There was a blob of mustard hanging from the right side of his mouth, which presented me with a conundrum: tell the man who was hiring you, whom you had read for so long, that there was, indeed, a big bit of mustard on his mouth, or let it go and continue the discussion like nothing was happening.
I, for some odd reason, chose the latter. My first in-person meeting with Phillip Marshall, the great Phillip Marshall, was not going to be interrupted because some young punk told him he was missing a spot. In fact, I never told him about this.
Sure, that’s a weird way to begin a tribute to someone you worked for, admired and learned so much from, but that was all I could get out of my head last night when I was thinking of how to start this. Phillip always told me that anyone could write a game story, but the special ones find the true story behind the game that made it unique. That was pounded into my head for the six months I worked underneath the legendary sports writer back in 2015. It is something I carry to this day.
And if Phillip had had his way, I would never have left 247Sports in May 2015 for another job, but I had already committed to a company in Chicago. While I don’t rue the move, it is an alternate history that may have changed a lot about my life.
Phillip Marshall was larger than life to many sports writers
But back to someone we loved, and why we did. Phillip was the pro’s pro, and I am certain that everyone who has worked on the Auburn beat has their unique stories of why he was so beloved. He inspired us, made us want to be better, ask better questions, write grander stories and make an impact with our words. He was larger than life to me, someone I grew up reading about from my bedroom in northeastern Kentucky, wondering how lucky he was to be covering Auburn, the school and team I loved and where I would eventually graduate.
To be able to meet him, and for him to take a chance on me, meant so much years later. Even after I left, he was there with advice, whether it was during my fiasco out at Pullman, debating returning to Auburn as a beat writer, or, more recently, on how to handle all the hatred and vitriol I received for being close friends with a head coach who ended up failing.
Despite the rough exterior that some people found, Phillip was kind and funny, and, for many reasons, made press conferences a lively event. The number of times he asked a question out of the blue when someone else’s name was called is up there, but what were you going to do? It was Phillip Marshall.
In a time when sports journalism is ever-changing, and much of it not in a good way, Phillip was one of the last standards in the field. The number of lives he touched through his words, opinions, mentorship and friendliness is incalculable. He was the gold standard.
Auburn, the state of Alabama and college sports lost a good one on Friday. I lost a friend and mentor, mustard on the mouth be damned.