Reporters need to stop trying to make coaches and players write their stories for them. Every Media Day the extremely leading and tiredly predictable questions come, and the self-reflexive bait is never taken. Coaches and players are smart enough not to play along with the already established narratives that pertain to them. You have to ask other individuals that question
Newly installed Michigan Head Coach Jim Harbaugh obviously knows there’s a HUGE media circus around him, but he’s not going to admit it! He has to have a sense of humility. Take a look at this picture; which indeed says a 1,000 words.
https://twitter.com/PaulMBanks/status/627222077775433728
Within this media “horde” (or “scrum,” “mosh pit,” “gang bang,” whatever you want to call it), Jim Harbaugh was asked flat out if he thinks there’s a media circus around him. He simply said that there is not. (Even though it’s obvious that the Big Ten actually revamped its Media Day format this year to accommodate the circus. The event was two days this year, with Harbaugh and Michigan on one day, Ohio State and Urban Meyer on the other day.
“I haven’t seen any circus surrounding any of this,” Harbaugh said during his podium session.
It’s pretty obvious that both ESPN and the Big Ten Network love to talk about Meyer as much as possible, so when you have a media darling who is a defending national champion, plus the giant brand that is Ohio State football, it’s a pretty huge media circus in and of itself.
But it’s not quite the spectacle that Jim Harbaugh is. He had four media availabilities in one day.
1. a 15 minute session on dais (this was televised live) in a giant ballroom.
2. reporters followed him out of the ballroom immediately after this concluded and hounded him questions
3. a 30 minute podium session several hours later
4. a one hour roundtable immediately after
If this all sounds like overkill, that’s because overkill is exactly what it is. You can reach a saturation point on any discussion topic. The media treated the story of his exit from the San Francisco 49ers to go coach his alma mater like it was the biggest story of the year. So when Jim Harbaugh is asked directly about what a big deal he is, what do you expect him to say? No one should ever be that egocentric or solipsistic to believe their own hype when it’s at this magnitude. Look at this Q&A from his session on dais:
Q. “Your return to Michigan has really reenergized people at Michigan, but it also created a buzz throughout the Big Ten. Did you expect that? And what do you think that means for the league overall and for Michigan?”
Coach Jim Harbaugh: “Well, I don’t know. I don’t know. Not striving to be creating any buzz. Just striving to coach the football team. Not trying to be popular or anything. Anyone who is popular is bound to be disliked. So just coaching football.”
Harbaugh handled it beautifully and perfectly. Because again what would you expect him to say? The media is obsessed and infatuated with this guy that the story of him being a story is now a story. Just about every coach and player at Big Ten Media Day was asked about the buzz surrounding Jim Harbaugh, and although there were many great answers out there, I think Northwestern Coach Pat Fitzgerald had the best responses.
“I think he’s embraced it and has fun with it. I think he goes home at night and laughs his ass off. I mean, I would,” Fitzgerald said.
Fitzgerald also had some fun with the huillabaloo when asked about Jim Harbaugh during his session on dais.
“I just followed him outside. I told him, I was going to get in the back of the media horde and start asking him questions about my talk at his camp and see if he remembered anything I said and put him on the spot a little bit.”
The Michigan football players present at Big Ten Media Days acknowledged the media circus:
Said Linebacker James Ross of Harbaugh’s type A personality: “He’s intense, no matter what he does, he’s going to do it the best. Even if he’s cutting grass, he’s going to be the best lawn mower there is. He takes things serious and he’s very meticulous.
Ross on Harbaugh being a rock star: “I just started seeing him on random shows like “Saved By the Bell, he’s like a celebrity but that’s not what drives him. He doesn’t care about that. He cares about being successful in every single thing he does.”
Ross on the new media atmosphere: “We’re really not used to this, so I’d characterize it pretty much as a circus. He’s the center of attention at all times, I feel like any time he steps somewhere someone wants to talk to him. I believe it’s different (than how it was under Brady Hoke)”
Linebacker Joe Bolden added: “Obviously, there’s a lot of attention for him (Harbaugh) which is good for Michigan. I’ve embraced every second of it. Definitely a big show.”
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and writes The Sports Bank.net, which is part of the FOX Sports Engage Network. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes to the Chicago Tribune RedEye edition. He also appears regularly on numerous talk radio stations all across the country.
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