Oregon Ducks Coach Chip Kelly Endorses THE SPORTS BANK!

It’s amazing how fast things in life can turn around. Nine days ago I was relegated to a couch, coughing my guts out with pneumonia, looking out the windows at grey overcast skies in Chicago.

Yesterday, I’m in sunny and 82 degree Pasadena, enjoying the absolutely first rate hospitality a media member receives when covering the Rose Bowl; the greatest bowl game of them all. And to top it all off:

I’m told by the winning coach of a BCS game (Oregon Ducks’ Chip Kelly) that my business and marketing ideas are superb! In a crowded room full of my media peers no less!

Kelly was in a great mood last night after winning his first BCS game in three tries. I’ve been told he usually doesn’t joke around much in press conferences, so my back and forth with him was a special treat.

Protocol dictates you state your name and affiliation before asking your question, so when Kelly heard “Paul Banks from The Sports Bank.net” this happened.

PB: How does it feel

CK: You have a website named after you?

PB: I came up with the idea, yes.

CK: That’s awesome.

PB: Thank you. I’ll take that as an endorsement for the site.

CK: Write it down.

PB: How does it feel to get your first BCS win and to do it in a game that people will be talking about for a while, because this is really trending all over the internet all day?

CK: Another internet word, trending. That’s good. We’re just excited for the win. I think a lot has been made out of we hadn’t won a BCS game before.

To be honest with you, I think that could be the case if we had been in seven or eight or nine of them. We’d only been in three.

We’re 1-2 right now, but we take each game individually, and that’s what we’ve always talked about. For us to go away from that, I think these guys would think I was crazy if we all of a sudden started to build it up as that.

We believe it’s on the line every day we step on the practice field. We believe it’s on the line every game we play in, and that formula works for us. We’re 34 6 in the last three years because we take every game like it’s the Super Bowl.

Some people don’t believe that, but you watch these guys practice every day and watch how they get after practice this past Tuesday, this past Wednesday, and it’s on the line every day for us. That’s what works for us, and we’re going to stick to that.

It feels great. Any time you win it feels unbelievable. And the thing that gets you excited is when you can share it with your players, and they see kind of the fruits of their labor pays off. I’ve never been around a harder working group of guys.

But that’s why you win. There are no shortcuts to success. If you work hard, you’re going to have an opportunity to be successful, and these guys get it, and that’s what I’m proud of.

And of course, lots of laughter ensued in the media room during this repartee.

I’m working on getting the audio.

And I used the “trending” term in reference to the fact that earlier in the day “Rose Bowl,” “Rose Bowl 2012″ and “Rose Parade” were 3 of the top 15 trending terms on Alexa.

I had another exciting improvised banter at a press conference last year- with North Carolina Tar Heels coach Roy Williams (read the transcript here)

Paul M. Banks is CEO of The Sports Bank.net, an official Google News site generating millions of unique visitors. He’s also a regular contributor to Chicago Now, Walter Football.com, Yardbarker, and Fox Sports

A Fulbright scholar and MBA, Banks has appeared on live radio all over the world; and he’s a member of the Football Writers Association of America, U.S. Basketball Writers Association, and Society of Professional Journalists. The President of the United States follows him on Twitter (@Paul_M_BanksTSB) You should too.