The NFL has begun jamming in-game interviews from their coaches down our throats, and it’s obvious that some coaches really can’t stand being forced to conduct them. Take what happened with John Harbaugh on Sunday night as an example.
Harbaugh gave an interview during the AFC Wild Card Playoff game between his Baltimore Ravens and the Cincinnati Bengals. The Ravens were down 3-0 and Cincinnati had the ball in the red zone. The guy is worried about trying to keep the Bengals from scoring, and NBC has him conduct an interview with Melissa Stark. Unsurprisingly, Harbaugh was not exactly Mr. Loquacious.
Oh, so Harbaugh wasn’t happy about Marcus Peters committing a taunting penalty? Shocker. Harbaugh didn’t want to divulge whether or not he would play Anthony Brown at quarterback? Another huge shocker. I’m so surprised that a coach doesn’t want to give away their strategy to a national TV audience mid-game.
I’ve complained about in-game interviews for years. They’re invasive, intrusive, and they devalue the competition that is ongoing. They put coaches in bad spots, rarely yield anything of value, and they make the game seem more like scripted TV events than athletic competitions.
The day sports networks scrap these interviews can’t come soon enough. Harbaugh was trying his best to play along but he couldn’t hide his disdain for the questions.
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