Arena The Official NFL Discussion Thread (Now Featuring Time's Person of the Year, Taylor Swift!)

Anyone else find this whole Marshawn Lynch not talking to the media thing to be really stupid? I mean really, who cares if he doesn't talk to the media? Maybe he has trouble with public speaking, or maybe he just doesn't care. Either way leave the man alone! He does his job on the field. Is anyone other than the media offended by this? I swear, they are always trying to make stories out of things that are not stories at all.

 

I'm pretty sure the football players are under contract to talk to the media.

 

Yup.

 

And not for nothing, but Richard Sherman's more than willing to talk if Lynch doesn't want to.

 

So they don't have to leave him alone. He is under contract to speak with them and he's not doing it. I think they should be calling him out on that.

 

I think it is dumb. If they force him to talk, which he doesn't want to do, he isn't going to give you anything anyway. It's not like they are gonna get any great soundbites.

 

And the Seahawks are probably deep down relieved that his being unwilling to talk means he's liable to not open his mouth and say something stupid like a certain 49er did last year.

 

That's all they want.

 

Yeah, but the league media availability requirement is stupid. It's just designed to feed the machine. It has no actual value. Ninety-nine percent of all athlete/coach sound bites are completely meaningless, pointless drivel. "Hey, Marshawn, what do the Seahawks have to do to win the game?" "Well, we've got to run the ball hard, make some good plays, take care of the football, keep Manning off the field." It's just insipid questions answered with a string of cliches. The only times interviews are ever even mildly interesting, when someone goes off-script and says something unexpected or passionate, they get pilloried as insane or absurd and everyone insists they never should have said it. THEY ARE WHO WE THOUGHT THEY WERE, I'M A GROWN MAN, DON'T YOU EVER TALK ABOUT ME, WE'RE TALKING ABOUT PRACTICE, PLAYOFFS? It's a lose-lose proposition and everyone would be better off if we stopped wasting everybody's time on this inane, empty ritual.

"Hey, Marshawn, how excited are you to be in a Super Bowl?"

"I'm super excited, man."

"How's it working with Russell Wilson?"

"He's great. He's a real leader."

"Hey, Marshawn, are you going to run the ball hard?"

"You bet!"

There you go. There's all the NOTHING you missed, America.

 

Yeah I get that Hav, but he signed a contract with that in there. He knows its coming. It isn't like they've never had to do this before. Heck they even have to in College. It just makes me think he's a baby throwing a tantrum instead of a man standing up for his job that is paying him a lot of money to do this.

 

To me, based on the descriptions of his behavior during the interviews, it seems more of a social anxiety thing than a "up yours NFL"

 

If it were that though then I'm sure he could get a doctor to sign off on that and get a special pass with the NFL. He's a great player, surely if it were a serious disorder they'd make an exception.

PG - he ended it early though. That's not fulfilling something in your contract.

 

It's too bad, no matter what people say to him this guy just can't seem to understand that his primary job is to answer remarkably intelligent and deep questions from all the wonderful reporters. He's so stubborn he just can't seem to get playing football out of his head.

 

Yeah, too bad he's so focused on this whole 'win the Super Bowl' thing that he can't take a minute to answer reporters questions like "Do you think Justin Beiber should be deported?" (Given some of the 'reporters' the NFL has let into Media Day in past years, it really would not have surprised me if this was actually a question that was asked this week)

 

Anyone doing the SuperBowl picks for colors? I would do it, but I'm lazy.

 

I'm planning on it.

One of my roommates went to check out Super Bowl Boulevard today and it sounds like most of her time was spent checking out the Puppy Bowl zone. I might be braving the crowds on Saturday? Maybe?

 

Don't bother. I went at lunch today. zzzz

 

What are the exact categories? If someone can PM those, I can set it up.

 

I liked it when a reporter asked him(Lynch) "How do you get to be where you're ready for a game".

Lynch: I stay ready.

Short and sweet.

It sounds maybe far fetched but I think Lynch might have a bit of social anxiety when it comes to talking to reporters and media. Like it might stoke his anxiety and throw his mental focus on the game off.

 

Does anyone else miss the NFL making unique logos for each Super Bowl? The one they have used the past few years is so bleh.

 

Yes! I can understand some of the NFL's reasoning to standardize the logo, but it's not like they had no issues in promoting the game, etc, with the old logos. Damn it.


However, at the very least there is a bit of variety with the new logos:




.


Though for Super Bowl XLV, that one with Cowboys Stadium in the background wasn't the official logo used.

 

Great logo, great game.

 

I always liked 32 and 33.