Greg Simmons' Cowboys Camp Blog: Irvine road trip to see Rams' training camp

OXNARD, Cali. – Since the Cowboys had Monday off, our producer, Mike Klein, thought it would be a great idea to take the two-hour drive south to the University of California in Irvine to check out the Rams' training camp and the players we are calling the San Antonio three.

The San Antonio three are former Steele and Texas running back Malcolm Brown, former John Jay and Aggie wide receiver Josh Reynolds, and former Brackenridge and Oklahoma State defensive back Ramon Richards.

As part of our excursion, we thought it would be a pretty cool thing to do a Facebook Live on the KSAT home page for at least part of the trip down the Pacific Coast Highway.

If you have never made this leg, it's worth it to do it one time in your life. So, we hooked up the equipment, thanks to RJ Marquez at the station and off we went. 

It was about an hour video tour with my narration that sometimes was interrupted with me asking Billy, who was driving, how to refresh the computer so I could see all the comments.

There were quite a few, I must say, including one from Canada. Cool.

Mike Klein was the photographer, so I sat in the back the whole way down calling out the sights including beaches, surfers and Pepperdine University -- which looks like expensive condos and the like.

It was fun interacting with the viewers and followers, and I hope to do more of that.

We arrived in Irvine and had a little time to kill before the media check-in opened, so we decided to pull into an In-and-Out.

Now for those of you that don't know, In-and-Out hamburgers are to California what Whataburger is to Texas. The place was packed, especially at lunch time, but it killed enough time before we go into the Rams' camp. 

After a short walk with all our equipment as we pulled up, we noticed two things: one the UC Irvine mascot is the Anteaters, and two, there is hardly any media there.

In Cowboys camp, there is a throng of media for most of the camp from TV, radio, and newspaper.

In Rams camp, when we pull up to the media tent to check in, there maybe three people in the media tent. A crew from ESPN and one writer.

There would be a few more who trickled in before practice was over, but not much more.

I must say the Rams media relations department could not have been more helpful. They even assigned a single person to us to chase down former Steele and UT running back Malcolm Brown, former John Jay and Aggie wide receiver Josh Reynolds and former Brackenridge and Oklahoma State defensive back Ramon Richards.

The players could not have been nicer, and I think they enjoyed seeing some familiar faces from back home.

After interviewing the SA 3 in Rams camp, I had the opportunity to get in a few questions with the Rams' coach, 32-year-old Sean McVay. Also, McVay could not have been nicer. In all, it was a great trip thanks to some great people -- little did we know what was lurking ahead.  

READ: Cowboys Camp Blog - Day 4

We had to start back immediately since it was already 5:15 p.m. California time and if you have ever been on the 405 at rush hour you know why we were in a hurry.

A two-hour trip now becomes a four-hour excursion so all we can do is get on the road and pull over when it's news time.

Billy is the driver, so Mike and I hop in the back seat so that we can write and edit "The Nightbeat" on the way back to Oxnard or as far as we can get.

That's the beauty of the technology we have that we are able to do that.

It works -- we get both shows written and edited but now where to pull over? 

We are not going to make it back to Oxnard. It's now 9:15 p.m. so we decide the world famous Santa Monica Pier would be our best location at night with all the lights and the Ferris wheel.

Billy sets up our first location, but the shot is blocked by some trees, so I suggest just getting in the sand for a better shot. What's the ol' saying? The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

So I was about to find out. There was a young lady who has been standing next to Billy. Very nice and harmless.

She asked a few questions and that's about it. But just before we are about to hit the air another woman shows up. We had done a good job of keeping the light off as sometimes it can attract folks who want to be on TV. This woman, however, wanted to know if she could be in our commercial.

I suggested she should come back Wednesday when the light is better but she was having none of that. As soon as the light came on she started to get more and more agitated and when I started the broadcast at 10 p.m. -- lookout.

She came at me screaming she wanted to be in the commercial and demanded to know why I was being so rude as to not let her.  

Billy tried to frame her out of the shot but she kept coming at me. I avoided her and got out of the light so that she couldn't see me.

Billy ran in front of the camera to try and block her. All the while I'm trying to read the scripts in the dark while she is screaming "You are a sh--ty a--hole newscaster. You suck," over and over and over again at the top of her lungs.

Billy used his body to shield her words while I turned my back to try and shield the audio even more. It suddenly became clear this was out of control and I told the producer while we were in a soundbite. Do not come back to me on camera because I don't know what she's going to do. We didn't and the broadcast was over.

I later talked to David Sears who was anchoring with Isis Romero that night and he said they thought the sound was on tape at Rams training camp and not live. Until they were told in their ear we were bailing back to the studio.

I thought that was the end of it when we turned out the light but no. The lady followed us all the way back to the car in a parking lot adjacent to muscle beach and would not let up.

I told the guys to jump in the car and let's get out of here and we will have to find another place to do the 10:30 p.m. hit.

The other young lady was nice enough to give me her phone number in case the other lady decided to create even more drama about the incident. I thanked her and we were off as the other woman just stood next to the car.

We were able to find another location off the beach but still with the pier behind us. This time there was a fence behind me. I felt a little more secure but I was still looking over my shoulder. It's strange when you have lights in your face. Oftentimes you can't see trouble coming until it's already on you.

This is not the first time this has happened to me but that doesn't mean you aren't shaken.

I was talking to a friend of mine who has been an anchorwoman in Los Angeles now for approximately three decades and she told me they have had reporters sucker punched on that beach during a live shot.

I feel lucky now that the woman was not dangerous -- thanks to Billy for being there. By the way, Mike was guarding the car with all our equipment so when the woman approached him at the car he had no idea what had just happened. He just heard me suggesting loudly it was time to leave.

You do this for as many years as I have, you are going to see it all. On our way back to Oxnard my last question before I started working on Tuesday's rundown -- How late does Yardhouse stay open?

READ: Cowboys Camp Blog Day 5