Quote:I wonder if Tom Brady did the exact same thing if this would be your opinion.

Yes.

 

Football players are people....people with emotions playing an emotional game.  They are human beings with human weaknesses, just like everyone else.

 

For YEARS, my philosophy has been "football players are public figures, not public property." 

 

If a player took a defeat particularly hard, I can't blame him for not being the most pleasant person in the world to the media.

 

That goes for Tom Brady, Blake Bortles...anybody.  People on this board got butthurt because Bortles compared fans criticizing the playcalling to kindergartners talking to a college professor. But the fact is he was right.

 

But I have long observed that fans can say whatever they want and express themselves any way they desire and it's their right as fans, even though we have little, if nothing to do with the outcome.  Media hacks can say what they want about a game or a player, and they do it under the guise of objective journalism, even though they are not privy to what goes on in game planning and are usually cloaked in ignorance.  Coaches can say what they want about something, and they are being honest.  But somehow, the guys who have the MOST to do with what transpires in a game-the players-are somehow not permitted to express themselves as they see fit.  I am befuddled as to how that dynamic came into being.

 

Manning left his Super Bowl against New Orleans without shaking anyone's hand afterward.

 

I never made a peep about it.  Under the totality of the circumstances, I can see that happening with him, just like under the totality of the circumstances, I can see why Newton responded in the press conference the way he did.

---