Player Interviews: The New Cliche

After Norfolk State upset Missouri in the "second" round of the NCAA tournament last month, I felt compelled to note how impressive center Kyle O'Quinn's post-game interview was.  In reality, it wasn't that O'Quinn's chat with TNT's Craig Sager was so special; more than anything, the Spartans star's words were just different from what we hear day in and day out from 99% of professional and collegiate athletes.  By now, post-game sports interviews have become completely cliche.  Players always fake humility by thanking God and their coaches for giving them the opportunity to succeed.  They always claim to take each game "one at a time," and not to put more emphasis on wins over a rival or a top team - "a win is a win," after all.  And of course, the players could never have done it "without the help of their teammates."  At this point, we might as well have a voice actor record a few interviews and automatically play them after each game to save everyone some time.

But what about off-season interviews?  Before the 2011 NFL campaign began, Eli Manning practically set the sports world ablaze by proclaiming that he felt he was an "elite" quarterback.  At the time, it was the only truly acceptable answer to the now-famous question posed by ESPN Radio personality Michael Kay: "Is Eli Manning an elite quarterback, are you a top-five, top-ten quarterback?"  Regardless of how good you think Eli Manning is (although I'll argue that, in hindsight, he was certainly right about his elite status), you'll likely agree that there was no way that Eli could have said that he didn't think he was elite.  Players get paid based on performance, yes, but confidence certainly helps.  No one wants an insecure quarterback leading their offense. So in light of this, what do we make of Baltimore QB Joe Flacco's recent quote?

"I mean, I think I'm the best. I don't think I'm top five, I think I'm the best. I don't think I'd be very successful at my job if I didn't feel that way. I mean, c'mon? That's not really too tough of a question.  That doesn't mean that things are going to work out that way. It just means that's the way it is -- that's the way I feel that it is and that's the way I feel it should be."

Clearly, Joe Flacco's assertion is false.  While Eli Manning had a case for proclaiming that he was a top-five or at least top-ten quarterback, no one outside of Joe Flacco's living room would ever genuinely argue that the Delaware product is the best QB in the NFL.  Flacco seems like a smart guy, too, so we have to assume that even he knows that his statement is wildly off base.  So the question then is: Why did he say it?  Most likely, he felt the power of the interview cliche; he knew that teams, coaches and fans want a confident QB, so he figured he'd give them one (in his own shaky, meek sort of way, at least).  He got asked an impossible question -  "where he thinks he ranks among NFL quarterbacks," according to ESPN.com - and did the best he could with it.

I don't blame Flacco for saying something absurd (and, yes, I think what he said was crazy), however.  Instead, I blame the media and the fans.  First, I blame the media for asking these boneheaded questions.  Maybe it's time what we stop asking athletes where they think they rank among the competition.  At this point, the rule of the sports interview cliche mandates that players say they think they're the best or among the best.  If we know what the player's answer is going to be, then why ask the question?  There's no reason to fly off the handle every time an Eli Manning or a Joe Flacco says he thinks he's the best quarterback in the NFL.  Second, I blame the fans.  How is this a popular news story?  I realize I'm as guilty as anyone here, given that I'm blogging about Flacco this week, but why do we care about how good Joe Flacco says he thinks he is?  As long as fans continue to consume lazy media content about self-proclaimed rankings, journalists are going to continue to write about it.  If we must obsess ourselves with ranking things, let's leave it to somewhat objective experts and stop asking players what they think of themselves.