Back in July, New York Jets receiver Santonio Holmes vented his frustrations with the New York media, telling reporters that he didn’t appreciate how writers had been criticizing his team. Holmes, like many athletes, wrongly believes that the local newspapers should serve more as an ego-stroking PR guide than a non-biased source of information. And while the modern era sports columnist has proven that idea easier said than done, it still shows that athletes aren’t always the best at grasping reality.
Yesterday, Jets linebacker Bart Scott took Holmes’ gripe one step further in an interview with a USA Today reporter after his team laid a 48-28 spanking on the Buffalo Bills and Ryan Fitzpatrick’s Ivy League ass by declaring a “media mutiny”. I assume that’s before he yelled “YARRRRRGH!” and slid down the sails of his galleon with a knife in his teeth.
“I’ve got a media mutiny,” Scott said when approached by USA TODAY Sports at his MetLife Stadium locker.
You mean a media boycott?
“Yeah, a boycott.”
Ohhhhhh, a boycott. Okay, continue, please.
“You guys treat us like we’re a (bleeping) joke,” Scott said. “You all want us to feed your papers, but then you all talk (bleep) about us. So why would I want to give you all quotes to sell papers with if you all treat us like (bleep)? That doesn’t make sense.
“You all talk stuff about us, and then when we win you flip the story. You all win either way.”
And then he bitched and moaned some more and vowed to not talk to the media anymore. Really some riveting stuff. Let’s approach it from two angles.
First, when your coach is a toe-sucking loudmouth who takes any opportunity he can get to talk shit about other teams, while predicting Super Bowl victories that are as worthless as Shonn Greene in fantasy football, you’re probably going to tilt media respect in the wrong direction. Don’t get me wrong – I love Rex Ryan’s comedy value – but writers rip the Jets because he’s a lightning rod.
On the other hand, I think Bart’s a little jealous. I’d even say that all of the Jets players are jealous, because Tim Tebow gets the majority of the positive media attention. And for what? Because he’s a squeaky clean Captain America whose greatest QB feat of the preseason was throwing a ball into a trash can. So I think that maybe Bart and Santonio are misdirecting their media frustrations a little bit, and the solution is simple – they should take Tebow to Rick’s Cabaret and force him to get a lap dance. It’s the right thing to do.
