A couple weeks ago when Charles Woodson was announced as the Defensive Player of the Year, Rex Ryan, the head coach of the New York Jets, was asked about the decision. If Ryan followed the rules of coach speak, he would have told reporters he was hoping his cornerback Darrelle Revis would win the award, but that Charles Woodson is a great player and he respects the decision.
Instead, Ryan spoke out, as he declared he would like to congratulate Darrelle Revis voters, rattled off some statistics to support his player and threw in a joke about Woodson's performance in Green Bay's wild card contest against Arizona.
After this, I had friends tell me (as a Jets fan) how big of a jerk Rex Ryan is, which was understandable but annoying. ESPN.com's NFC North blogger Kevin Seifert took it a step further, telling his readers they should now root for the Jets to be eliminated from the playoffs.
The reaction from the media was typical. Any time a coach or athlete goes outside the realm of boring sports discourse, the public and the media instantly jump down his throat.
What this results in is sports figures sticking to dull dialogue. I've been covering sports for three years here at Wisconsin, and it is now easy to predict what athletes will tell me when I ask certain questions.
If I ask a player if he's concerned about a big game in a few weeks, he'll say no because ""they're taking it one game at a time."" If I ask him if any player is playing particularly well right now, he'll tell me no because ""everyone on the team is playing well."" And if I ask if last night's game against Michigan State was an especially big game, he'll tell me ""no, every game we play is big.""
It gets old fast. As a reporter and a fan I'm tired of hearing the same sports rhetoric all the time. And I know everyone else who follows sports feels the same way, including my fellow reporters at the paper.
Yet, when players do decide to tell a reporter how he really feels about something, he has to deal with a media and public backlash.
The sports media have to learn to embrace figures who aren't afraid to speak out, even if it means taking jabs at other players, coaches or teams. Covering and following sports would be far more interesting if the norm entailed speaking without fear of the media jumping down athletes' throats. No longer would I change the channel when athletes go on SportsCenter, or zone out during men's basketball interviews at the Kohl Center.
These athletes and coaches know and think things people like me are dying to hear, but will continue to be restricted as long as reactions such as Seifert's ensue. It's time the media ended its double-standard and begins to embrace a more free and easy discourse in sports.
Like the monotony of sports rhetoric? E-mail Scott at kellogg2@wisc.edu.
