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

You and I both don't know what Lutui said to Anderson.

What if it was:

"Wow, we really suck."

"Who looks more feminine, us or Warner on Dancing with the Stars?"

"How pissed is Larry Fitzgerald that you're his quarterback?"

"Man, who knew Brian Westbrook was even still in the league."

"It's a good thing we don't miss Anquan Boldin."

"Man, nobody is more passionate than these Arizona Cardinals fans."

"I was on teams at USC with more talent than this one."

"So are you going to go down as the worst QB ever to make it to the Pro Bowl?"

 

Exactly. I mean...coach Gruden was talking about it. It's GOTTA be a story!

 

Does any of this stuff come out if Gruden and ESPN don't show it on camera? No.
Which is another reason it is pointless; because this shit happens every game and no one called someone on it until now.
Real hard-hitting stuff - laughing on the sideline. I bet Outside the Lines is talking Emmy with an upcoming piece on the NFL's Chuckle Patrol.

 

Wow, you're really pissed off about this.

 

No. Not really. A little offended by Beardpuller's shot at me.
Other than that, my initial reaction remains the same.
Nothing personal to you or anyone else. Just a vigorous defense of my position.

 

Not taking a shot at anyone or anything, but is this a story if the score is 27-24?

 

To say this only happened because ESPN showed it ... well, that's beside the point. People are aware of it regardless of how that awareness came about. I'm also not sure how Somers asking a question that fed into his game story means he is trying to do an investigative piece. He asked a question about something that was going to be the single most discussed issue for his readership. Anderson chose to lie. After that, they were all-in, so to speak. Is Somers supposed to accept being lied to?

 

Is that a real question?

 

Those are good points - but I disagree this would be single-most discussed issue for the readership.
I don't think the ESPN angle is beside the point. If it wasn't on TV it's not an issue. Period.

 

He never laughed.

 

I'll take this from a different angle, for fear of getting BeardPuller mad at me, since I don't know who I'm about to call out:

Where the hell was the Cardinals' PR staff?

"Hey, Derek. They caught you on camera laughing. They're going to ask you about it. Here's what you say: 'I take my job very seriously, but at a moment when we were not playing well, my teammate and I were trying to smile a little about our difficult situation, knowing how hard we were going to have to work to correct our errors. By no means was that us not taking our jobs seriously; anyone on this room who has covered us all season knows exactly how hard we all work.'"

Right? Isn't that what the Arizona PR guys are paid for, to make sure their players don't look like assholes? Or, their coach, if we're talking Denny Green?

 

Sure.

If AZ scores to bring the margin to three or seven points, and the players are laughing and messing around on the sideline, is it a big story the next day?

Shit. I see QBs down a score late in the game sitting on the bench doing nothing. Not talking to a coach, or their receivers, or their linemen or looking over formations. They are just sitting there waiting to go into the game again. This gets a pass almost every week. To me, this is worse then laughing after your ass has been kicked.

I don't think the players should have been laughing, but if people are going to start policing sideline behavior, then they should look at a little bit more than just one thing.