Are guarantees newsworthy?

Just asking after the latest one from Pittsburgh. I guess people like to talk about them, but did the average fan even know who this Smith character was before Wednesday. Even after some prep games a kid on the losing team will make guarantees for the next week, and I'll almost always write about something else and leave that out.

 

Sure, they're newsworthy -- when Joe Namath guaranteed a win against the Colts in Super Bowl III. Ever since, not so much.

 

Guarantees, not so much.
"I guarantee we will win. Otherwise, I quit the team/transfer/etc." -- absolutely.

 

yes. if even only to be mocked. ;D :

 

I think since Namath, and more so Messier after him, everyone decided it was the thing to do, meaning any guarantee, unless they're accompanied by a siginificant action as MU pointed out, is pretty insignificant nowadays.

 

They're mostly an attention-getting device. The idiot spouting the guarantee is counting on some idiot with a notebook (or microphone) to make a big deal of it. Sad to say, he's not often disappointed. One of the more notable guarantees since Namath: Jimmy Johnson guaranteed the Cowboys would win the '93 NFC title game against the Niners -- and, of course, they did.

 

We were talking about that in here today. Unless not making good on the guarantee has consequences, they have zero meaning, except to fill notebooks.

This Steelers' guarantee isn't really one anyway. "If we execute, if we come to play, we'll win."

Electrifying.

 

My experience is that writers and print guys are always trying to goad players into these silly guarantees, then go into a tizzy when they find somebody to bite.

 

Case-by-case basis. Someone on the Dolphins guarantees a win over the Patriots? Of course its something your reader will be interested in (and amused by).