Players and Coaches Should Know Their Place Before Answering Questions

As a sports PR professional, I believe that one of the best ways to learn and improve my craft is to monitor closely interviews with athletes and coaches. Most interviews, of course, are very generic with softball questions and answers that would force a yawn from even the most intense fan (Reporter: How did you feel out there today? Athlete: I felt good. I just wanted to play well for my teammates…etc.).

But from time to time important questions, even tricky ones, are thrown at players and coaches – sometimes with the sole purpose of causing controversy (see Jim Calhoun and his thoughts about his salary). Especially in today’s rapidly expanding media world, reporters are constantly seeking ways to standout from their colleagues with controversial questions.

Most players and coaches are media trained and should know how to eloquently avoid answering these loaded inquires. So I’m always a little surprised when the bigger-named sports star comments on matters that he or she should stay far away from.

A recent example is North Carolina Head Men’s Basketball Coach Roy Williams. Throughout his Hall of Fame coaching career, Coach Williams has done a solid job dealing with the media (aside from his understandably emotional outburst with CBS’s Bonnie Bernstein following his 2003 National Championship Game defeat).

But I had to cringe the other morning when I watched a replay of one of Coach Williams’s pregame press conferences prior to Monday’s Championship Game.

With the title game in Detroit this year, a number of stories have logically centered on the city’s severe economic and unemployment struggles. So naturally head coaches from both teams in the Finals were asked about this issue.

Although everybody has a right to their opinion, I think this is an extremely dangerous area for professional athletes and coaches to address. In sports PR, you can never forget that sports is really just a distraction to real life. Sports is entertainment that, at the end of the day, really means nothing in the entire scope of things.

So when it comes to families losing their jobs and homes, I would rather not listen to a man earning roughly $2.6 million-a-year by coaching basketball comment about jobs and the economy (let alone make glib or insensitive remarks). One has to know where his or her place is and then address questions accordingly.

The following was Coach Williams’s remarks when asked about the economic impact of the Final Four in Detroit. “…I do realize they have a cause (Michigan State). Well, we also have a cause. We want to win a National Championship, period the end. And if you would tell me that if Michigan State wins it’s going to satisfy the nation’s economy I’d say, hell, let’s stay poor for a little while longer.”

Now I don’t really believe Coach Williams means that. He’s trying to keep his players focused and doesn’t want any distractions to linger in their minds. But you have to be smarter than that. Although there was virtually no criticism or response from anyone that I could find, I came away thinking that that was an extremely inappropriate statement and could of caused serious problems for the University and the NCAA.

Players and coaches have to be media trained and understand that topics such as economics and politics are hot-buttoned issues that they should stay far away from. Coach Williams, as great of a basketball coach that he is, was not qualified to answer that question and should have known that.

We all know that sometimes no matter how much media training and instructions you supply a client, they’ll pick times to ignore your hard work and say whatever they feel like. So I’m not necessarily blaming UNC’s sports information department for this gaffe.

But the University’s associate athletic director of communications or sports information director should definitely mention the matter to Coach Williams and make sure he understands his public relations mistake.

It appears no damage was done from the remark but it could have easily blown up and really embarrassed the University and NCAA.