Owens, an uncanny lightning rod for media attention and thus, controversy, was clearly trying to squash any potential controversy about the Bills' lack of performance on offense, especially when it was the first game since 1996 that he didn't have a single reception.
From where I'm standing, it appeared as though the media knew very well of Owens' reputation and tried to use it against him. It seemed to me that they were more interested in creating the news than just merely reporting it, and planned to exploit Owens' clearly (and visibly) frustrated state-of-mind.
Video from the press conference can be seen below:
A follow-up story about Owens appearing on a local radio show can be read here. Some revealing quotes from the segment:
"It really just shows you the angle that the media has taken all these years," Owens said during the interview. "Over the years I've always kind of spoken openly about whatever is being asked with my answers, so the last four or five years I've kind of noticed that and tried taking some steps to prevent some of those things from happening.
"But [Sunday] as you saw, it was obviously ... [the media] took some more than initiative to try to get me to kind of go down the wrong path. I know the last two teams that I've been on, I felt like I left those teams prematurely due to media interviews that I've done and things kind of taken out of context and they created sort of a media whirlwind in the locker room and things kind of went downhill from there. I'm just trying to do the best job I can do as far as answering the questions and trying to be a better teammate and not try to throw people under the bus."
Certainly, Owens' answers during the press conference weren't ideal, but take any high-profile athlete whose team gets blown out at home and whose impact on the game is virtually nil, and see how revealing he becomes. I can't say I blame Owens, especially considering his history with the media (including, but not limited to: questioning the sexuality of his former former quarterback, Jeff Garcia (who's now married to a Playboy model); crying while defending his former quarterback, Tony Romo; inviting the media to his house so they cover his holdout, specifically him doing sit-ups in his driveway and playing basketball; etc.)
What are your thoughts? Did Owens handle it properly? Did the media try to create news or "goat" him into controversial answers?
No comments:
Post a Comment