|
But Belichick is no Billick.
By the mid-80s, media day became MEDIA DAY. These days, there are upward of 2,000 reporters, cameramen, brides and sock puppets credentialed for the interview-fest — one hour for each team, counted down on the big scoreboard above, just like the game.
A calculated move, he called it. "I wanted everyone to come after my ass," he said this week, reflecting on the moment.
It was one of the very few times a coach used any of his five hours behind the microphone during Super Bowl week to say anything unexpected or interesting.
Underneath all this fun and games, the NFL has spent decades honing a strict interview policy designed to keep the mikes in front of these players, virtually all season long.
The Patriots coach almost seems to delight in being unforthcoming, cantankerous and un-entertaining. It's a sure thing he'll spend his hour at Media Day with zero intention of saying anything about anything anyone might want to know about, particularly Deflategate.
He first uttered the famous words at a Miami Touchdown Club banquet, three days before the game, then expanded on them while lounging by the pool at the Galt Ocean Mile Hotel in Ft. Lauderdale. Neither rendition was widely reported.
Speaking of which, Belichick called an impromptu news conference Saturday to address their role in the deflated-balls controversy once and for all. Essentially, he claimed, the Patriots knew nothing about it.
"As much as you want to do this, we are not going to retry this. It's inappropriate, and you're not qualified," Billick said.
The first news-making quote of Super Bowl week came in 1969 when Joe Namath guaranteed his New York Jets would beat the Baltimore Colts,NFL Jerseys From China, even though the Jets were from the upstart AFL and were 18-point underdogs.
"There's a great deal spoken in his silence, too,Cheap Jerseys From China," Seahawks coach Pete Carroll explained.
As the years passed, the NFL realized it would be better to move all these interviews — all these chances to make history — to a more official setting: And so,Cheap NHL Jerseys China, a media day on the Tuesday before the game was created.
Exhibit A is Lynch, the Seahawks running back, who has been fined $100,China Jerseys NFL,000 over the last two years for not making himself available for interviews. When he has made himself available, the sessions have turned into farce, with Lynch answering every question with some version of , "Thanks for asking," while the reporters come up with new, weird ways to bait a man they know will not respond.
It's a story about the media covering other media pretending to cover players and coaches for the Patriots and Seahawks, who,Cheap Nike NFL Jerseys, in turn, will pretend to shed light on the issues of the day while also taking videos with their iPhones, clowning with credentialed "reporters" dressed up as superheroes and dodging the occasional wedding proposal. (See, Tom Brady, 2008.)
It is, at best, entertainment disguised as journalism, though not all of it is worthless or totally unmemorable. Ray Buchanan wore a silver-spiked dog collar. Chris Culliver got into hot water when he dissed gay people. And there was, of course, the question asked of Doug Williams: "How long have you been a black quarterback?" though the question wasn't asked precisely that way.
"It's not so much that anyone's really expecting any great insight," said Bob Thompson, the pop culture guru at Syracuse University. "It's not that we're expecting the athletes to deconstruct what happened in ways that will open new venues of thought for us. But there's still that desire to see them respond, to see them with the helmet off and see them doing something that looks off the cuff. I think everybody, even the most cynical people, would miss it if it went away entirely."
It is, after all, Media Day.
"It's the last time I plan to talk about it," he said.
Brian Billick, who coached the champion Ravens in 2000, played the same sort of game the Monday before the Super Bowl,Cheap Jerseys, reaming the media for its refusal to let go of murder charges against Ray Lewis that were dismissed.
Earlier this month, a Seahawks fan petitioned the NFL to leave Lynch alone, saying the league should do something to stop the media bullying.
Whether Lynch shows up for Media Day — he'd be risking an almost certainly unprecedented fine — and what he says figures to pass for some of the biggest news of Media Day. And if he says anything at all of interest, it could, at least for the news cycle, bump Deflategate off the top of the ticker.
"As I always said, I'll fill up your notebook, I'll give you the 30-second sound bite," Billick said. "But I'm not obligated to tell you anything."
PHOENIX (AP) — This is not a story about Super Bowl Media Day. Thank God. This IS a story about the story of Super Bowl Media Day.
All of which leads to a few journalistically significant questions: Namely, if the players and coaches don't really want to do it — yes, that's you, Bill Belichick and Marshawn Lynch — and if we're almost certain they won't say anything newsworthy beyond a few takes that might generate a was-it-or-wasn't-it-trash-talk debate, then why does the NFL insist they talk? On Media Day or any other day?
It doesn't mean the media won't try. Perhaps through a marriage proposal.
Tickets for Tuesday's annual Super Bowl Media Day extravaganza are available for $28.50 — really — and have been since 2012.
Only after New York's 16-7 win did the quote become legendary.
Even when they don't want the attention.
The history of Media Day, and mandatory player availability, actually has deep roots and has played a key role in making the NFL America's most popular sport and the Super Bowl its most-watched TV program. |
|