Boston TV Reporter Grabbed By Overzealous Fan

"This is not ok." Those are the words of a Boston TV reporter grabbed LIVE on the air during a recent newscast.

Grant Hermes is an on the street news reporter for Boston's WHDH.

He thought it would be a typical day enjoying another moment in the limelight. To be a major market television reporter, especially in a respected market like Boston is a dream come true.

But this week, Grants rocket to fame caught some turbulence when an overzealous B's fan invaded Grant's personal space. The fan emulating a WWE wrestler bear hugged him from behind during the shoot.

According to the Boston Herald:

Hermes was doing a standup report outside TD Garden, and the person came up from behind, flexed like he was in the middle of a wrestling ring, and shouted, “Yeah boy!”

As Hermes turns his head, the person screams out “Woooooo!” in wrestler legend Ric Flair style, and grabs the reporter around his chest. 

In the clip you'll see a clearly started Hermes, chase the fan off, before returning to the camera with a response.

I'm trying to imagine how I would react if I was that TV reporter and I found myself in this situation. It would seem that the fan may have had a drink or two. Or he was a typical overexcited Boston sports fan doing what they do. I know for me, I'd be startled if during a LIVE shot someone bear hugged me from behind. I do agree with the reporter in reminding people, that the reporters are working, and to interrupt them while doing their job is wrong.

Maybe the next time you want to bear hug a reporter after a Bruins game, ask. Imagine what a different story this would be?

Instead of the headline reading: Boston TV reporter Grabbed, would it read: Boston TV Reporter HUGGED?

It's not just the Celtics that are on a winning streak these days. The TD Garden gameday experience is beating almost every other NBA arena.

The rankings come courtesy of Betway. Here's the methodology: "Nine different factors were used to rank each city, and once the factors were collected, they were then normalized to provide each factor with a score between 0 and 1. The normalized values were then summed, to give each city a total score out of 9. The cities were then ranked from highest to lowest, based on their total scores."

So what are the factors that Betway considered? Here's the list: Championships won, Average ticket prices, Average win percentage, Home attendance, 12 oz beer cost, 16 oz soft drink cost, and hot dog cost. In other words, the foundational factors that would determine if the gameday experience at your city's NBA arena is a positive one or a negative one. Pretty comprehensive.

Before we get into the Top 10 and where TD Garden and your Boston Celtics landed, a quick plug. ROCK 92.9 is your radio home (sometimes) for the Boston Celtics. I won’t bore you with all the behind-the-scenes details, but suffice it to say, if the Bruins and Celtics have a game at the same time, you’ll hear the Bruins on the Sports Hub and you’ll hear the Celtics on ROCK 92.9. You can listen here.

OK, so let's get dig into the rankings and see where the the Garden and the Celtics ended up. There's a fancy graphic that Betway put together, too, so you can see the entire 28-city breakdown, complete with scores. Just scroll through, enjoy my witty commentary, and don't forget to listen for the C's on ROCK 92.9 as they continue their quest for Banner No. 18. Go Gang Green!

Home of the Golden State Warriors. Winning 4 titles between 2015 and 2022 will do a lot to boost that game day experience.

I know "serving the community" wasn't considered in the metrics for this list, but Hornets players have that down and it's a good look.

I've been to sporting events in Philly and the game day experience certainly is a blast. Food's great, too. And who doesn't want to see Embiid?

Good on Suns fans for showing up to watch Kevin Durant chase another ring in yet another city.

SLC is a special case. The Jazz are the only pro sports franchise in all of Utah, so is it any doubt that they rank this highly? All their "gameday experience" eggs are in one basket.

The Lakers. LeBron. The Hollywood elite courtside. 17 banners. I'm surprised L.A. didn't land at the top of this list.

The Spurs aren't what they were back in the early 2000s, but what the hell else are you going to do in San Antonio? Besides, Pops is a legend.

They have Kyrie now, so there's that. Lol.

The Gahden, kehd. We should be numbah one, for crissakes? Who the hell beat us? Better not be the f***ing Knicks!

The damn city is a non-stop party with great BBQ, so it's no surprise their gameday experience is No. 1.