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Coaches who won't let players speak to the media

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by Johnny Chase, Feb 25, 2012.

  1. Mizzougrad96

    Mizzougrad96 Active Member

    If you're doing a feature and the coach doesn't let you talk to players, go to him, get quotes from him and then call the parents and ask if you can talk to their kid. I'll bet 9 times out of 10 they let you...
     
  2. jfs1000

    jfs1000 Member

    I get that a lot of college programs don't allow true freshman not on the two-deep to talk. I think if a kid is redshirting, he's not eligible to play, so he has nothing to do with the season.

    Of course, if it's a local reporter wanting to track how thier one star athlete is doing, Let the kid talk.

    If the frosh is playing in the game, he should talk.
     
  3. flexmaster33

    flexmaster33 Well-Known Member

    This...I get protecting kids new to college, but if they can handle being on the court/field, then they can handle a couple questions from a reporter. These guys that can compete D-I should have plenty of experience with reporters through their prep careers.
     
  4. spikechiquet

    spikechiquet Well-Known Member

    Unless they had controlling coaches in HS as well. LOL
     
  5. I'm pretty much in agreement with you. If the kid can play, let him talk to the media. If I were a coach, I'd be worried that not allowing freshmen - even star freshmen - to talk to the media could create a rift between the freshmen and the rest of the team. If you've got a Sammy Watkins who isn't available to the media, I could see that creating some friction when the senior quarterback is getting all the media attention. Just a thought.

    That said, I've found that in actual practice it doesn't matter a whole lot. The media will do its best with quotes from coaches and other players. Is it fair to the reader? Probably not, but most of the big-time programs limiting access to freshmen probably don't care much.

    Florida, for instance, had freshmen quarterbacks start a couple games this year, and the media was never able to talk to them. I thought there would be some disappointment or disgust from the fans that they weren't allowed to talk to the media. None at all.

    We did wonder what would have happened had either of them had any sort of success. For instance, if someone had a six-touchdown game like Trey Burton did in his freshman season, would they relent and let us talk to him? We never found out.
     
  6. JackReacher

    JackReacher Well-Known Member

    Oh, that won't cause any problems at all. Noooooo.
     
  7. Baron Scicluna

    Baron Scicluna Well-Known Member

    I've had coaches who, when I've wanted to talk to them, point to the players and say, "Talk to them, they won the game."

    Yes coach, I fully understand that, and I will talk to them. But there's also a reason why I want to talk to you. And it's to make the story about your team's win even better than if I just talk to a couple of kids who say, "This is a great win!"
     
  8. RedCanuck

    RedCanuck Active Member

    I remember a junior hockey coach I covered who thought he was pretty slick with the mind games. After every game, win or lose, you'd go to his players... didn't matter which ones... and they'd always tell you, "I don't have time for an interview, I have to go work the night shift" or something vaguely familiar. Then the players would either A) sit around the lobby and talk with friends for another half-hour, or B) I'd see them at the bar that night. I might add, I knew where a few of them actually worked.

    I knew by and large the players weren't douche-bags, I socialized with a lot of them after their careers were over, and got good stuff out of them under different coaches, but wished someone would just straight up say "I don't want to talk," or "coach doesn't want us to talk." It'd make things much easier.
     
  9. jr/shotglass

    jr/shotglass Well-Known Member

    See, mizzou, I don't even know why you'd do that. Say you get those quotes from the kid ... and then the kid winds up in the coach's doghouse because he wasn't supposed to talk to you. Was it worth those quotes? Doubt it. And was it worth losing access to that kid in the future? Doubt it.

    Another thing about this is that reporters take this kind of thing awfully personally when it's not. It seems like they're thinking, "How can I dick this coach who did this to me?" Don't really know who that serves. Not your readers.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 1, 2015
  10. murphyc

    murphyc Well-Known Member

    Often I'll tell a coach right after a game who I will be talking to. Not asking for permission, but more asking for help from the coaching staff in corraling players. I haven't done much sports the last couple of years outside of HS football, so I'm not as familiar with faces as I should be. By letting coaches know who I'll be talking to, if I can't find the third guy one of the coaches can help in tracking him down.
    It also works asking the coach who might be a good player to talk to if no one did a great job, especially if the team just lost 58-7.
     
  11. flexmaster33

    flexmaster33 Well-Known Member

    Yes, that's a good practice, especially after a big playoff game or championship game when kids are quick to celebrate, and you want to talk to several of them.
     
  12. checkswinger

    checkswinger Member

    I once worked at a small daily where my sports editor – to whom I owe much and highly respect – didn't want us talking to the high school athletes we covered. He basically didn't want to hear from parents about why their kid wasn't quoted as much as the next kid, I guess.

    One year, the football team I covered won a big playoff game thanks to its kicker, who made a 37-yard game-tying field goal to send it to OT. He was a good kicker, but that was his first FG of the year. So I tracked him down and got a decent quote or two, put that in my story.

    My boss removed it. :-\
     
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