NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Reporters used to hang out at least once a week around the quarterbacks’ locker, and it wasn’t all notebooks and microphones. It certainly wasn’t all live streamed as a TV show.
The official stuff would be over, the cameras would be down, the tape recorders off.
Then, as with some of the sorts of conversations that still exist with lower-profile players, sometimes even one-on-one, you could bullshit about stuff – the NBA finals, the success or failure of alma mater, the headlines in or out of the world of sports, a good restaurant, a funny joke or – even – the menu helping a guy who’s offseason focus was bulking up 12 or 13 pounds maintain the weight.
Player-reporter relationships aren’t like a typical office, but some of these conversations are actually like those that take place in a typical office.
The elevation of quarterbacks to once-a-week talkers who often hit bullet points, say as little as possible and get the hell out of dodge has decreased the opportunity for such connections in some places with some guys, certainly the Titans' private and reserved one.
