Press conferences that follow some sort of breaking controversy are rarely interesting. They’re usually a promotional vehicle for a carefully prepared statement written by people who get paid a lot of money to write carefully prepared statements. That’s the template, usually.
Josh Hamilton Press Conference: Rangers Stay Hands-Off
Josh Hamilton sat in front of a lot of cameras and just talked. I suppose it wasn't that risky -- it's not like Hamilton was going to start swearing and threatening people. It was a prepared statement, in that Hamilton presumably had a great idea of what he was or wasn't going to say. But it was riskier than we might think. It wasn't what we should expect from the next professional athlete who gets caught up in something controversial.
I suppose if it’s time to be cynical, there’s a chance the press conference will kick off a spate of articles expressing admiration for Hamilton’s forthrightness. Then there will be the backlash to those articles. Then there will be the backlash to the backlash. The Internet.
But it's hard not to appreciate the trust that the Rangers had in Josh Hamilton, encouraging him to address the media in this way. Hamilton talked about how he can be sneaky and deceptive when he's drinking. He admitted that "90 percent of the time, I'm fine," acknowledging how tough that other 10 percent can be. This press conference wasn't filled with boilerplate "I know this is wrong" comments, at least not in moments like that. There was humanity in a situation that could have been handled with a pablum-filled press release.
You will judge for yourself what happened Monday, and how Hamilton handled the aftermath. I think we can agree that it was handled in a unique way that we probably won’t see again for a while.
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