Suzy Kolber’s Dogged Pursuit of Pablum

If there was ever a display of how the NFL looks at sideline reporters, it was last night. Tom Brady led the Patriots on two fourth-quarter touchdown drives to come from behind against the Buffalo Bills. Following the game, ESPN’s Suzy Kolber just wanted to grab a quote from the start signal caller. ↵
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↵After blowing her off with a quick head shake, then ignoring her, then telling her three times, “I’m going in” and starting to run away, Brady realized he wasn’t getting rid of Kolber. He gave her the ‘it’s so loud in here’ which is the postgame interview equivalent of ‘my cell phone is breaking up’ before finally getting the point that she’d follow him into the showers to get this one quote if she needed too. ↵↵⇥“After all the time away what’s it like to lead such a dramatic comeback?”↵⇥↵⇥“Well, that’s not how we drew it up but I’ll take it. You know, we did a lot of things poorly, but I’m glad we got the win.” ↵⇥

↵↵↵Was that so hard, Tom? MJD at Yahoo debates whether Brady was being a jerk for jerk’s sake (yes) or if Suzy couldn’t take the hint that Brady just didn’t want to talk. Maybe Brady was eager to get into the locker room to catch the stand up from Mike and Mike (and Steve) doing the late game. ↵

↵↵There’s really no debate here – Brady knows that no matter how that game ends, ESPN will want to talk to him. I’m sure his PR guy told him that Suzy will be looking for him after the game. The move by Brady just illustrates how useless the sideline reporter’s role has become in football. Players don’t even have enough respect for the reporter to stand for 20 seconds to answer one fluff question. ↵

↵↵Kudos to Kolber, who would not be denied the quote (even if people watching would have been more interested in a quote from Bills DB Leodis McKelvin, or even T.O.). I’ve had the chance to interview Kolber at a Monday Night game and I’ll say this -- I wouldn’t mess with her if I were Brady. The Bills defense has nothing on Suzy. ↵

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