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Santonio Holmes has an esoteric view of how the media should approach covering the Jets.
Holmes was asked about the New York press by NFL.com, and espoused the following theory –
“If you guys want to be, and this is for the New York media, if you guys want to be a part of our team and want to feel so important, be there to support us, not to try to break us down,” Holmes told NFL.com. “Because (there’s) not one day that we all step in that locker room and we try to break each other down, that we talk bad about the way that person played because it affects the team the way one person plays if they don’t play to perfection.
“If the New York media wants to be a part of our team and wants to continue writing about us, write positive things, stay away from the negative because it doesn’t do anything good for our team that you want to report all the negative things that happen and that’s all you want to talk to us players about. We live for one thing and that’s to play football and not to entertain you people in the media.”
That is a very unusual philosophy on how the media should approach their job.”
To say Holmes is being a little naïve, is an understatement.
To expect the New York press to approach their jobs this way is unrealistic.
That is more of the approach you would see in a college towns, perhaps like Tuscaloosa, Baton Rouge or Columbus.
So often in college towns, the media is a lot more supportive of the hometown teams. But the NFL media is a different culture.
Perhaps that is where Holmes came up with his mindset how the media should act, from his time at Ohio State.
But there is also something else at work here. There are a certain Jets fans, who work on fan websites, who are constantly tweeting at Holmes, supporting him, when the mainstream media is ripping him. Even when he’s clearly wrong, they are throwing him bouquets.
He often re-tweets these supportive tweets.
In some ways, they are enablers, so when he is in the wrong, they tell him he’s not, and he buys into it.
I do agree with one premise from Holmes, when he says the media should “not to try to break us down.”
He’s right about that. You know how I feel about this. There are a few reporters, who are clearly trying to divide the Jets over this Sanchez-Tebow scenario. There is no question. They should not do this. That is just wrong. That is uncalled for.
But for Holmes to say things like, “if [the media] wants to be a part of our team,” is ridiculous. That isn’t a reporters job to “be a part of” the team.
Also to say, “write positive things, stay away from the negative because it doesn’t do anything good for our team that you want to report all the negative things.”
Why would a reporter care about “doing good for our team?”
That is a bizarre view of a reporter’s job.
Holmes definitely has a different world view that so many others.
He is definitely a unique guy – there is no question about that.
July 19, 2012
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