Best of SI presents a story about video star Michael Crane, who missed his Master's opportunity after robbing a bank.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00 [BLANK_AUDIO]
00:04 I may be the only person in the history of golf that was able to upstage
00:09 Tiger Woods on Master's Week.
00:11 Now, it took doing some dumb stuff to do it, but I couldn't beat him in golf, so
00:16 I guess I go rob a bank.
00:17 Grew up in a small town probably 20 minutes north of Birmingham.
00:23 Your typical rural, small town America, you always get asked the question,
00:27 what do you wanna be when you grow up?
00:29 And without hesitation, I worked for ESPN.
00:33 [MUSIC]
00:39 In '04 is when I was working, I think I worked 270 days.
00:46 I spent six months out of the country, started doing a little coke, and
00:50 just started partying.
00:51 And at first, I wasn't here to tell you, I was having a blast,
00:57 going out to clubs and traveling the world and hanging out with all these people.
01:03 And thought, man, I'm living that lifestyle I was always looking for,
01:10 and my kids are sitting at home while I'm out partying it up.
01:17 Drugs got worse, a little more frequent,
01:20 started missing shows here and there, get asked to do the Masters.
01:25 And at that time, that was about one of the only shows,
01:29 big shows in the world really that I had yet to do.
01:33 So I'm pumped cuz I'm a golfer, I play golf, and I'm, man, Masters.
01:38 And little did I know that that was gonna be one hell of a week.
01:44 [MUSIC]
01:47 The first practice round is on Monday, so I'm gonna drive over Sunday.
01:50 I'm gonna get a little bit, a little coke tonight just for the first round.
01:55 Hey man, pick up something.
02:00 Turned into an all night party and I go through all the cash I had and
02:03 smoking crack that night.
02:04 And the next morning, I wanted to get more cuz once you get started,
02:10 you want more.
02:12 It's one of those moments you look back on it and you go,
02:15 what the hell was I thinking?
02:17 Here all of a sudden I'm devising plans of how to maybe rob the Waffle House or
02:22 there's a Wachovia across the street.
02:25 And when I walked in that bank, I remember one,
02:31 I'm about to, I'm about to, and just,
02:35 it let a couple people go in front of me and was like, and
02:40 walked up and it was a note that said, hey, I've got a gun in my belt,
02:47 which I didn't, just maybe that, I need $1,500.
02:52 She goes, are you sure you wanna do this?
02:55 This is robbing a bank.
02:56 I was like, yeah, I just, yeah.
02:59 And so she gives me the money and I casually walk out.
03:04 It wasn't like I tried to cover my face.
03:06 I proudly walked in there with a brace cap on and get back to the car.
03:12 And the window was down.
03:13 I remember reaching out the door or
03:17 the window to shut the door and the die pack went off.
03:19 [MUSIC]
03:23 I remember placing an anonymous call.
03:26 Hey, I think I know where the guy that robbed the bank was.
03:29 So I just went outside and was sitting outside smoking.
03:32 All of a sudden there's eight cars that come piling in and just, God, what a blur.
03:39 And they were giving high fives and
03:43 celebrating like they had called Bonnie and Clyde.
03:48 And I'm going, guys, and then when I told them what I was in town for,
03:53 what I did for a living, I thought I was full of shit.
03:57 And it just snowballed from there.
04:00 CBS is having to call a press conference in New York to validate, yes,
04:06 one of our freelance employees, yes, he, yeah, that was one of ours.
04:13 And I remember riding to the jail and I'm sitting there thinking, okay,
04:20 they're gonna say that this was a mistake and
04:24 maybe I'll be out of here by the end of the week.
04:29 [MUSIC]
04:31 And it sent me to, I did 29 months.
04:34 [MUSIC]
04:36 Man, it shaped me into who I am in good ways.
04:44 It's also been something that has devastated me in ways.
04:50 [MUSIC]
04:55 I'm not where I'm at because he fought hard and fought his way back into TV.
05:00 No, I had people that love him that gave me second chances.
05:05 I robbed a bank and honestly, it was just maybe saved my life
05:10 because I was going down a pretty bad path.
05:13 [BLANK_AUDIO]