Landon Donovan started out poorly this MLS season, but since he was shockingly cut from the U.S. World Cup team he’s been on a tear. Three days after being left off the U.S. National Team, Landon Donovan scored his 135th career MLS goal; making the LA Galaxy forward the all-time leading scorer in Major League Soccer history.
In defeating the Philadelphia Union, Donovan would also later score his 136th; taking sole possession of the scoring crown.
In a 1-1 draw at the Chicago Fire, Donovan met the media for a ridiculously brief period of time, after reporters were instructed that two topics: the World Cup and the U.S. National Team were both off limits for discussion. This, despite the fact that the controversial decision to leave him off the team is still dominating discussion during World Cup press conferences today.
Yes, the World Cup snub is a story line that’s been beaten to death, and it’s been over 10 days since the announcement, but you just can’t tell the media what they can and can’t say. There is this little thing called the First Amendment. He’s free to say that he doesn’t want to discuss certain topics, just like we’re free to bring up certain topics.
The L.A. Galaxy Media Relations were extremely terse, short and curt about Donavan’s availability. There was about a minute and a half for English speaking media and then a minute and a half for Spanish speaking media. So after waiting around for awhile, reporters had less than three minutes to talk to Landon Donovan.
Provided of course that the World Cup dare not be brought up.
Because, what a horrible tragedy it would be for the most famous and beloved soccer player in the entire United States to have to answer questions from reporters; especially after having a week and a half to prepare for those questions. I know, in today’s news cycle stories can get old in six hours, let alone close to two weeks.
However, ESPN FC’s Steve Nicol made a World Cup joke over highlights of Donavan’s goal Sunday night; and the one-liner was still fresh and clever.
Ahead of the Galaxy’s trip to Chicago, they cancelled any pre-game access to Donovan. Yes, all Chicago media, the nation’s third largest market, serving the nation’s most sports crazy town, was totally shut out. You would think during a week that Landon Donovan broke the career MLS scoring record, the team and league might want to publicize him and his accomplishments.
Maybe every journalist who talks to Landon Donovan should just send their stories to the L.A. Galaxy for vetting before they publish them? That way the club can make sure everything is exactly the way they want it before the public gets to consume it. I doubt the Media Relations people are very happy about Galaxy Captain Robbie Keane going on a NSFW rant against playing in the Chicago heat. (audio and transcript here. Beware the f-bombs though)
Los Angeles is a tough place to keep people interested in sports. Just ask the L.A. Kings how their postseason television ratings are doing; despite the hockey team’s astounding success. When you have an iconic player, who’s been dominating all the headlines within his respected sport for the past two weeks, it’s a great chance to be an ambassador for the game. Especially so for a league that has a lot of ground to make up if it wishes to be considered the fifth major professional sport in the U.S.
Sheltering and restricting Landon Donovan is not the way to close the gap.
Paul M. Banks owns The Sports Bank.net, an affiliate of Fox Sports. He’s also a frequent guest on national talk radio. Banks, a former contributor to NBC Chicago and the Washington Times, has been featured in numerous outlets including NFL.com, Forbes and the History Channel. President Barack Obama follows him on Twitter (@paulmbanks)