So, that’s what it feels like to be interviewed by a journalist for a story.

When I stopped to think about my whirlwind of a Thursday, I suddenly gained a new appreciation for every person I had ever interviewed for a story.

The day began like most others: I had two stories to write, plus pagination duties ahead of me when I got to work that day. If the phrase “pagination duties” confuses you, it basically means I had to put the sports pages together that night.

After speaking to Tim Irvin with the Magnolia Marathon, I was preparing to write a preview for this weekend’s Magnolia Marathon and Half-Marathon when I got a text from a friend of my father’s, Jimmy Finnerty. What I saw brought a smile to my face.

For those who may not have read my column a month ago, my father, Richard Kerekes, died on Oct. 5, three days after his 68th birthday, after a year-long battle with cancer. At his memorial service, I met Finnerty and John Dolan, two friends and coworkers with whom he worked on the CBS show “Blue Bloods.” My father was a dolly grip for that show for much of its run up to this point, before leaving the show last year to begin a stint on “Person of Interest.” Right as he started with “Person of Interest,” he was diagnosed and came home to Tuscaloosa, Ala., to begin his treatments.

Though he no longer worked on the show, the cast and crew of “Blue Bloods” thought highly enough of my dad to plan a special tribute in honor of his memory. On Fridays before Alabama football games, my father would wear a Crimson Tide T-shirt or sweatshirt, which earned him plenty of jokes considering “Blue Bloods” is shot in New York City. After his death, though, Finnerty wanted to have the entire cast and crew wear Crimson Tide shirts during one of the meals they all eat together, and “Blue Bloods” star Bridget Moynahan ordered the shirts in order to make it happen.

Thursday afternoon, Finnerty texted me the group photo of the cast in crimson red shirts, along with a DropBox link to more pictures from the meal. He had mentioned the possibility of it happening back at the memorial service, so when I finally got to see the dozens of “Blue Bloods” cast and crew members all wearing Alabama paraphernalia, it brought a smile to my face.

I shared the photo on all of my social media accounts, and that’s when the whole thing took a life of its own. Hundreds of likes and retweets gave way to a reporter with AL.com contacting me wanting to get the story behind the photo. After telling the reporter, Ben Flanagan, I could call him in the early evening, it hit me that I was about to be interviewed for a story.

Me, the journalist who has probably interviewed hundreds of people since I began doing this was going to be on the other end of the deal. I was excited to share my father’s story, but a bit nervous — and now I understand how every interview subject must feel, and why they sometimes ask me to “make them sound good.”

It was certainly a bit awkward, but not too much so. I told Flanagan the story of how my father, who spent most of his life living in New Jersey, met my mother while filming “Benny’s Place” in Birmingham, Ala., in the early 1980s. I told him how she jokingly insisted she probably couldn’t marry someone unless he was an Alabama fan, to which he responded that he had always admired legendary coach Paul “Bear” Bryant from afar. (I later learned from my mother that admiration extended to Joe Namath, who was from the North.) I explained the story behind the shirts.

Most importantly, I gave a quote about how much it meant to me that my father was so beloved by the cast and crew that they would do something like this to honor his memory. Though Alabama football was something he didn’t grow up around like my mother, who has lived most of her life in Tuscaloosa, if you met him, you would have figured he grew up around it just like she did. That’s how big a fan he was — and apparently, it left quite an impression on his coworkers and friends on the set.

The AL.com article can be viewed at the following Web address: http://bit.ly/2gqHD8g. (For the sake of clarifying any confusion, the article refers to me by my first name, Michael.)

Amy Carlson, who also stars on “Blue Bloods,” tweeted how she worked two shows with “Richie,” her name for my dad, and said he was a kind and patient man who always had a nice word. She also said “there’s no measure for kindness in this world, or he’d be a giant.” That sounds exactly like the man who raised me, and knowing he shared that side of him with so many people is something for which I’ll forever be grateful.

Drew Kerekes is the sports editor of The Meridian Star. He can be reached at dkerekes@themeridianstar.com.