And broccoli- don’t get me started on that shit. Awful.
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Dude - you really need to learn how to say no to your boss.
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Then the sponsors are idiots. While there are some fascinating personalities among athletes, scintillating conversation is absolutely NOT what they are being paid for. If that’s what you want, you’re looking in the wrong place. Athletes practice their sport not witty repartee.
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I’m not going to not sure I completely agree with that take.
Having physical talent at a level required to play professional sports does not necessarily mean a person lacks intelligence, or the capability to speak well. “All brawn, no brain” is a stereotype I’d rather not encourage; there are many types of “intelligence” in this world, and having a strong development in one area doesn’t exclude having other skills.
A post-game interview is largely framed by the questions the journalists ask, so if it isn’t “scintillating conversation”, maybe they need to ask better questions?
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That isn’t how I read @DukeTrout 's comment at all. It’s not that those people aren’t intelligent or necessarily can’t have an interesting interview (which, as you say, the failure there is at least as much to do with the dumb questions that get posed). Rather, that’s not what these people are famous for.
It would be like expecting a pulitzer prize winning author to be able to perform physical feats as part of the press tour for the book - maybe they can, but why should they have to in order to remain an admired practitioner of their craft?
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Oh one other thing that occurs to me. I don’t think it’s so much that athletes are at the behest of press conferences for some kind of undeserved income either. The athlete is not the parasite here imo. Most athletes don’t get that much attention and don’t make that much money, and are largely only known within the culture and community of people interested in that sport, often locally. A few extremely fortunate athletes gain national or international attention and then are able to captivate audiences by having some “star power” that gets people excited about them. And a lot of press and media attention makes money off of those athletes not the other way around.
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I don’t think @DukeTrout meant to imply anything bad. I think I’m using their post more as a jumping-off point to address implications in the larger argument.
I like your analogy better, but I still think if reporters want better answers, maybe they should ask better questions. 
I apologize to @DukeTrout if I’ve misinterpreted them.
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Beyond that, it’s not what they’re paid to do. Most of the models I’ve seen describe a penalty for those who opt out. So, it’s not their main source of income, and something they can be compelled to do because of contracts. I wouldn’t want to do it, either.
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“Who are you wearing?” 
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Absolutely! Few people have the gift of gab like Charles Barkley. Muhammad Ali was renown for his wit and had amazing chemistry with Howard Cosell.
My point is not that athletes aren’t intelligent or well-spoken. It is that being so isn’t necessarily their strength and that forcing the issue is not a recipe for success - for anyone involved.
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That’s a fair point, and I do agree! 
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Yeah - this. Stage work is exhilarating to me too. Sure, I’m nervous but I overcome it pretty easily. When presenting something typically I’ll have practiced a bunch and I know the subject matter really well anyway (and I’m not too proud to say “I don’t know” and deferring when asked a question).
Here and on other non-“real names only” services I’m largely anonymous anyway, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. I’m definitely much more self-moderated on places like Facebook and Twitter. “Normal” one-on-one social interactions? Ugh. I’m super shy and reserved until I get to know someone.
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I’m like this too. On stage, even if I don’t perform very well, I kind of feel ok. Like being up there I’m doing the best I can and since I know how much it takes just to get up there and do it I’m almost proud of myself just for being able to at all and so it just doesn’t bother me. By then I’ve practiced as much as I’m going to and I can just kind of flow with it. I’m able to kind of enter my “zone” and stay there. But then when people ask me questions at a party half the time I freeze up, say something stupid, stutter, and then ruminate over that and it sucks. Certain situations just get me so anxious and I’m aware it’s obnoxious so I just try to avoid them if I can.
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Wait, what?
The sport, and their performance of it, is the product. Full stop.
The ways professional athletes earn income from their sports are myriad and not all require the participation of media. For example, I paid money to see a minor league baseball game a few nights ago - nothing required other than a little cash from me and the players playing their game. I paid for food and beer, too. There were advertisements all over the damn place, and those were placed by paying customers in search of eyeballs. While these ads are “media” in the global sense of the word, their value comes from butts in seats, brought to the ballpark by players playing a game.
Perhaps you mean television coverage? I watch lots of sporting events, from college football to professional baseball, tennis, and soccer. The product always is the athletic performance. The television programming exists because of interest from people like me. TV contracts bring money to the athletes because we like to see them perform.
If the media become the story, they’re in the way.
What we’re talking about here is exactly that. A phenomenal athlete is being criticized by a member of the press for not fully participating in a silly ritual where the press get to pretend to be part of the story. That the criticism is from a lily-white woman whose statements often are rather disingenuous, of a young woman of color, is particularly galling.
Post-match press conferences always have existed as a way to allow a lot of access for reporters in a short window of time. Not many reporters get locker room access, and a quick media gathering can be a bit more equitable. But the obsessive TV coverage of the press conference itself is a modern phenomenon, with networks trying to find content to fill 24-hour channels.
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