Media Day at the Super Bowl as the spectacle we all expected it to be There was Marshawn Lynch being Marshawn Lynch, swarms of reporters around star players, silly "media members" doing silly things to get attention.
The general vibe I saw from people on Twitter was a general mocking of the concept of media day, questioning whether or not it was worth it, openly mocking the whole idea.
It got me thinking: Is there any value to Media Day? Among the noise and spectacle, is there real value that reporters can get out of this access? Not just the "Let me write a fun column about the craziness of media day," value, but real reporting value? Is Media Day, in the end, completely worthless to the media?
So I asked two reporters who were there covering the event. I offered them anonymity in exchange for their candor. They are reporters I follow and who follow me on Twitter, and the exchanges were done via Twitter DM.
This is a sample of two. It's not quantitative. It's not exact. But I wanted to get a sense from reporters who were there and needed to be there as a part of their jobs - is Media Day worthwhile?:
Reporter 1: "I feel like if you go in with a plan and know who you want to talk to, it's almost easier to talk to players at media day because the pr staffs are too busy monitor all questions and you can get the players to talk more candidly. Also we never get to talk face to face with assistant coaches and this is a good time to do that. So I found today pretty valuable actually."
Reporter 2: "This is my first, so take it with a grain of salt. I think there are some real pros who take the opportunity to do some real reporting, but they are vastly outnumbered, even by other pros, who just see the opportunity to pontificate (see Lynch, Marshawn)."
So is Media Day worthless? From the reporters who were there, not totally. It's not the best situation, but it's certainly not worthless.
There is some value to it, some real reporting and good work that can be done away from the silliness. The show doesn't prevent real work from being done - reporters are able to get access to players and coaches they don't get normally and do get a chance to do some good interviews. That's a good thing, an important thing.
But Media Day is generally about the silliness, about the spectacle and the show and all the craziness and over-the-top showmanship of the Super Bowl than it about giving media access to the players and coaches.
And all in all, maybe that's not a terrible thing.