For a brief period in 2002, I became a minor celebrity in the world of sports.   The fame was extremely short-lived, and perhaps the word “fame” is a bit of an overstatement, but I got my moment in the sun.  And I owe it all to ESPN and to hockey star Vincent Lecavalier.

Although I consider myself a big sports fan, I normally don’t follow hockey that closely (except for the Winter Olympics, the Stanley Cup Finals, and the 2004 movie Miracle).  To the extent that I do follow hockey, I consider myself a fan of the NHL’s Columbus Blue Jackets, a team that has never advanced very far in the playoffs, and a team for whom I cannot name a single current player.  I remember going to one Blue Jackets game back when I lived in Ohio, but that’s about it.

Since I at least typically pay attention to the Stanley Cup Finals, let me congratulate the Tampa Bay Lightning, who just tonight won the 2020 Stanley Cup in a season that was completed over three months later than originally scheduled.  Seeing the Lightning playing for the Stanley Cup reminded me of my 15 minutes of fame, as it was a Tampa Bay player who provided me with my big moment 18 years ago.  Here’s how it happened.

In January 2002, ESPN posted a picture of Tampa Bay Lightning player Vincent Lecavalier on its website and asked readers to come up with a caption.  Lecavalier was celebrating after scoring a game-winning goal.  Although the photo no longer appears on the ESPN website, and Google searches also can’t seem to track it down, I might have printed off a copy in 2002 and saved it this entire time.  Here’s a low-quality version of my copy of the picture of Lecavalier jumping into the glass behind the goal:

It looked to me like Lecavalier was trying to celebrate by jumping into the stands, like football’s famous “Lambeau Leap” performed by Green Bay Packers players during home games.  Surely he wouldn’t actually try to do this, would he?  The glass surrounding the ice is so tall that it just simply doesn’t work.  Hence the faceplant into the glass.  So, I wrote my caption: “Vincent Lecavalier finds out why the Lambeau Leap doesn’t work for hockey.”  The next day, ESPN posted its best captions, and behold, mine was one of the ones selected!  The results can still be seen here.

I had done it!  My name appeared on ESPN’s website as a caption winner!  Of course, I didn’t actually win anything.  There was no prize.  No money.  No interview on SportsCenter.  No guest appearances on Leno or Letterman.  ESPN did not offer me a job as their new caption writer.  Nothing really came of it, except for some comments from some other people I knew who had seen it.  So, I guess I didn’t really become that famous.  But it was pretty cool.  My name and caption made it on ESPN’s website, and are still there to this day.  This was even before the days of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and everything else that allows people to be all over the internet whenever they want.

So, thank you, Vincent Lecavalier, for your failed Lambeau Leap which brought me my 15 minutes of fame.  I hope your face is okay.