Chatelain: 'Super Bowl Opening Night' Was A Super Flop On TV
By Ryan Chatelain
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Was it really necessary?
With dollar signs in its eyes, the NFL turned Super Bowl media day into a prime-time televised event Monday night, fully equipped with a paid audience.
The result of "Super Bowl 50 Opening Night" was lousy TV that seemed to be more about serving self-interests than capturing the true value and even the quirkiness of the event.
MORE: Photos From Super Bowl 50 Opening Night | Complete Super Bowl 50 Coverage
On ESPN, you could rarely even hear the questions coming from the media scrum. Instead, viewers painfully watched athletes shouting out answers with no context whatsoever.
Take this series of remarks by Panthers quarterback Cam Newton, for example:
"Is that it?"
"The beast!"
"The who?"
"It's over."
I guess we had to be there to find out what that was all about. But wasn't that the point of this whole charade -- to bring us there, so to speak?
Meanwhile, the NFL Network only seemed interested in televising its own reporters asking questions. The quick cuts in and out of podiums made it impossible to get a feel for the personality of any player who wasn't a star quarterback.
In between, the network had some prerecorded segments, practically an admission that there was no way the event itself was going to be enthralling enough the whole way through.
At one point, the NFL Network's talking heads interviewed former Raiders quarterback Jim Plunkett. Keep in mind, there were 11 occupied booths right behind them filled with more relevant players talking about Sunday's Super Bowl -- you know, supposedly the whole reason people tuned in for this.
ESPN wasn't much better in that department. Stephen A. Smith and Herm Edwards provided commentary about the players' commentary.
Even the player introductions, which had some room to be entertaining, were ho-hum. (Word of advice, NFL: Hire the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest emcee next year.)
Media day has become notorious in recent years for the silly questions asked by the not-so-mainstream media, which annoys some who are there with more serious jobs to do but does break up the monotony. Maybe ESPN and the NFL Network are among those who are not amused by that style of reporting because viewers saw very little of such shenanigans.
Nickelodeon's Jeff Sutphen, dressed as a superhero, made his way on camera a couple of times, one reporter passed Josh Norman a Mexican wrestling mask emblazoned with the Panthers logo, and someone apparently asked Newton if he'd consider kissing the reporter's wife. But there wasn't much else.
And you'd better believe the televised version of the event could have used it.
As for the fans in the stands, it must have felt like Yawnapalooza.
The objective of a media day is simple: It's to give reporters access to the players for their stories during the week in one brief period of time so the players can then focus on the game afterward. It's not meant to be entertaining in its entirety, and there's really no magic the NFL or the networks can work on it to change that.
There's a reason TV and radio stations select clips from media days -- because not every answer a player or coach gives is interesting. And players often find themselves answering the same questions over and over as reporters cycle through the podiums.
It's easy to see what the NFL was thinking here: Fans have an insatiable appetite for its product, and the league can generate some new revenue.
And you can't blame the league for trying. Maybe its executives are right. Maybe fans will watch anything that has to do with the NFL.
Except the Pro Bowl, of course.
Follow Ryan on Twitter at @ryanchatelain
