Most inappropriate questions ever asked at a press conference

Those are the kinds of questions we need to ask more often.

 

Absolutely. In the case Norman cited, Koren Robinson had repeatedly failed NFL substance abuse tests and (I believe) had been arrested for drunk driving. Not asking that question would be irresponsible.

 

This thread is funny and apropos, so forgive me for bringing it down. This is something I've wondered since an incident a couple years back.

A coach I covered objected to being asked in a press conference about his job status. The team sucked and rumors were swirling about his head on the chopping block and a reporter asked. He went off and stormed away. He said the question is fine in a one-on-one setting, but not in a press conference. Because I was sick of covering his shitty team I didn't think to follow up with why he would rather answer it in a private setting than in public.

What say you?

 

I'm not saying I agree with this, but there are certain questions that a veteran writer can get away with asking that a younger reporter might not. That was definitely the case here.

That incident was on Pro Football Talk about an hour after it happened. It made the rounds among the NFL writers really quickly.

Great question.

 

Any coach who would balk at that probably is A) Not suited for the profession because he's afraid of confrontation; and B) most likely a man of integrity because he probably didn't want to give a straight answer of "my ass is most certainly gone" or, better yet, "were I my AD, I'd fire me."

With Internet culture and talk radio being what it is, if you do not ask those questions, your readers' best interests are not being served. They'll still get it from those all too willing to throw shit at the wall to see what sticks so we should do it with skill and nuance.

A reporter in my area refused to cover what was obvious to everybody -- that the coach of the region's major college football program was going to be shit-canned at the end of the year. He wrote that until something happened there was no news to report and that it was all "rumor and speculation." So, while everybody else was writing about possible successors, he kept churning out gamers and features. When the firing came down, he again "refused to report on rumor and speculation." Huh? Isn't it kind of our job ... to chase rumors and speculation, find out what's real and then report it?

 

I've told this story before, but what the hell.

John McKay's Tampa Bay Bucs, probably the year after their NFC Championship Game appearance vs. the Rams, had another bad year and got pasted in the season finale, I believe by the Saints.

So it's the end of the season, and we're looking for McKay to say something profound about how the season went. And this dipshit radio reporter asks, first question:

"So, coach, do you have any New Year's resolutions?"

McKay says, "I'm the one who gets paid to be funny" and walks out. So no end-of-season insight.

 

Anybody who would walk out over a question like that wasn't worth waiting for, in my opinion.

Actually, it would give you the perfect column, about how the coach had just summed up the entire season by pulling the chute at the news conference.

 

Well, Double J, that makes sense -- but I have to say, as those who covered him knew, McKay tended to be a lot better after a loss than a victory.

A bad loss, for example, led to the classic: "What did you think of your offensive line's execution," with his now-oft-repeated answer: "I'm in favor of it."

 

I'll out myself to anyone that was there, but, anyway.

My very first question at my very first press conference, working for the college paper happened to be the very first question of that particular press conference.

Famously anti-media coach rattles on for 10 minutes in the first pregame press conference of the season, putting to rest a long-lingering quarterback controversy, basically deciding between two players that had sucked equally the previous season.

Coach: "I'm not going to take any more questions on the quarterbacks"
Me: "Coach, can quarterback still be a strength of this team?"

I get a long, icy stare, crap my newbie pants.
Coach: "I said no more questions..." then went on to deliver a fine answer. Next 10 questions were also about the quarterbacks, though I was so freaked out I could barely even hear the guy sitting next to me.

 

Yeah, it was Mike.

 

TV guy to Chargers WR Mark Seay at SB XXIX media day: "Mark, the shooting in 30 words or less."

Seay is the guy who played with a bullet near his heart, which he got from shielding his toddler niece from a drive-by shooting.

 

awesome, awesome guy