I’ve often talked about how useless sideline reporters are and how much I can’t stand in-game interviews. Sideline reporters bring nothing to the table and are nothing more than eye candy, except in the rarest of circumstances. In-game interviews suck because they take away from the live feel of the game and make sports contests feel like scripted dramas. Not only that, but you almost never get any relevant information from a coach during an in-game interview. Think about it — would you actually tip off the television audience about any pertinent information that could get back to the other team? Of course not. That’s what makes them useless.
Even though I’m not a big Brad Childress fan and think he’s proven himself to be deceitful on numerous occasions, I loved what he did to FOX prior to the NFC Championship game. After Saints coach Sean Payton answered a question from Pam Oliver, things got tossed over to Chris Myers who asked Brad Childress a few basic questions. Childress was standoffish the first question or two but played it straight. The last question asked by Myers had to do with Minnesota’s offensive game plan on the opening drive. Childress said the offensive play calling would be balanced in terms of rushing and passing.
Next thing you knew the game had started and the Vikings threw it four times to open up the game. Troy Aikman and Joe Buck were commenting throughout the opening drive that the team was doing the exact opposite of what Childress said they would, even going so far as to call Childress is a liar. I’m quite pleased that Childress didn’t divulge the team’s true intentions to Myers. Yeah — that’s exactly what a coach wants to do prior to a huge game with only 40 million people watching — let them all know what they planned to do. I hope FOX realizes that Childress made jerks out of them, not the other way around. Maybe they get the clue that asking a coach for his plan on camera right before a game starts is completely inappropriate and invasive. Give me a break.
