How to mooch your way across the union

Beg, Borrow and Deal, the new ESPN reality show, is sort of a cross between Road Rules and Survivor. It's a cross-country battle between two teams, each vying for completion of a number of sports-related tasks. At the same time, the contestants must find shelter and transportation without the use of money.

Composing one quarter of Team Cobi is Tufts alum Joshua Gates (LA '99). Gates realized that qualifying for the show might be more than just a far-fetched dream after he met with the shows executive producer Neil Mandt.

Mandt encouraged him to send in an application and video to the show's headquarters and after reviewing Gates' applications and viewing his video, the producers flew Gates and fifteen others to New York City for the final round of decisions. When dust had settled, there were only eight left, and Gates was among those left standing. "Apparently they liked my video a great deal," he said.

While on the Hill, Gates majored in Drama and Archaeology. After college, he relocated to Los Angeles and did a bit of traveling in order to pursue his acting career. With his new role on Beg, Borrow, and Deal, Gates' dream is finally coming to fruition.

Interestingly, although Gates has always aspired to be an actor, the fact that his new role is on an ESPN created show is somewhat surprising. "I think [the producers] thought this would be a particularly difficult gauntlet for me to run," Gates said. He claims that he "lacks even the most cursory knowledge of sports."

The premise of Beg, Borrow and Deal is that two teams must make it from New York City to Los Angeles in less than 30 days, while completing a total of ten tasks along the way. They have 40 tasks from which to choose, ranging from the relatively benign (catching a pass from an NFL quarterback), to downright weird (throwing an octopus onto the ice at a Detroit Red Wings game, or playing a state governor in a game of Twister in his/her office). Though all are related in some way to sports, many are not your typical sports activities.

When questioned about the most difficult portion of the show, Gates gave a surprising answer.

"Begging, borrowing and dealing for transportation was the most difficult thing, because it usually involved a lot of money, or a lot of time and energy for a friend," he said. Anyone who brought them somewhere in a car would then have to turn around and drive back, and it was hard to find someone willing to pony up the money for a train ticket.

The contestants were not permitted to receive any aid that lasted longer than 12 hours (i.e. borrowing a friend's car). And because they were not allowed to handle money, their visits were almost always unannounced.

On the list of places he would have loved to visit, Boston was pretty high, but their direction of travel didn't take them near Beantown. "I didn't push for it," he said. "It was moving in the wrong direction."

Thanks to a non-disclosure clause, Gates was unable let any spoilers out about the show, but he was able to comment upon the way things worked. In order to perform their tasks, the team members would basically just show up at a major sports arena and demand to be let in. "So long as they let us explain the circumstances, things were okay," Gates said.

While at first confused and suspicious of their presence, most security guards and officials relaxed when they heard the explanation given by the contestants. As for getting harassed for sleeping in strange places, Gates explained that the accommodations were not that bad and they didn't get bothered all that much.

Each team had two Winnebagos following them, which contained five or six cameras plus executive producers, he said. There were credentials on hand to vouch for their legitimacy, if one still had doubts.

Gates' biggest worry going into the show was that he wouldn't be all that excited about meeting sports celebrities. In the end, he was eventually won over by the interesting places he was able to see. "I got to actually go to cool places," he said, "I was able to go behind the scenes and see the nuts and bolts [of the arenas] that most people don't get to see."

With homecoming fast approaching, Gates of course had some words for the Jumbo sports teams: "Keep at it, be tough, be tenacious," he said, "It certainly worked for the eight of us.