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It's become cliche for athletes to criticize the media. They're too negative, they're looking for the sensational story. They're trying to stir up trouble.So when you hear that Ricky Williams called out the Miami media, you might think it's more of the same. But Williams' comments are well worth a closer look because he went beyond the cliche. Williams' criticism has nothing to do with the media not being on the Dolphins' side -- he's smart enough to understand that the media's job isn't to make the team look good. He even said that he's not blaming the media for writing negative stories.
What he's unhappy with is the laziness he sees from sportswriters and broadcasters.
"It's the fact they don't work as hard at what they do as we work at what we do," he told Dave Hyde of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
Williams believes there is a lack of effort to understand the game. He would like to see questions that allow players to explain what they do and how they do it. He would like to see serious analysis instead of a focus on Kendall Langford's missing earring.
Claiming that many of the questions asked are "superficial," Williams said: "When I'm told what they want to talk about, I often think, 'Are you really going to write that?' "
Now some of Williams' criticisms may be true, but we are unlikely to see any changes. While Williams may view the story about the team stopping to find Langford's earring to be superficial, the reality is that there are plenty of casual fans and non-fans who will find that story interesting -- many more than those who will see the nuance of an explanation of zone-blocking vs. man-blocking schemes.
Another part of Williams' criticism that is hard to change is the fact that "the media" is a very broad group. At any game or press conference, you will have both football beat writers who may have years of covering the game sitting beside a radio-station stringer who may barely know what the Miami team's nickname is. It's unrealistic to think that Mike Mayock and WFBN's weekend fill-in will have the same level of competence.
But Williams' opinions do have a lot of truth to them. Way too much of football coverage is focused on fluff instead of substance. And if you're a football nut, the thought of seeing sportswriters being pushed to work harder at digging out real insight instead of another cookie-cutter feature about how Player X has overcome adversity has to sound like a wonderful change.
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