After a two-week vacation, Media Roundup returns to action this week.
The Patriots are back, and with them, all the nagging nabobs of negativity. We should be used to this by now, but it still irks.
It's almost as if some members of the media will trying anything in their power to make it difficult for fans to sit back and enjoy the football season. They've got to create drama, questions, and worst of all, storylines.
I get it. The day to day grind of reporting facts, passing along observations and trying analyze moves and action gets old quick.Couple that with Bill Belichick's policy of revealing as little as possible, and it's easy to see why media covering the Patriots eagerly grab on to the latest trash talk from Rex Ryan, or lash back at the Patriots by nitpicking drafts from five years ago without context from around the league, or paint doomsday scenarios knowing that if the Patriots do well, no one will remember their attempts to stir up anxiety and panic.
This week we've seen the moral arbiters in their element with the trade for Albert Haynesworth, and to a lesser extent, Chad Ochocinco. While I by no means will defend the things Haynesworth has done in the past, on and off the field, I find the media's demands that he talk about all of it to be distasteful. To wit, we have Greg Bedard posting the following in Wednesday's practice report:
Look, I get the whole "it's in the past" thing - a specialty of Bill Belichick and his message people. But if you don't want it brought up anymore, then you answer any and all questions on the topic one time and get it over with. The questions aren't going to stop, just because Haynesworth wishes them to. The first time he dogs it, they're all going to come up again. Haynesworth lost his opportunity to control things a little bit yesterday. "I'm here to restore my name." From what, Albert? Why do people across the league think you're a quitter and perhaps a danger to others off the field? Did you make mistakes that you learned from and won't make again? 'It's in the past.' Oh, ok, what a great answer.
Interestingly, "what a great answer" was replaced at some point later by "Just thought it was a missed opportunity to further the fresh start thing."
Beyond the change, I simply don't understand what they expect Haynesworth to say to them. He did acknowledge that the incidents have his name on them, which is an acknowledgment of his responsibility for them. Beyond that, what exactly do they want from him? A rambling, tearful, emotional rant like we saw from Brandon Marshall last week? While the media would certainly love that, I don't see how it would put the issue to rest, as Bedard seems to think it would.I also enjoyed the little tweak at Belichick's "message people."
Then again, Bedard does place a note at the top of these reports saying that If you can't detect sarcasm or take yourself and/or football too seriously, this may not be your thing. From that rant above, it seems someone is taking football too seriously, and it's not me.
The retirement of Randy Moss, one of the biggest talents and greatest receivers ever to play the game was viewed as an opportunity to get one more shot in on a guy who didn't always cooperate with the media. Locally and nationally, people wanted to talk more about his perceived lack of effort at times than his breathtaking skills on the field. The likes of Jim Rome, Mike Freeman and Mark Schlereth made their disdain for Moss clear. On 98.5 FM, they've been running a take from the Gresh and Zo show with Dan Shaughnessy as a station promo, which has them mocking Moss' retirement.
The good news is that we're less than a week from the first preseason game, and then we can hear Shaughnessy and others lament that the WBZ-TV staffers are being "forced" to wear golf shirts with the Patriots logo on them during the telecast...