Maybe you should read this.. maybe DK came up with this for you
A few seconds before noon today, Mike Tomlin will sit down at his press conference table, take a cue from the TV folks, lean into the microphone and speak the same two words he always does: “Good afternoon.”
It’s at this point that the angry citizens expect the two dozen reporters to rise up in unison and storm the table with pitchforks.
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And the citizens never get that.
And they get all the angrier.
So in lieu of the standard football talk to open this week’s Takes, let me instead offer some background into a professional sports team’s press conference, this based on a lifetime spent at these things:
1. Reporters aren’t fans of the teams/people they cover.
If you can’t get beyond this one, we can’t have much of a discussion. This is how it’s been for 250 years of American journalism, and sports aren’t an exception. If a reporter is a fan, he or she is removed from that beat. And if that policy isn’t in place somewhere, then that outlet is not to be taken seriously.
Our passion is for our work, not for the teams/people we cover.
2. We aren’t happy after wins or angry after losses.
Thus, questioning won’t reflect the emotions that a fan experiences. At all. On the night the Steelers lost that playoff game in Denver and grown men were in tears, people I like and admire, my focus was on the column I had to write. On the night the Penguins raised the Stanley Cup in San Jose and grown men shed different kinds of tears, people I like and admire, my focus was on the column I had to write.
On my long flight to Rio for the Olympics, I watched a full video of Game 6. As I’d remark to my wife later, it felt like watching it for the first time. All I thought about through that game and all the way to sunrise when I’d finally finished writing was about the job at hand. There’s a switch that gets flipped.
And if you put yourself in this position, you might get it: If the Penguins win a championship and I write a column that falls woefully short, I lose big-time. The site loses big-time. The pressure on me that night wasn’t to see the Penguins beat the Sharks. It was to do good work.
So again, we don’t go into these press conferences all emotional. We have an idea of what our specific coverage will be about. And when we’re asking questions, we’re asking them as they relate to our specific coverage.
I asked Tomlin the first question of his press conference Sunday at Heinz Field. I wanted to hear if he felt the defense was progressing, as that was going to make up a big portion of my column. I didn’t ask it to finger-wag. I didn’t ask it to make him uncomfortable. None of that has anything to do with my job. I asked it because I felt his response to that topic could make the column more insightful for the readers.
3. No one grades journalism by press conference performance.
No editor in this history of history has ever asked a possible reporting hire, ‘Yeah, but how do you do in press conferences? Do you ask the tough questions?‘
Because it’s got nothing to do with the job. If the subject matter is genuinely tough, and that’s what your coverage will be, then hell yes, you ask whatever question you want, regardless of consequence. I’ve asked a ton of them and heard all kinds of attaboys when I do, but it’s never, ever been the goal. It’s just that the subject matter lined up. You don’t go into it thinking, ‘Man, I could really be a big hero in here if I asked the tough question and everyone sings my praises on Twitter.’
Who cares?
The objective is to produce the best possible content, not to make a star of yourself.
4. There’s professional decorum involved.
Yeah, believe it or not, it’s our workplace. These stadiums and press boxes, that’s where we do our jobs.
You don’t make a complete fool of yourself at your job and get away with it. Ideally, neither do we. There’s a proper way to behave, and that’s policed on our end, not by the teams and players we cover.
Ask whatever question on whatever topic, but don’t stand up wagging a foam finger while wearing a Jerome Bettis school bus on your head and shout out, ‘WHY CAN’T YOU GUYS BE ACCOUNTABLE ‘N AT? HAVE YOU LOOKED IN THE MIRROR? ISN’T IT TIME FOR YOU GUYS TO GO?‘
That’s no more appropriate than the reverse, meaning giggling and fawning over the subject matter when things are going well.
And yes, there are exceptions at both ends, as there are in any professional workplace. But the exceptions don’t define the norms, and trust me, what I’m describing to you here are very much the norms. When someone makes a fool of themselves in these settings, the reporters want that person gone infinitely more than the team does, because it embarrasses all of us.
5. You won’t believe any of this.
I know when I’m slamming a forehead against a wall, and this is one of those times. Journalism is a highly unusual profession. There’s a reason we don’t ever leave these jobs to do something else, and it’s because we aren’t made for anything else. Anyone who’s ever done this at any level knows what I’m talking about, just as they know of the exasperation in trying to explain it even to their own family members.
