Written by Craig Helman, Washington DC. Follow Craig on Twitter @TuesMorningBear
Courtesy: sportsunbiased.com
On May 7, 2002, Allen Iverson was asked a question about his effort during practice: “I mean, listen, we’re talking about practice, not a game, not a game, not a game, we talking about practice. Not a game. Not, not … Not the game that I go out there and die for and play every game like it’s my last. Not the game, but we’re talking about practice, man. I mean, how silly is that?”
Iverson made his feelings pretty clear that day.
Whether he was right or not is a debate for another time, but the response to Iverson’s honesty raises a far more interesting point: Do we actually want our athletes and coaches to be honest to the media?
With seeming regularity we find media and fans criticizing athletes for being “boring.” Many athletes say the same stuff no matter what is the question. We complain. Why can’t they tell us how they really feel?
So Derek Jeter starts websites because he thinks sports interviews are boring. You can find countless articles that convey the sense that we (the sports fan) think ‘canned’ responses suck.
Courtesy: USA TODAY Sports
And yet…. When Richard Sherman shows emotion during an interview he’s immediately crushed on Twitter with overt racism. Someone asks Eli Manning if he’s an elite player and Phil Simms gets whiplash from the-180 degree turn he takes on the guy.
Looking deeper, it becomes clear that we may not want athletes to be honest. Iverson’s career began a downslide after that presser; and Eli Manning hasn’t come close to approaching the heights he achieved in 2011. And, until his Super Bowl appearance, Richard Sherman was better known for soup commercials than interceptions.
That doesn’t mean candid athletes saw their performance decline because of their honesty. But it does provide an insight into how society views players. Owners don’t want players to make waves (negative press costs money). Players don’t want to be ‘the guy’ who makes waves (it might result in issues during contract negotiations).
Fans and the media seem conflicted: we may not want controversy, but we complain about a lack of it.
Richard Sherman is called an “xxx” because he screamed during an interview. Yet, he’d be called boring if he had provided a ‘stock’ response. Allen Iverson hates practice, but his truth-telling runs counter to a prevailing (almost sacred) assumption: players are supposed to go all-out in practice.
The seeming hypocrisy from fans and media raises another important question: If athletes are role models, why don’t we want them to be honest?
Courtesy: baxandobrien.rock102.com
Athletes and coaches are being reminded constantly that they are role models. Yet, we often reinforce negative behavior in athletes (Floyd Mayweather is a recent example)—behaviors that we wouldn’t want our children to emulate.
Should kids learn to “put on a face” when they are in public to avoid scrutiny? If we don’t want athletes to be honest, but still want them to be role models, we imply that honesty either isn’t something we value or that we don’t want athletes to be role models at all.
Perhaps the truth of the matter is simpler: We just like to complain. And, with that, anybody in front of the microphone can’t win.
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Follow Craig at his blog, “Steak and the Bear.”
