Laughing in the face of a loss or why reporters get a bad rap

Did the Redskins sell tickets through Stubhub during that ticket scandal?

 

Yeah. I'm not sure every team does that, though.

And Somers may be all those things Mizzou said. But I still think he did a bad job with that line of questioning.

 

They scored one more point than they gave up and went 9-7 in 2008, then got on a lucky playoff run to make the Super Bowl. Last year they went 10-6 in a putrid division. Kurt Warner made them into a non-laughingstock, but a shitty division made them into a contender.

 

I heard that exchange on the radio. It made me uncomfortable listening to it.

If the reporter was trying to get a dirty politician to spill the beans, fine.

But relentlessly grilling a football player on why he was shown smiling during a losing game doesn't really seem to be the pinnacle of journalistic excellence.

 

I thought Somers probably carried it longer than he needed to, but at times Anderson was flat out denying he laughed at all, which I think opened him up to the follow-ups.

Given that the Cardinals have a long history of players not giving a shit -- a history that seemed to end a few years ago -- seeing Anderson laughing really pissed off a lot of the fan base, even if it comes with very little context.

As for the sellouts: there is a big enough season ticket base now that when the team is falling short of a sellout it's been close enough that the TV station (or someone) will step up and buy the rest so the game can be televised.

 

I had no problem with him asking the question and I have no problem with the way Anderson answered it.

 

Ace said it best, "But relentlessly grilling a football player on why he was shown smiling during a losing game doesn't really seem to be the pinnacle of journalistic excellence."

At the end of the day, it's football. Not life or death , but football. These guys back to luxury hotels and million dollar homes. Hell, I would be smiling too if people spent their hard-earned cash to watch me play football.

 

Boy, you guys didn't watch the game. Anderson was getting booed all night and was just playing horribly, seriously looking like he didn't give two shits about it, and then at the end of the third quarter the cameras show him yukking it up on the sidelines. As a reporter you know that is going to be Topic A all week to your readership. There is no way NOT to ask that question.

Actually Somers backed into his question -- said he didn't mean to be sarcastic, he has to ask, gave it a long buildup. That allowed Anderson to follow with the "you think I don't care?" line of response. If the question had been "why were you laughing?" Anderson would have had zero wiggle room.

 

So it was a legitimate question, but the reporter tried his best to set it up in a non-controversial fashion and it bit him in the ass?

I can buy that.

 

First Anderson said he wasn't laughing, then when he hears it was on TV, he gets defensive. I don't see any problem with his line of questioning. Instead of explaining why he was laughing while getting his tail whipped, Anderson tried to lie and he got caught.

 

Yukking it up?

I saw it as barely more than a wry smile.

 

Headbutt mentioned this on the NFL thread, I believe....but how many of us have had such a shitty day that all we can do is sit back and laugh a little? Not saying that's what Anderson was doing, but some people act like you're not allowed to crack as much as a smile when you're losing.

GRRRR!!! THIS IS MY ANGRY FACE WHEN I'M LOSING!!!!!