We all hate the stereotypical coach and athlete answers in sports interviews. “We played well,” “there was good chemistry out there,” “solid communication,” and the list goes on and on. Even sports writers hate them when they are trying to write a unique game story with a specific angle. But that only happens during the middle of the game when the coach or player, who are obviously tired and just want to sit down, are stopped by someone as they try to run to the locker room.
Should sports writers do away with all interviews with coaches and players? Absolutely not. They cannot say there was “good chemistry” because that might be too much of a bias or an assumption. Should they stop with the halftime interviews? Maybe.
Those painful two minutes to talk to a coach at halftime are not necessary. They say the answers everyone expects them to say. “We’ve just got to get our passing down in the second half,” said every basketball coach in America after a rough first half. The fans saw what needed to happen in the opening minutes of play. The guy in his La-Z-Boy chair with a bag of chips can yell all he wants, and so can the guy across the country grilling at the neighborhood barbecue as they watch the big game. Everyone gets the clue.
The postgame and midweek interviews are what keep sports journalism alive. That is when the big press conference questions come out, talking about injuries, specific players, details for the next game and more. During postgame “pressers,” coaches are not as pressed for time as they are during halftime. Talking to players postgame may be cringe-worthy, but they are on the court, seeing their teammate jump and fall on their ankle hearing that broken snap, something the coach might not have seen. It is all about perspective and point of view when talking to the players.
The midweek interviews are for the stories that everyone – not just sports fans – love. Most like to call them the human interest pieces. Sure, nine times out of ten, the stories revolve around sports somehow, but that 10th time really hits home. Take a look at ESPN’s feature on Patrick Reed, who was the 2018 Masters champion.
Reed was not expected to win the $11 million purse or the green jacket that awaited the champion. But that was not the story Ian O’Connor, a senior writer from ESPN, chose to take. O’Connor found out Reed has an estranged family, one that Reed has not talked to in six years. They were only able to cheer on their son and brother from the comfort, or lack thereof, of their home. O’Connor took the story and ran with it. He never got a quote from Patrick, but talked to his father, Bill Reed, to get the entire story.
If that is does not pull on the heart strings just a little bit, then what does? There are so many more like it because athletes and coaches are humans just like us. They are just humans with more athletic ability than most.
So, midgame interviews? Throw them away, they are saying what anyone else could say just in a “professional” manner. Postgame interviews? Depends on the game. Blowouts, maybe not. Tight one point games in a major upset? Let’s talk. But those midweek story interviews? Throw those stories on the front page of every website and cover of every sports section in the newspaper because without those, sports journalism would be truly dead.
Photo provided by Jun via Flickr
