Denver media member asks ultimate Clown Question, gets into tiny car
“I still can’t get confirmation on who it was, but I do know that this was the most amateurish and lame thing to say to an athlete I’ve ever heard. As clown questions go, this one was a tiny car, packed full of shame.”
Long time Denver Post sports writer Terry Frei was sticking it to everybody. His “Denver Hockey Media Bandwagon” updates were doing a fantastic job of simultaneously bridging the gap between crusty, old-school sports writer and new age, social media rabble rouser by vividly pointing out how the Denver media had stumbled back onto the Colorado Avalanche beat as they entered the postseason for the first time in a long while.
Frei may have been mostly putting us on, but there was certainly a good portion of his rants that were ringing true. I took this all in with great humor and as an outsider, loved the open rebellion against the buttoned up norm we expect from the stodgy, old media establishment.
But while I was amused by what was probably going on more frequently at Avs press conferences (increased crowds, clueless questions), Frei’s Denver Media Hockey Bandwagon became very real the other night as the Avs took a 2-0 lead over the Minnesota Wild: A media member asked one of the worst and most embarrassing questions of all time.
And it wasn’t even really a question but more of statement from a starry eyed fan, forgetting he was supposed to be an actual reporter. While this “reporter” was interviewing Paul Stastny, he made the statement, “You guys were just toying with them out there!” I still can’t get confirmation on who it was, but I do know that this was the most amateurish and lame thing to say to an athlete I’ve ever heard. As clown questions go, this one was a tiny car, packed full of shame.
First, this is the kind of statement Stastny may have heard from a drunken fan after he went out that night to celebrate the victory. Not a legitimate question that is asked in a dressing room. The only thing that was missing was a “dude” or “bro” plus a fist bump.
Second, it’s completely disrespectful to the player to put him on the spot like that. Stastny seemed to bristle a bit at the question because he – even if it was true – would never degrade another hockey team that way. Can you imagine the bulletin board material this would have conjured had Stastny said “hell yeah bro! We were totally toying with them!” *fist bump*
Third, there are so many different ways to rephrase this question so it doesn’t seem like a stoned fanboy is asking it. You can infer the team’s play on the ice was superior and try to get the player’s impression of that, but to just lay out a statement that “you were like, toying with them out there son!” is mindless and insulting.
This “reporter” may as well just have channeled his inner Chris Farley and just said “remember that time you played with Joe Sakic? That was AWESOME!” It was that bad.
I went back and tried to figure out who asked it, but I still can’t find the clip. It’s just as well, because it’s probably a moment everyone should forget. I know many young, aspiring sports journalists who take their job seriously and are fighting for legitimacy in their chosen field and to have someone pull such a rookie move is detrimental to all of them.
So, to the moron that made such an ass out of himself and all of the professionals around him: you are quite clearly a hack who has no business being anywhere near a professional sports locker room. You have proven that you are an unprofessional clown and more importantly, you’ve proven Terry Frei right. Something the rest of us couldn’t see before, but now it’s clear as day.
