Most inappropriate questions ever asked at a press conference

If you want to believe Richard Hoffer, the full question was much better:

"The hard-luck distance runner Hicham El Guerrouj of Morocco was in Sydney four years ago, trying to make up for a stumble that cost him national pride in the 1,500-meter event in 1996. Instead he was nipped at the tape in one of the sport's great finishes. A countryman, not exactly lobbing up a softball, opened the press conference as follows: 'How do you explain to 30 million Moroccans your failure, your shame?' El Guerrouj simply began weeping."

http://tinyurl.com/9fgjx5

 

There's this real attention-whore radio guy in a market I used to work in who everyone thought was on the same wave length as him. He couldn't be more wrong.

Right before the first round of the NCAA tournament, he's interviewing a real well-spoken senior on the local team, a perennial NCAA tournament team. He kind of does a one-on-one in the locker room, flying through questions and obviously not paying much attention to the answers. There are no follow ups to any of these questions. Every single one of them changes the subject.

The last few questions go something like this.

Q: Your rebounding has been great

A: Yeah, it's an emphasis of ours to crash the glass here in crunch time.

Q: Any nerves?

A: Nah, we're just ready to go.

Q: It's March.

A: (Waiting for the rest of the question)...What?

Q: It's March.

A: Huh?

Q: It's March.

A: Yeah. It's March.


Obviously, radio guy was looking for a specific quote like "Yeah, it's March. March Madness. Best time of year. I live for this! Let's play some hoops!"

But is that the worse structuring of a question ever? "It's March."

 

If I were the player, I would have responded: "Yep, all month long."

 

Um, yes and no. It's the part of the business I hate. I've lost count of the number of guys who got egg all over their faces because they jumped on the bandwagon of the latest rumor. Once, a certain TV sportscaster used the phrase "It's a done deal" referring to a soon-to-be-hired college coach.

Two weeks later, when the university called a press conference to introduce someone ELSE as the new coach, one of my colleagues (who, admittedly, had quite an ego himself) greets this TV guy with the greeting "How you doing, Mr. Done Deal?" It was all I could do to keep from bursting out in laughter right in front of the obviously-embarrassed reporter.

 

Maybe because Mike Gundy went on a rant that had nothing to do with any questions.

 

No doubt, which is why the whole "finding out what's real" is pretty key. Our being too lazy -- or not well enough connected -- to sift it out is why our readers seek info from the idiots.

 

KU football coach Terry Allen had this exchange with a writer at Big 12 Media Day several years ago. KU had a pretty decent QB, can't remember his name, and they were only going to go as far as this kid carried them.

Writer: Coach, do you worry about what might happen if (QB, can't remember his name) goes down with an injury?

Terry Allen: Every night.

Writer: Only at night?

 

This one happened about 30 years ago, but those of us who were there still mention it from time to time. It was the early 1980s, when the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach still was a Formula One race. Australian driver Alan Jones, a former world champion, won the provisional pole and spent 15 or 20 minutes answering reporters' questions. Then as he stepped off the podium and began to make his exit he was cornered by a well-known West Coast character who stuck a microphone in Jones face and said: "Who are you and what kind of car do you drive, bub?"

 

John Tortorella after the Lightning lost a game keeps repeating the same cliche:

Tortorella: "We know what we did." (says it about 3-4 times)

Reporter (Larry Brooks, I think): "What did you do?"

Tortorella: "Next question."