Fans suffer when media is restricted
10/02/2007
Stalter Home / Sports Channel / Bullz-Eye Home
Great news, Texas A&M football fans! Head coach Dennis Franchione is releasing top-secret information like injury reports and player assessments, and it’s all for you!
Oh wait, apparently you have to be a booster and pay an annual fee of $1,200 to get Franchione’s secret newsletter. Looks like you’ll have to revert back to getting your information from more standard media outlets – if only that was your best option anymore.
Head coaches like Franchione and leagues like the NFL continue to forget that the purpose of the media is to be the fans’ eyes and ears. Fans have limited access to players, coaches and locker rooms, so they rely on beat writers, radio hosts and television reporters to get the detailed information they desire.
Every year, however, coaching staffs and leagues are restricting the media’s access more and more. They probably believe that they’re getting back at the media, but really, it’s the fans who are suffering. By handing out secret newsletters to paying boosters while withholding information from the media, Franchione makes the fans the victims, not the newspapers.
In a day and age where Bill Belichick will stoop to recording an opponent’s defensive signals, it’s understandable that coaches are paranoid about giving any information to the media. However, it has gotten to the point where the only useful information fans get on their favorite teams is a box score. That, or what the leagues will hand feed fans themselves.
A great example is the NFL.
This past offseason, the NFL wanted to restrict non-league media outlets to only 45 seconds a day of video coverage. The idea was to force fans to go to the Jets’ official website for video highlights and player interviews, as opposed to the New York Post.
However, what the league misses – and couldn’t care less about – is that official team websites are basically propaganda. The media members hired by the Chicago Bears’ official website aren’t going to hound Lovie Smith for why he hasn’t benched Rex Grossman for Brian Griese, or at least not the way the beat writers from the Chicago Sun-Times will.
What fans basically get is pre-produced fluff. Yes, they can still find video coverage of their favorite players, but is it worth it? Does anyone care what the backup tight end does in the offseason? Because that’s the type of coverage that is often found on official team websites.
By the way, I’m not sticking up for the media. Nothing is more annoying than watching some beat reporter repeatedly ask the same question to a coach who would rather drink gasoline than tell the press whether or not his starting quarterback will actually start on game day.
There’s no question that some media members are only out to further their own careers instead of working for the fans. However, those seem to be the exception rather than the rule, as opposed to the hoards of coaches and league officials who work to prevent the media from giving even a morsel of decent information to the public.
Teams and coaches act like the media is there to spy, when in fact the media is there to relay information to the only people who should matter: the fans. We line the pockets of owners, and therefore the coaches and players, so we have every right to get as much information as we can, short of damaging a team’s chances of winning.
Sure, fans can still go to websites run by ESPN, Fox and Sports Illustrated. However, those sites are intended to cover a wide range of sports and teams, and often lack more of the detailed coverage that the local media can produce.
It’s funny to watch those Coors Light commercials of Bill Parcells hammering some poor sap from the media in a post game interview, or to recount Jim Mora’s “Playoffs?” outburst. The sad reality, however, is that the gap between the media and the coaches (and the leagues) continues to grow, which means that we as fans are sure to suffer even more.
Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be a clear-cut answer to resolve the problem. In fact, Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy’s recent lashing of reporter Jenni Carlson of The Oklahoman might have proved that the relationship between media and team is as fragile as ever.
Who could blame Gundy if he never gave a shred of useful information to Carlson again? She completely reamed one of his players in a public and personal manner. Why should he trust her, or any member of her newspaper for that matter? Even though she went about it the wrong way, Carlson was just doing her job by trying to give fans a behind-the-scenes view of their favorite team. She screwed up when she attacked a student athlete.
Maybe media members like Carlson need to do a better job of instilling trust with coaches and league officials. Either way, a balance needs to be struck or else fans are just going to be fed more clichéd junk. A coach shouldn’t feel like he’s handing out game plans, but where’s the harm in giving the media a little bit more player assessment from a practice or a more detailed injury report? Obviously Franchione didn’t mind handing out that kind of information to a booster paying $1,200, so why withhold it from the media and, therefore, the fans?
If coaches truly believe they’re handing over top-secret information to their opponents by saying a guy might not play on Sunday, they’re fooling themselves. Especially in football, where teams prepare for multiple game plans, players and strategies. It’s to the point where all a coach is willing to say is, “Well, he’s a game time decision” or “We might make a change, but you’ll have to find out on Sunday.” The information given out these days is watered down drivel.
If a balance cannot be struck between the media and the coach, then fine, open practices more so beat writers can make their own assessments. It’s doubtful that a reporter from the Tennessean will divulge a trick play and sacrifice the trust he has to build with players and coaches. But maybe he can note how rookie defensive back Michael Griffin appears more comfortable with the defense or that Vince Young is developing into a nice signal caller. It won’t always be positive news of course, but that kind of information is opinion anyway; it’s nothing that should make a difference between a team winning or losing come game day.
If nothing else, the leagues should cater more to media outlets that don’t have their symbol plastered on everything. Rather than forcing fans to rely solely on official team websites and the NFL Network for information, the league should allow more player and coach interviews and more behind-the-scenes looks. After all, we’re only talking about football here, gentlemen. These aren’t national defense secrets.
It should be noted that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is trying. Over the offseason, the league made a rule change that all teams have to note whether or not a player practiced. It’s a start, but we deserve more because, after all, it’s our money that is funding the league. Think about dumping money into a hardware store, but only getting updates on how the paint section is doing.
It’s funny to hear people complain about how much coverage there is nowadays. “Everyone has an opinion,” people say. It’s hard to argue that, but is the information actually useful? I’ll take quality over quantity any day, but unfortunately fans are getting more of the latter these days.
Questions or comments? Send them to astalter@bullz-eye.com.