Has anyone ever heard of a job where, after working your ass off all day, you punch out and then have to sit down and answer stupid questions about your performance that day? I can’t.
Every major sports league has a rule that states that after every game, win or lose, a player must make himself available to the press. Guess they think the press is too stupid to come up with their own story, even after watching a game for 3 hours.
So this week, Marshawn Lynch of the Seattle Seahawks sat down for his MANDATORY 5 minute press conference. He answered about 20 questions with exactly the same answer- “ I am just here so I don’t get fined.”
A year ago he answered the question of why he hated talking to the media:
“I’ve never seen anybody win the game in the media. But at the same time, I understand what it could do for you, if you wanted to be someone who talks a lot. But that’s not me.
“And I’m not as comfortable, especially at the position I play, making it about me. As a running back, it takes five offensive linemen, a tight end, a fullback and possibly two wide receivers, in order to make my job successful. But when I do interviews, most of the time it’ll come back to me. There are only so many times I can say, ‘I owe it to my offensive linemen,’ or, ‘The credit should go to my teammates,’ before it becomes run down.
“This goes back even to Pop Warner. You’d have a good game and they’d want you to give a couple of quotes for the newspaper, and I would let my other teammates be the ones to talk. That’s how it was in high school, too. At Cal, I’d have my cousin, Robert Jordan, and Justin Forsett do it.
“Football’s just always been hella fun to me, not expressing myself in the media. I don’t do it to get attention; I just do it ’cause I love that (expletive).”
Shouldn’t it be enough that he plays like a wild man? I don’t feel that he is off base in not wanting to talk to the media. I give him a lot of credit!!
Here are a couple of quotes I have collected from press conferences over the years:
Half this game is ninety percent mental -Philadelphia Phillies manager, Danny Ozark
The word “genius” isn’t applicable in football. A genius is a guy like Norman Einstein -Joe Theisman, NFL football quarterback & sports analyst
Maybe those guys should have refused to talk!!!