Media Day: Another Pointless Aspect of Super Bowl Week

It’s Super Bowl week, but I’m not a football fan, so meh.

I’ll probably watch the highlights afterwards, but I’ve been actively trying to avoid the constant roar of activity going on this week.

But something happened yesterday that I just don’t understand: Media Day.

For the uninitiated, Media Day is the one day where the press - all of ‘em, from everywhere - get access to all the major players and coaches from both teams.

For several hours, there are scrums of reporters huddling around players, apparently to ask them questions and get some answers.

The problem is, there are so many reporters, and so few questions. Nothing of substance ever gets asked. In the 24/7 media age, everything you need or want to know about any player you care about has already been put out there, multiple times, by multiple sources.

The press even acknowledges this. In most of the stories I’ve seen, they all acknowledge what a waste of time the whole exercise is.

The questions are ludicrous (this year’s most cited example - Tom Brady being asked “what is your purpose on the earth?”), the answers are vapid boilerplate, and most of the press dreads going to Media Day the way most of us dread doing our taxes.

So, my question is this - why does Media Day happen?

If everyone acknowledges it’s a joke and a waste of time, why not, y’know, STOP WASTING PEOPLE’S TIME WITH IT?

Is this really that complicated? If the NFL really wants to generate some good PR, it should take the time normally spent on Media Day and use it to organize a touch-football game with a few of the players and some local Boys and Girls Club-kids, or some other charitable pursuit.

It just seems stupid to continue something that everyone dislikes, just for the sake of doing it.