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Pressure For Players To Give Interviews

SteveS1

I heard that, pardon?
I think it will be a pity if other players don't support Naomi Osaka's wish not to be interviewed post match. I've never understood why people should have microphones thrust in front of them before they themselves have had time to process what they have just been involved in. The 'sport' is the tennis, not watching someone suffer in an interview under some smart-arse questions when they have just come up short after giving it everything.
 
Surely for the money they earn they can endure that.

Does it add to your enjoyment to watch someone 'endure' that? The stronger ones keep the answers trite and predictable. The hope always seems to be that someone more vulnerable will provide a spectacle by either throwing a hissy or melting down. I don't think that reflects well on the audience, but then I'm sure if we restored public executions there would be no shortage of attendees.
 
Tournament contracts - it was discussed on R4 yesterday, or that was the way that it came across to me. Certainly not sponsors involved in the disagreement.

Is not the entire circus organised and run the the professional tennis body - a bit like F1?
 
From BBC Sport:

“Grand Slam rules state players can be fined up to $20,000 (£14,160) for failing to meet their media obligations, with the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) saying the players "have a responsibility to their sport and their fans" to speak to the media during competitions.”
 
Being hacked off after loosing a sporting contest, and being interviewed at that time != mental health problem.

This is a pet peeve of mine. As a society we have become more open, accepting and understanding of true mental health issues, and that is a good thing. But this casual attachment of the tag "mental health problem" to every low moment, every bad day, every inter-personal argument etc. risks devaluing true mental health issues.
 
From BBC Sport:

“Grand Slam rules state players can be fined up to $20,000 (£14,160) for failing to meet their media obligations, with the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) saying the players "have a responsibility to their sport and their fans" to speak to the media during competitions.”

In reality, far more though as all the grand slam tournaments are threatening to exclude her
 
They should be trained in how to handle interviews.
"Yes Gary, well it was a game of 2 halves"
"I'd like to thank the officials"
" I got to hand it to Reggie, he gave it 110%"
"I hope the fans enjoyed it tonight"
"Are we done here, because it you keep talking I'm going back to number 1 here" .
 
In my opinion some sports journalists are not very good at their jobs. They ask stupid pointless questions. They can put pressure on sportsmen/women at times when they are vulnerable after a difficult game/match.

On the other hand it is part of the job, players really need to train for media relations in the same way they train for their sport.
 
^ Agreed.

The reason modern sports stars are so highly paid is because of the way the sport has been packaged for television and the much larger audiences out there. Seems to me like part and parcel of that whole package is the 'getting to know the players' piece with the associated media duties. As was mooted above, if you want to share in the success of that whole business - you have to play the game their way.
 
I dislike the pre and post sport yakking so much I record the programme so I can speed through to the sport - particularly the F1 highlights on C4. Some live sports run to time so it's possible to avoid this guff by careful planning. Sports people should be given a few minutes to calm down after their event before trotting out meaningless platitudes to camera.
 
This is not a question about how much super sports people are paid, or their contracts, it’s about mental health. The media and sports organisations cannot promote mental health on one hand and pressurise sportspeople while they’re in a vulnerable mental state for audience titillation on the other.
 


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