A Few Minutes With Kellen Clemens: What I'd Ask Him

Needless to say, it’s extremely tough for a member of the press to get more than a few minutes alone with any professional athlete.

A player’s daily routine is typically structured down to the second and time with the press is just one part of a long, busy day.  Let’s also be honest with ourselves;  for most professional athletes, the only reason why they are taking any time at all to talk to the press is because they are forced to do so by either their team or the league.

If you do happen to catch a player walking off the practice field, you’ll be forced to blurt out questions in your loudest, strongest and deepest voice in the hopes of reaching that player over the rest of the reporters quickly surrounding him like a pack of hungry hyenas.

For this reason, it’s unlikely that any reporter will get more than a few moments alone with a player, unless you happen to have been sent by 60 Minutes or are conducting one of ESPN’s Sunday night conversations.

If I had just a few minutes alone with Jets’ quarterback Kellen Clemens to ask any two questions imaginable, this is what I’d ask him.

1)      Obviously you and Mark Sanchez are teammates, but you two are also competing for the starting quarterback job.  Is it difficult to compete as thoroughly and ruthlessly as you would like while also knowing in the back of your mind that if Sanchez does win out, you will be relied upon to provide guidance and advice to him as he adjusts to life in the NFL?

2)      You have started a few games in the NFL before.  But, if you are the team’s opening-day starter, will you feel more pressure upon you than usual in knowing that there are many Jets fans out there anxiously awaiting Mark Sanchez’s move into the starting role and will, of course, be scrutinizing your every move—very similar to what happened with Cleveland last year with Derek Anderson and Brady Quinn?