In the interest of journalism, it would have been great to see someone like Scott Pelley, Brian Williams, Diane Sawyer conduct the Richie Incognito interview Sunday. However, there was zero chance that the disgraced Miami offensive lineman would ever sit down with one of them.
Instead, Incognito did the big chat with his pal, Jay Glazer. At the top, Glazer revealed he had done MMA training with Incognito, as he does with a number of NFL players.
A conflict of interest? To be sure.
But does it matter in today’s media age? Probably not.
The bottom line: Glazer got the interview everyone wanted. Fox NFL Sunday likely did a big rating because of the interview. Throughout Sunday and now today, the interview remains a prime topic of discussion, especially on the competition, ESPN.
In another person’s hands, the interview probably would have been handled differently. Glazer is one of these Buddy-Buddy guys. To expect him to become Mike Wallace on Incognito wouldn’t be realistic.
Glazer wasn’t capable of truly pressing Incognito. He gave him an out with this question: “There’s so many subplots in this. How much has come out, where you looked at it and said … ‘That’s not even close’?”
Translated, you’re not really that bad of a guy, are you?
Dave Zirin of The Nation pounded on Glazer:
To say that this interview was a cheap exercise in public relations would be to insult the people who do very good work in the world of public relations. The interview was edited with the subtlety of a Breitbart video and Jay Glazer threw more softballs than the cumulative careers of Lisa Fernandez and Jennie Finch.
I viewed the interview through the prism of knowing Glazer had a relationship with Incognito that went beyond journalist-player. Yet how many viewers, who don’t have a journalist’s eye, watched it the same way?
They wanted to hear from Incognito, and Glazer delivered him on Sunday morning with your bagels and coffee. In the eyes of Fox, so what if it is less than ideal?
Glazer and Fox NFL Sunday landed the big interview. That’s what matters in today’s media age.
Your turn, Jonathan Martin. However, Glazer won’t be getting that interview.
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Here are more critiques to the interview.
Tom Ley, Deadspin: The interview was a fucking joke.The segment was more theater than journalism, with Glazer lobbing obviously pre-determined questions at Incognito, allowing him to reel off as many face-saving platitudes as possible.
Richard Deitsch, SI.com: Prior to the interview, Glazer said he “held nothing back” and asked Incognito “everything.” Did he fulfill that charter? I’d say not entirely given this viewer wanted to hear Incognito address the allegations that he harassed a women on a golf course in 2012 during a team charity golf tournament, how often Incognito had been called into the NFL offices over the last couple of years, as well as an on-camera denial from Incognito refusing to answer questions about the role of Dolphins general manager Jeff Ireland and coach Joe Philbin.
Jarrett Bell, USA Today: Incognito, the suspended Miami Dolphins guard and face of the alleged workplace harassment that prompted second-year tackle Jonathan Martin to bolt from the team and seek counseling, was rather pathetic as he tried to explain himself amid the “friendly fire” interview with Glazer, his pal who trains him in MMA tactics.
Tom Jones, Tampa Bay Times: For the most part, Glazer handled the interview well. He asked Incognito about using the n-word on Martin’s voice mail. He questioned whether Incognito is a racist and a bully and a bad guy. He asked about the details in his dealings with Martin. And he even questioned Incognito’s “checkered past,” which included problems in college and a recent allegation of inappropriate contact with a woman at a charity golf tournament.
I would have liked to have seen Glazer press Incognito on the details of that golf incident, but it’s my guess that Incognito’s representatives made that off-limits. If so, Glazer should have said that. And if there were no off-limit topics, Glazer should have reported that, too. Still, overall, Glazer did a respectable job.
I have seen the Incognito problem labeled again and again as an artifact of “NFL culture”. That is only part of the story, and probably the smaller part. Behavior like Incognito’s (though in more muted tones) begins very early in football, even before highschool. From a player’s earliest days in the game, he learns to rank himself against others based on toughness, aggressiveness, ability to dispense and receive pain without complaining and etc. And the problem of the “wounded chicken,” that is, the guy who has shown a weakness, who gets pecked to death by the other players, exists in locker rooms a the junior high level and up. I hated that about the game and eventually focused on basketball, even though in many ways football was a more interesting challenge. But basketball has a better culture, at least it was more agreeable to me.