drama, "Friday Night Lights," when our anchor, Stone Phillips, decided that he wanted to do a football story of his own.
It was a natural for Stone. He is, after all, a great athlete who grew up playing football and basketball and went on to have a very successful college career as Yale’s quarterback during the 1970s.
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| Courtesy Wil McCarley |
| Matt Fields (right) with Dateline's Stone Phillips. |
I found myself tasked with finding a high school somewhere in the country that would open its doors to our cameras, giving us an all-access behind-the-scenes pass, to tell a story about high school football from the inside-out. The challenge was daunting.
I thought, "There are thousands of high schools in the country, where do I even begin?" I quickly settled on Texas, the state famous for it's obsession with the sport, especially at the high school level, thanks in large part to H.G. Bissinger's Pulitzer Prize-winning book, "Friday Night Lights."
Then, I wondered, "With many of the unflattering stereotypes portrayed in the book and the movie that followed -- coaches pressured to win at all costs, players treated like gods, towns with priorities out of whack -- would any program be willing to let us in? Would any coach want a network newsmagazine following his family and his players from their living rooms to the classroom and the locker room? Eventually, the answer would be yes.
CONTINUED >>
There's nothing like a crime story to grab the public's imagination — and 2006 provided some of the most gripping in the past few years.
Here is Dateline's review of seven stories (in chronological order) that dominated the tabloids, caused a buzz among bloggers and were discussed at length by cable TV pundits.
by Dennis Murphy, Dateline correspondent
"Who ARE those guys?"
Remember Butch saying that to Sundance? The relentless trackers were on them. Unshakeable.
I felt that way about a detective we got to know covering the Nelson Serrano murder trial in central Florida. His name is Tommy Ray and he works for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement— the F.D.L.E., which is like the state's version of the F.B.I., supercops who get called in on the big cases.
In 1997, Tommy was put in charge of the investigation into an awful crime. Someone, or maybe more than one, had cooly walked into a family-owned manufacturing business and gunned down four people execution-style— three men and a woman— in the offices just off the shop floor where they made garment conveying tracks like you see at your dry cleaner.
Four families were devastated and united in their belief that a recently-ousted business partner had been the shooter or had paid someone to do it.
After digging into the history of bad blood at the plant— allegations of stealing, threats— Agent Tommy Ray came to believe the family was right. The fired business partner, a man named Nelson Serrano, had been the architect of the quadruple homicide.
"I know he was definitely involved," the detective told us, "I just wasn't sure how he pulled it off."
CONTINUED >>
by Jesamyn Go, Dateline web producer
Parents of teenagers know all too well: When it comes to holiday presents, kids want tech toys.
“Every year, they want laptops or iPods, always something along those lines of technical gadgets,” says John Armand, 46-year-old Dateline producer and father in a blended family of six kids — five of them teenagers.
But in a world where most teens know more about computers than their parents, and where there’s always an unseen danger — like predators lurking in chat rooms and social networking sites — what’s a parent to do?
CONTINUED >>
