Racking Out Larry Johnson

"Racking Out" is a term used for when you acquire multiple items signed at one time. If this is the definition then my autograph pursuit with Larry Johnson earlier tonight was the epitome of "racking out". All of the wasted time of waiting around for hours, in search of autographs yet walking away with nothing, were made up for with my experience with Cincinnati Bengal Larry Johnson.

700 WLW FM hosts a Bengals radio show every Monday night from 6-9 pm during football season. "Bengals Line" is hosted by former Cincinnati Bengal player Dave Lapham and local radio host Lance McAllister and features discussion and analysis of the previous Bengals game. One, and many times two, current Bengals players make an appearance at Dickmann's Sports Cafe in Northern Kentucky to appear live on Bengals Line and sign autographs for fans during commercial breaks. This season star rookie Rey Maualuga, Keith Rivers, Chris Crocker, Cedric Benson and Andre Caldwell are some of the players that have showed up for Bengals Line.

The early report before Bengals Line was that Larry Johnson and Jonathan Fanene were appearing on the show this evening. I was running a bit late tonight, so I was listening to Bengals Line while driving to Dickmann's. The show hosts were taking telephone calls from listeners and promoting the fact that Larry Johnson would be the guest "during hour number two". Since I did not hear Fanene on-air, I assumed that he was not appearing after all. Upon arriving at Dickmann's, a fellow collector informed me that only Johnson would be appearing this evening.

Larry Johnson arrived around 7:00 pm to great applause and took his place in the radio booth. He did not immediately begin signing, as he was engaged in conversation with the radio show hosts off the air and appeared to be texting on his cellphone. Eventually, Larry started signing for the line that had formed and after a few minutes I was at the front of the line. I handed 5 photos and a silver sharpie to the staff member, who in turn had Johnson sign them for me. I had some really nice photographs of Johnson from his time in Kansas City and some from yesterday's game against the Cleveland Browns. I gathered my items, went to the end of the now quite lengthy line and started waiting, once again, for my chance to get some additional autographs of Larry Johnson. After a couple of commercial breaks and not progressing much in line, I decided to go up to the staff member who was in charge of passing fan's items to Larry Johnson to be autographed. Since I have given the staff member photographs for his own personal collection in the past, I figured now was my time to call in the favor. I asked him if he could work my items in to be signed, at his convenience, and he said sure. I handed him the items and went back to my place at the end of the line. After about 20 minutes, I was back in front of the line and handed over another 5 photographs to be autographed by Larry Johnson. It was a major score when the staff member handed me back those 5 photographs signed, as well as the previous 5 that I had given him minutes earlier. Larry Johnson is one of the stars of the National Football League with Pro Bowl appearances and multiple seasons of putting up numbers that have established him as one of the best running backs over the last 5 years.

Opportunities do not come around often to add even a single autograph from a star NFL player to the collection, so I definitely took advantage of the situation to get as many signatures as possible. A few things worked to my benefit this evening. First, the staff members assisting with the signing know and like me, as I have often talked with them at previous signings. Secondly, the staff members take your items to be signed and hand them to the player. They often line up several items in queue so the player does not realize they are signing multiple items for one person. Thirdly, I have given these same staff members photos in the past which has helped position me in their good graces. Not that I do nice things expecting something in return, but never underestimate the benefits from being polite, friendly and even generous to those who are working an event or signing. While they might appear unfazed by the celebrity in attendance, the truth is that the event workers are fans, just like the rest of us. Protocol makes it inappropriate for them to bring stacks of photos or other memorabilia to get signed, so they truly appreciate it when someone thinks of them. Of course the value to me personally of the additional Larry Johnson autographs received tonight far exceeds the costs of photographs that I have provided to staff members in the past.

I ended up trading a collector some unsigned photos for a Bengals mini helmet so I had Larry Johnson autograph it as well. As Larry Johnson was leaving, he posed for a photo with me. Someone asked him to sign an autograph so I also had him sign a team-signed Bengals helmet that was already signed by several other Bengals players. Larry Johnson is under contract with the Cincinnati Bengals only for the remainder of this season so if he continues to succeed on the football field, there is a good chance that he will be a starting running back elsewhere next season. Overall, I ended up with a total of 19 items autographed by Larry Johnson making it was an extremely successful night.