Over the past 40+ years working in sports, I’ve often been one of the last, and sometimes the last, person to leave a venue.

There’s a general rule of thumb. Enter and exit through the same door. That way you know where you are, and more importantly, where your car is.

After an event at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, they were cleaning, or doing some kind of maintenance, in the area we had entered.

So naturally, we were directed to an alternate exit. On the opposite side of the arena.

We walked out into the night and the door closed behind us. Locked.

It was dark. Not “I should have brought a flashlight” dark. More like “we may not make it out of here” dark.

And then we realized something else. Construction zone. Which, in the dark, is less of a zone and more of a suggestion.

KRC looked around and said, “Well, this isn’t good. We could fall into an open hole because we can’t see anything.”

Fair point. I calmly reached into my briefcase, pulled out a flashlight, turned it on, and pointed it ahead of us.

“C’mon,” I said. “I’ll keep an eye out for holes so we don’t fall into one.”

We started walking.

A few steps later, he muttered, “I didn’t know I was working with MacGyver.”