When the Super Bowl hopefuls at the annual Running of the Media tangle with the reporters, bloggers and riff raff on Media Day, it is a scene like no other in the NFL. There are journalists - from every country, dressed in every level of clothing - asking questions that have nothing to do with football. There are daytime talk show hosts, who don’t know which players are which (i.e., Inez Sainz thinking she was interviewing “Mr. Peyton” Manning, in Miami for Super Bowl XLI, when she was actually talking to “Mr. Danieal” Manning. From the Bears. Not to be confused with Inez Gomez, who asked Tom Brady to marry her last year at Media Day).

There are six to nine players on podiums - usually 18 in all per team - discussing their strategy for the games what they will say to loved ones if the camera finds them after a big play, their inspiration and any other small detail from their childhood, faith, superstitions, relationship with parents, etc etc etc… But it’s not senseless grillings taking place on the podiums or the multi-cultural and clothing/taste-optional media frenzy that makes the scene so bizarre.

It is the fact that the non-starters, or non-key-players, have no podium, but are available for interviews as they mill around among the media between the elevated players that dot the sideline. They take their own pictures, talk about the game if and when the media comes to them and they wait for the show to be over.

That brings us to Matt Leinart.

Big guy had no podium.

Just out there, ready to be pounced on by Inez or The Astrologer.

How times have changed. Bet he felt like he needed a drink, or a funnel, after that.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 28th, 2009 at 10:47 am and is filed under Fantoo Blog Home. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.