By and large the NFL is one of the best covered of all the professional sports with excellent journalists both past and present. Another theme with the NFL media coverage is that it’s usually very serious and business-like, with the questions journalists ask being focused on the action on field, contract disputes, locker room chemistry and questions about the nature of certain matchups.
Why then, is NFL Media Day such a circus? Why are players who have reached the biggest game of their lives subjected to “reporters” dressed as clowns, brides, and the like, who are there solely to make a joke out of the players and the game? Why does this only happen in the NFL?
Here are a few people and topics from yesterday’s farce that prove Media Day has become more of a sideshow than ever.
1. The Interrogation of Marshawn Lynch
Marshawn Lynch is one of the best players in the NFL and he is a throwback in a lot of ways. There’s the fact that he is a feature back, his bruising running style, and recently of note, his desire to let his game rather than his words do the talking. One week after Richard Sherman (we’ll be writing about him soon enough) was called everything short of “The ‘N’ Word’ for saying too much, Lynch is being raked over the coals by the media for saying TOO LITTLE. Already the subject of multiple fines, Lynch’s participation yesterday caused the Pro Football Writers Association to cry out in a statement that his participation was unsatisfactory, which if true could cost Beast Mode 100k. How about you interview any of the other thousand players on the roster and let the man focus on the fact that he turned his career around and made it to the Super Bowl?
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2. Terio
If you don’t have Vine then you may only know Terio by proxy. After seeing this year’s NFL touchdown dance du jour “The Terio,” you may have wondered where the motions following every other score came from. Well if you check his Instagram, you’ll see that this young man is seemingly everywhere, this isn’t the #freeterio piece that I’m sure some of you want but I have to wonder just when this young man finds time for class…. or exercise.
Desean Jackson is at media day with Terio. #America pic.twitter.com/e2fZ9wLkAi
— Andrew Sharp (@andrewsharp) January 28, 2014
3. Journalistic Quality
So I respect the media as much as the next person but when it becomes clear that a large part of the people attending media day have no clue about football then I draw the line. Some of the questions are just ludicrous. The worst one?
Some guy at media day just asked Shaun Phillips if he considers this a must-win game. Check, please.
— Sam Farmer (@LATimesfarmer) January 28, 2014
4. Ines Sainz’s ass
Remember the controversy about how female reporters were being treated? I respect sideline reporters like Erin Andrews and Sage Phillips, but someone needs to create a dress code for media similar to the one players have to abide by. And all of Ines Sainz’s pants, skirts and dresses need to be on the forbidden list.
#WhereTrelAt? #SBMediaDay pic.twitter.com/gDaJi3ykD5
— Kimberley A. Martin ≈) January 28, 2014
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5. The “safe” answer
One has to wonder what the point of the whole affair is. When someone speaks out? They’re a blowhard. When someone doesn’t want to talk? They’re evasive. There’s only so many times I can hear “They’re a great team, they play hard, they’re well coached” before I want to let Sebastian Janikowski punt me in the face.
The best answers on this subject actually came from the previously mentioned Marshawn Lynch during an interview with Deion Sanders.
Deion: “You’re kinda shy.”
Marshawn: “Nah.”
Deion: “You just don’t wanna talk, really.”
Marshawn: “I’m just ’bout that action, boss.”
Deion: “You just like to do it.”
Marshawn: “That’s what it is. I ain’t never seen no talking win me nothing.”
Deion: “Well I respect it.”
Marshawn: “You want something, you go get it. Ain’t no need to talk about it.”
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ll be busy tweeting “ I’m just ‘bout that action, boss” until Sunday
Kyle Robinson is by day a not-so mild mannered drone for one of the world’s largest tech companies, by night he’s a sports enthusiast/wrestling smark/videogame geek/travel nut/chicken connoisseur/ comic book nerd and self- proclaimed “hopefully non-threatening black man”. Follow him at https://twitter.com/TKCExperience for tweets that he hopes get more RTs, because that’s how he validates his existence.
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