Somewhere out there in Sports America, there are intelligent people.
These people watch sports on television. These people see halftime interviews during games. These people realize these are the least informative bits of air time in the vast landscape of American television.
And that's saying something, what with the existence of reality shows, Bill O'Reilly and the rest of those people on Fox News.
The "get" -- journalism speak for landing the interview -- is not hard. It's contractual. Coaches have to stop and answer woeful, thought-provokeless questions. Ones such as, "Coach, what does your team have to do to win the game now?"
The coach will usually respond with something like, "Well, we're gonna have to score more points."
On occasion, the coach will let down his cliche guard and offer up a "They made a few big plays on us and we're gonna have to control that."
Gripping television, ain't it?
The idea of this reporting is to give the viewer more insight into the game. It's a way for networks to show the viewers that they can deliver something more than just the action on the field. But at what cost?
If you're going to give us something, make sure it's good enough to watch. Most sports fans are slightly askew when it comes to their fandom, but they know exactly what they want. They want to know everything they can about their teams. Halftime interviews don't help.
What do the TV execs think this adds to the broadcast? If anything, they detract from it.
If coaches were contractually obligated to say something of substance, then maybe we'd have something worth watching. Right now, we have something worth turning off before the commercials start. Perhaps the TV execs would like to know that.
Redskins coach Joe Gibbs got it right in 2004 when he asked Fox to skip his interview with Pam Oliver. He meant no disrespect but he nothing to say. The Redskins were leading the Buccaneers, 10-3, at the half of that game. They were in control the whole way.
"What am I going to say?" Gibbs asked then. "I've got 12 minutes to go in and help our football team. To stop and say something, I'm probably not going to make sense."
If only all the coaches could be as sensible.