Sometimes even an old media guy like me has to shake his head. OK, a lot of times. OK, so most of the time.
Nothing amuses/disturbs/makes me sigh in exasperation more than the media's tendency to turn chicken, uh, scratch into chicken salad, or at least attempt to do so. And so now we have this story/non-story out of Pittsburgh, in which Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown posted a locker room video of head coach Mike Tomlin supposedly trashing their next opponent, the New England Patriots.
I say "supposedly" because, no matter how the media's spinning this, he did nothing of the kind.
What he said was, because of the playoff schedule that had the Patriots playing Saturday and the Steelers playing Sunday, the Steelers had "spotted these a**holes a day and a half" of preparation. The media's take was, gasp, he called the Patriots "a**holes." But go back and read it again. Now put it in its proper context.
Which is that Tomlin merely said the Steelers had spotted their next opponent a day and a half in preparation.
Yes, he used the word "a**holes." But that clearly wasn't specific to the Patriots. Had the Steelers been playing the Texans or the Broncos or the Colts next, his terminology would not have been any different. They all would have been These A**holes, as in "These a**holes we play next."
And yet the headlines were all about Tomlin dissing the Patriots.
Please, fellow media folk. Try a little harder, will ya?
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