by popular demand: More candidness and less filter!
In a 2014 article entitled “Bad Call” from The Paris Review, author Fritz Huber discusses the “redundancy of sport commentary”, and his propositions inspired me to consider the monotony of the media’s coverage of sports and its athletes. After some reflection, I realized its not just the boring interviews that bug me, but the manner in which the emotions are detached.
When I watch ESPN post-game interviews, I feel like I’m hearing too much of the same thing: the basic jargon interviewers, athletes, and coaches throw among each other. It’s the typical questions and the expected responses to those typical questions. It doesn’t give me much insight into what that player is truly feeling about the situation.
Where’s the fiery personality? Where’s the emotion that is so core to sports? It seems like the only emotion I ever really see is in the most joyous of times like when the Blackhawks win the Stanley Cup.
Like many other sports fans, there is a great deal of emotion that is associated with my favorite sports team, players, etc. In fact, sociologists have recognized fandoms and emotions having a direct relationship, noting that fandom “has come to form one of the principal media of collective identification in modern society and one of the principal sources of meaning in life for many people” (Cottingham, 2012). But I digress…
Similar to many sport fans, I am very emotionally invested with my favorite team or player, thus I desire to know their feelings and all the nitty-gritty details in their thought process. And I know I’m not alone on this. Personally, hearing the same filtered questions and answers is frustrating and mundane.
As I fan, I believe that this suppression is cheating the game of an element: an emotional element that fuels the drive so many of these athletes.
And this is why I don’t want to hear something filtered and pre-packaged be put out there (we can go on a whole tangent of our filtered news headlines, but that’s another issue). I watch sports to get my blood flowing, to get my emotions running. And I want to see my teammates get fired up with me and ride on their emotions too!
There are the consequences of putting one’s real emotions out into the media. Every now and again an athlete, coach or manager gets a little too candid with the media and says something that goes a little or in some cases a lot out of line. Then they become the laughing stock or subject of criticism on media circulation for a week. We all remember Richard Sherman’s interview with Erin Andrews after Seahawks’ 23–17 win over the 49ers back in 2014…
“I’m the best quarterback in the game”
Sherman more or less exploded, but for good reason. Crabtree was talking smack… And in Sherman’s defense, he logic was probably clouded by his emotion for Crabtree blowing him off and his brain was pumping off of adrenaline from making such a great play.
But to no surprise, Sherman got an adverse reaction. In a New Yorker article entitled “Game Change”, author Amy Davidson explains how the criticism Sherman faced after that interview turned from offensive to explicitly racial. Davidson further explains that according to Deadspin, Sherman was called a “thug” more than six hundred times on television (Davidson 2014).
Even though that wasn’t the most sportsmanlike way to express emotion, I do give credit Sherman for sticking his neck out there and speaking his mind. In a way, it was refreshing and exhilarating to see an athlete cut loose and be real.
Furthermore, being completely unfiltered has its effects on the image of the sports club and the person themselves. Overall its bad PR for the club and the athlete or coach. Because somewhere out there, there’s a young kid that looks up to this athlete and someone has to explain this behavior to them.
One could argue that allowing athletes to be more candid and potentially obnoxious with the media can promote this theatrical element to sports, which I respect. I would hate to see the NHL or NFL to turn as theatrical and ridiculous as wrestling or the WWE. But there still is a happy medium that needs to be discovered between truthful and theatrical.
Maybe it’s the expressive Gemini in me speaking, but I strongly feel that there needs to be a way for fans to get the real opinions of athletes. And perhaps there may soon be a platform to do so.
Earlier in 2015, Yankee legend Derek Jeter talked with Bloomberg Business on his venture to create a long form, impartial, unfiltered media platform for athletes:
“I wanted to have a platform for athletes where they can speak directly to the fans in their own words, first person point of view, unfiltered, unbiased. I think its something that’s needed,” Jeter said in an interview with Bloomberg.
Maybe in the next few years Jeter’s idea with be fully developed and in the work and I can finally get my fill of the full emotion of the sports experience. Just so were clear: I’m in promotion of athletes with their true being conveyed in a respectful manner, not in favor for abhorrent athletes. But until Jeter’s platform is finished or the media finally lets athletes be human with their emotions, we’ll have to settle for the predictabilty of these insipid interviews.
Works Cited
Cottingham, Marci D. “Interaction Ritual Theory and Sports Fans: Emotion, Symbols, and Solidarity.” Sociology of Sport Journal. University of Akron, 2012. Web. 24 Nov. 2015.
Davidson, Amy. “Game Change — The New Yorker.” The New Yorker. N.p., 3 Feb. 2014. Web. 23 Nov. 2015.
Davidson, Amy. “Game Change — The New Yorker.” The New Yorker. N.p., 3 Feb. 2014. Web. 23 Nov. 2015.
Huber, Fritz. “Bad Call.” The Paris Review RSS. N.p., 4 Aug. 2014. Web. 23 Nov. 2015.
“Derek Jeter Offers Unfiltered Platform for Athletes.” Bloomberg.com. Bloomberg, 17 Feb. 2015. Web. 24 Nov. 2015.