NY Times: Wilson, Kaepernick and the media.

[TwilightError]

Canned answers are one thing. Spending personal time with sick kids, having the kid be with him the day of the Saints game, only the most cynical bastard in the world would remotely suggest that is calculated, and that bastard would get instantly shamed and shunned by anyone with a heart.

I might be a cynical bastard but I do think it is atleast partly calculated. But I dont think the calculation makes it any less meaningful for the kid, and that is what matters, right? Positioning yourself as a good guy on purpose is not such a bad thing either, when your job is being a role model. But he has a lot to gain with it, he takes what he gets, and I dont blame him for that at all.

 

[Scottemojo]

Speaking as someone who spent a decade working in sports media, my opinion is that Kaepernick's antics go beyond simply annoying and cross over into clear lack of professionalism. As a class, sports writers are super easy to please. You just give 'em a couple quotes and send 'em on their way. Even cliches will work in a pinch, but just the tiniest touch of sincerity goes a long, long way with writers. It's easy and costs *nothing*.

Guys like Kaerpernick and Coach Douche and Belichick take a different tack. They go out of their way to be sh!tty to people who are merely trying to do their jobs. (Jobs that aren't without benefits, mind you, but jobs that aren't as easy as you might think and jobs that by and large don't pay overly well.) And this is just unacceptable, and really, not forgivable since the alternative -- choosing to be a man and not an a$$hole -- is so simple. It's just a matter of courtesy and humanity. Millionaire entertainers who can't sack up, do their jobs properly and treat others like they're actual human beings are beneath contempt.

It's all fun to pile onto the media, but we should keep in mind something when we do it. Most fans cannot attend games. Therefore, without media, there is no game. There's no league and there's no fans. It's all linked together. Big time sports and sports media are really one connected symbiotic entity which relies upon the health of its component parts for its overall happiness.

Well put.

Interviews are a service for the fans. The source of the money players make. The refusal to interact with the media in a non douche manner is actually an indirect shot at your monetary source.

My guess is that Kaep isn't feeling all that douchey at the moment he is cashing his check from his jersey sales. If he can't make the simple connection between acting with some decency/more popular, then he is a lot dumber than the much touted wonderlic score would indicate.

 

[hawk45]

Speaking as someone who spent a decade working in sports media, my opinion is that Kaepernick's antics go beyond simply annoying and cross over into clear lack of professionalism. As a class, sports writers are super easy to please. You just give 'em a couple quotes and send 'em on their way. Even cliches will work in a pinch, but just the tiniest touch of sincerity goes a long, long way with writers. It's easy and costs *nothing*.

Guys like Kaerpernick and Coach Douche and Belichick take a different tack. They go out of their way to be sh!tty to people who are merely trying to do their jobs. (Jobs that aren't without benefits, mind you, but jobs that aren't as easy as you might think and jobs that by and large don't pay overly well.) And this is just unacceptable, and really, not forgivable since the alternative -- choosing to be a man and not an a$$hole -- is so simple. It's just a matter of courtesy and humanity. Millionaire entertainers who can't sack up, do their jobs properly and treat others like they're actual human beings are beneath contempt.

It's all fun to pile onto the media, but we should keep in mind something when we do it. Most fans cannot attend games. Therefore, without media, there is no game. There's no league and there's no fans. It's all linked together. Big time sports and sports media are really one connected symbiotic entity which relies upon the health of its component parts for its overall happiness.

I wouldn't take much of what the NEW YORK media says......they act as if it's a right and not a privilege to work for their respective newspapers. I agree that Kaepernick needs to chill out and take a page out of the Manning book, but there's been several NY players that have had issues with the NY media...Joe Girardi, David Wright, Derek Jeter, Randy Johnson just to name a few......there was one instance when Chad Pennington was playing for the Jets that he simply refused an interview because had nothing to say and the NY papers ripped him apart calling him selfish and unprofessional simply because he refused ONE interview.....

The article cited a specific example of a writer from an SF newspaper publicly asking Kaep to knock it off and quit acting like a jerk.

Now I'm not one who will really lose sleep over someone being a jerk to the media, the media job description is to wiggle into any crack and make a story where there isn't one (nothing against the people who do that job, but that is what the job is). But the fact of Kaepernick being rude to media is well-established outside the NY Times article. Dude it happens every press conference.

 

[HansGruber]

The low-level rumble you start to hear is how sincere Wilson really is or whether it is rehearsed. His boy scout image is going to start getting backlash as time moves on. It is human nature and his canned answers, though expanding into more depth this year are still there. Now you see the poke at his Tuesday visits to the Children's Hospital.

Anyone who criticizes someone for donating time to visit young cancer patients at the Children's Hospital is a douche scumbag of the highest degree. Period. To the point that the person should be ridiculed and shamed in public, made impossible to go shopping or even drive to work without being flipped off.

It doesn't matter if you think Russell is "genuine" or not. He shows up, spends his time with the kids, and makes their day.

Of course, I'm sure the author spends a good deal of his time helping children at the hospital. Oh yeah, sure he does, at least once a week.
:roll:

Or he's just too freaking stupid and self-righteous to understand that regardless of Russell's motivation, there is a significant amount of research showing that what Russell does (visiting the kids and getting their spirits up) can have a PROFOUND impact on the healing process for these patients. Or maybe he just thinks we should all dismiss and ignore the sick, because that would be "genuine". What a world-class douchebag.