Toppy Vann wrote: Sun Sep 01, 2024 4:22 pm
Toppy Vann wrote: Sun Sep 01, 2024 3:34 pm
The view of the park etc and the energy from the players given how they were touching the crowd coming out onto the field looked incredible on TV despite some tech issues (or maybe it my cable) during the event including us missing three OTT plays as there was a communication issue.
Two interviews yesterday were a bit of a turn off for me and an affront to TSN's Farhan Lalji who in my years watching him can't recall an interviewee taking issue with his questions.
I was a bit taken aback when Nathan Rourke just abruptly - and somewhat rudely -walked off from the Farhan half time interview as it seems he didn't like Farhan's overview of his statistics. It was a side of Rourke I hadn't been aware of. Most players including those on the Lions usually express their appreciation to the interviewer and at times as they cut away you see a friendly gesture from players all across the CFL.
The 26-year-old didn’t stick around long as Lalji rattled off his statline, cutting him off and patting him on the shoulder before heading to the locker room.
“We’re up 31-6, that’s all I really care about. Thanks, Farhan.”
Farhan says he knows Rourke dislikes half time talk but:
"TSN Producer Chris Edwards overruled that strategy in Victoria, as the quarterback’s play was the undisputed storyline of Touchdown Pacific. “Chris was right. This is what we do. This is part of television,” Lalji said."
Some found the response amusing, while others felt that Rourke was demonstrating an ego and big-timing the broadcast.
This justification is a turn off:
The Victoria-born QB said he only agreed to do the interview after his head coach, Rick Campbell, made him a promise.
“I did it for Coach Campbell and he said that I wouldn’t have to do one for the rest of my career,” Rourke said. “I want to hold him to that.”
While Farhan defends him - I echo this part of his comments as fans like us pay considerable dollars for TSN and other sports channels and we expect to hear in-game/half time comments.
He’s now the highest-paid player in the Canadian Football League for next year,” Lalji remarked.
“I don’t want him to be criticized for that moment and he’s got to learn that there are more expectations when you are now the face of the league. Halftime interviews are a part of that.”
https://3downnation.com/2024/09/01/the- ... interview/
I was not going to wade into this topic and its potential for controversy but what the heck!
Overall, Toppy, I agree with your expressed thoughts and with Farham's post-game comments regarding the half time Rourke interview. You offer sage advice. Half time interviews are part of media sports coverage these days, as well as the many other media expectations on players and coaches. The media brings significant dollars to the league and to player salaries.
For example, there was a time when, if a stadium was not sold out for a game, there was no televised coverage of that game. But that has not been the case for a long time now as televised sports contracts most often bring much more money than the paying gate customers. There was a time when the NFL was a poor sister to the CFL, which offered better salaries to football players. But with the advent of Monday Night Football, followed by the massive boon of media coverage of NFL football, American football became a behemoth, and those advertising dollars, merchandising dollars, etc, etc. led to massive increases in player salaries and the value of NFL franchises.
In other words, media coverage of football created wealthy NFL owners and wealthy pro NFL players with many living in mansions and living high end lifestyles. The CFL was not able to grow and thrive financially like the NFL due to the fact that we have a much smaller population in Canada and therefore a smaller viewing audience. When pro football's financial health was driven more by gate receipts than media coverage, the CFL was a top dog but once televised sports became the cash cow, the NFL's rose in fame and fortune.
Still, the 6-year extension signed by TSN and the CFL in 2019 is worth around 50 million dollars and ensures the CFL's financial viability. TSN and the CFL are ' like peanut butter and jelly, maple syrup and pancakes, or a perfectly executed flea-flicker play'.
Farhan is right. Nathan Rourke will be the highest paid player in the CFL next year and needs to do his part, in terms of promoting the game and participating in half-time TSN interviews is an expectation of that these days.
However, with that said and recognizing that the half time interview is now considered part of the 'package' of media coverage, I really believe the pendulum has swung too far.
In todays' game, we not only have the pre-game interview, the half-time interview of coach or player, and we have coaches and players interviewed after each game with the post-game press conference. We drag players and coaches out in front of the media quickly after what can be a devastating loss after a highly emotional and intense game and expect them to answer what can often be inane questions. Even worse, we ask them questions at half time, when there is such little time for the players and coaches to have a short break and make some important adaptations that can often determine the outcome.
Even worse, we stop a game right in the middle of an important drive, when momentum can be significant to that drive for a televised time out. Yes, football needs the media for its financial success and even its financial survival but these days, too often the media is the tail wagging the dog. Even worse is miking up players - ok - for a one-time feature for an inside look but miking up players, while playing such an intense sport, was far too intrusive for the sport.
To go on a slight tangent, I remember a time when Canucks coverage was so intrusive I not only knew what the Sedins ate for breakfast, how many times they peed in a day, and what they did during their leisure time each weekend. The word fan comes from fanatic and therefore there are some fans and jock sniffers out there who can never get enough personal detail of the players of the team they are fans of.
But for all things in life, there needs to be boundaries and limits. A little mystery is not such a bad thing, in one's love life and in sport.
I do not need to know how Nathan Rourke is feeling at half-time. I do not need to know what he ate for breakfast. I do not need to hear him 'miked' up. I do not want to watch an ad for Fritos or Depends in the middle of Rourke leading a game determining drive. I'm ok, if after a heart-breaking loss, he might like a little time to process things before seeing a mike shoved in his face.
I also am aware that players are given media training these days to provide vanilla answers such as 'We executed better this game but there are still things we need to work on. We need to execute better next game, "We need to take it one game at a time', "We need to continue with the process", We didn't make enough plays" etc. etc. Rare is one going to get any real insight.
Worse is when the media asks some 22-year-old pro football player, just out of college, who has mostly spent his time in the weight room, football practices, and hanging with his buddies in dorms, for his deep life philosophical thoughts to share in order to 'enlighten' us fans.
But with that said, its unwise to walk forwards when everyone else is walking backwards or to like the color white when everyone else is liking purple. In other words, it is the way it is and its been that way for a while so its unwise of Nathan to fight it, no matter what his personal feelings are.
A good lesson can be learned by watching the careers of Don Matthews and Wally Buono. Mathews despised the press and media and they were not fond of him. Wally was very accessible. There was not a microphone Wally was not in love with. He would also voluntarily phone to sports radio and also secretly contact specific sports reporters with private and confidential information, which they could utilize ahead of time, and look good in their next article or on air comments.
Matthews made sports reporters lives difficult at times whereas Buono played the media like a fiddle, was a continuous vanilla quote machine, and did so, not just to promote the game and the Lions but importantly to also promote himself.
One only has to look back at both careers and see the media coverage of both. If Matthews team was struggling, the media was calling for his head. If a Buono team was struggling, only the players were usually blamed by most of the sports media and certainly Buono, in his role as GM, usually also escaped responsibility. History can provide perspective and guidance.
While I empathize with Nathan, he needs to be wise. It's a media driven age in sport, and he will need to step in line.
"When I went to Catholic high school in Philadelphia, we just had one coach for football and basketball. He took all of us who turned out and had us run through a forest. The ones who ran into the trees were on the football team". (George Raveling)
