Ryan Clark: Not a Big Fan of the Media

Frustration has gotten the best of the Steelers, to say nothing of the Chiefs, Raiders and Browns. Their star players were lobbing controversial comments at each other for a few weeks. It was only a matter of time before they leveled some nastiness at the media as well.↵↵Stepping up on that end is safety Ryan Clark, who humorously enough lashed out at the media after receiving an award given out by Pittsburgh football beat writers to the most cooperative player.↵

↵↵⇥“You watch the [Philadelphia] Eagles, you watch the big plays. You watch things given up. And I started checking other media outlets. You don’t hear the things about them in their media that you hear about us. So either we’re held to a higher standard or the people that write about us are turds.↵⇥↵⇥“This year, increasingly, it’s made me realize that you have to play for your organization, you have to play for your teammates, you have to play for yourself, for your family because the people on the outside don’t understand the frustration you go through. They don’t understand the work you put into it every day. A lot of people think we come in here and practice a couple of hours and then go out on Sunday and go play the game. That’s not how it is.”↵⇥

↵↵↵It’s true. The media never really fully knows what people go through in any profession. Except their own, which is why they write about it so much. In sports, they’ll lionize you if you win and pillory you if you fail. Fair or not, that’s how it is, and Ryan Clark knows this, as do all athletes. Railing against it doesn’t accomplish a whole lot. ↵

↵↵Having said that, Pittsburgh is definitely a town that expects a lot from its football team and goes into a frenzy when the Steelers fail to meet those expectation, but to call the media there any more critical than any other market where the team has an intense following is a little ridiculous. Clark once played for the Redskins, after all. The media in D.C. (at least the outlets not owned by Dan Snyder) don’t hesitate when it comes to harsh criticism of players.↵

↵↵(H/T to One for the Other Thumb)↵

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