Tuesday, Jan. 27
It was suggested by one writer on Tuesday, via Twitter, that Marshawn Lynch made a mockery of Super Bowl Media Day by saying, “I’m just here so I won’t get fined” 29 times before ducking out early.
I don’t say this to defend Lynch — I absolutely would prefer if Lynch was available to the media and gave real answers — but that Tweet was wrong. Really, Super Bowl Media Day makes a mockery out of Super Bowl Media Day.
Seahawk tight end Luke Willson perhaps summed the day up best by saying, “it’s a bit of a gong show in here, but I’m having fun.” As my friend Jayson Jenks from the Seattle Times put it, calling Media Day a zoo is an insult to the organization of zoos. But if you get past the fact very little real journalism goes on, and as long as you’re not claustrophobic, the whole production can be entertaining.
Media Day is the kind of place where famous ESPN and NFL Network personalities share space with a guy wearing a barrel, or people asking questions with puppets, or a grown man in a super hero costume, or… well, you get the point. Not long after taking up position in front of the space reserved for Seahawks defensive end/quote machine Michael Bennett, a few of us were approached by somebody with NBC who wanted to make sure Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir would be able to get their questions asked. Media Day: where former figure skaters turned TV personalities ask a defensive end about his beard.
Later, I saw an Al Jazeera reporter try to give Seahawks defensive coordinator Dan Quinn a ball pump with a pink bow attached, a not-at-all-subtle shot at the Patriots deflated football scandal. Seattle running back Christine Michael, who apparently loves the attention of Media Day, ran around with reporter Georgina Holguin from Televisa Deportes trying to get his teammates to salsa dance with her. Several Seahawks, Richard Sherman included, obliged.
Logistically, Media Day is kind of a nightmare because the NFL decides to cram it into an NBA arena rather than the old format of putting it in the actual stadium. Doing this last year when the game was in New York made sense because of weather. But in Phoenix, it seemed silly to shoehorn everyone into a smaller building.
Alas, the craziest day of the week is now in the books and we can turn our focus back to more important topics, like deflated footballs. No wait, that’s not right. Well, at least the gong show is over, now it’s time to head off to the official Super Bowl media party. Which is a can’t-miss event this week, because, well, free food!
Staff writer John Boyle will be writing a postcard from Arizona each day leading up to Super Bowl XLIX.
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