I’m sufficiently old to recollect when “behind-the-scenes’’ actually meant what it claims, as the access that was being granted was a novelty. But, in the case of the NFL, “all-access” too usually appears like restricted entry.
A latest report from the New York Post particulars how the audio of what Travis Kelce stated to Kansas Metropolis Chiefs head coach Andy Reid after he bumped him in the course of the Tremendous Bowl may have been allegedly buried by the NFL.
Verify this out from the article:
“Two people highly plugged into the sports media business told The Post they suspect the Chiefs blocked NFL Films — which captures the mic’d up audio — and “Inside the NFL” from airing the direct Kelce sound chew, with one saying he thought that this edict got here from Reid.
A rep for “Inside the NFL” declined to remark, and reps for the Chiefs and NFL Media (which operates NFL Movies) didn’t reply to requests for remark by The Put up.
A lip reader instructed The Put up that he believed Kelce stated, “Hey, come on, you f–ker, put me on.”
Thoughts you, Kelce has already admitted that he knew this may ultimately come up.
“Oh, you guys saw that? Man, it was . . . I’m going to keep that between us unless my mic’d-up tells the world, but I was just telling him how much I love him,” Kelce said after the sport during which he berated his coach and virtually knocked him over.
Within the days because the recreation, Kelce has owned his mistake.
“Big Red, sorry if I caught you with that cheap shot, baby,” he said on his podcast. “I can’t get to the point where I’m that fired up that I’m bumping coach and it’s getting him off balance and stuff. When he stumbled, I was like ‘Oh (expletive)’ in my head,” he defined.
At this level, it appears like if the audio is ever leaked it’ll be as a result of TMZ, because the gossip outlet has a historical past of doing stuff like this — remember the Draymond Green-Jordan Poole incident? However, the larger level right here isn’t nearly us not getting the Kelce audio, it’s about this example being the newest pattern of the NFL being extraordinarily guarded.
Days earlier than Kelce’s scenario befell on the sphere, the league restricted access to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell for his annual press conference at the Super Bowl. In a cowardly determination, the league moved the occasion to Monday — when press attendance is at its lowest — and made it invite-only.
It was proof of the Jim Trotter impact.
Final 12 months, NFL Media didn’t renew Trotter’s contract after he grilled Goodell concerning the league’s lackluster range efforts at consecutive Tremendous Bowl press conferences. And though Trotter wasn’t there, the league nonetheless sucks at range, regardless of the latest hiring of three Black head coaches.
Ultimately, Goodell nonetheless bought grilled.
“As of this press conference, the NFL Media newsroom still employs zero Black managers, zero Black copy editors, zero full-time Black employees on the news desk, and your only full-time Black employee, Larry Campbell, passed away over the weekend,” Darren Smith of KLKC Radio told Goodell at the event. “How does knowing this sit well with you, and after two years of being asked this question, why has there not been any change or any hirings in that area?”
As a substitute of taking the warmth like he’s paid to do, the league narrowed entry to a big majority of the press in a failed try and protect Goodell. That pondering is why HBO’s Onerous Knocks has fallen off a cliff, because the “all-access” docuseries has hardly ever given followers the within scoop on issues we thought we’d see, or witnessed in its early seasons. Final 12 months, the New York Jets have been featured on the present. However, earlier than the primary episode aired there have been reports that the franchise wasn’t going to allow the camera crews to have free reign.
“They forced it down our throats and we have to deal with it,” quarterback Aaron Rodgers told KPIX.
From sideline sound bites to footage of gamers in staff services to limiting who can and may’t ask Roger Goodell questions, the previous couple of months have been a case examine on how the nation’s hottest and worthwhile sports activities league incubates itself. On the one hand, it makes good enterprise sense. However, alternatively, it appears like false promoting. So in the case of the NFL let’s cease calling it “all-access” and consult with it as what it truly is — a PR spin.
