Santonio Holmes Speaks About Team Media Coverage: Why??

Jun 7, 2012; Florham Park, NJ, USA; New York Jets wide receiver Santonio Holmes (10) during the New York Jets organized team activities at the Atlantic Health Training Center. Mandatory Credit: Ed Mulholland-US PRESSWIRE

I told you all that Santonio Holmes would do something to get us talking again. Boy, did he ever.

He talked about media coverage on the team during an nfl.com podcast. Here is the quote:

If you guys want to be, and this is for the New York media, if you guys want to be a part of our team and want to feel so important, be there to support us, not to try to break us down. Because (there’s) not one day that we all step in that locker room and we try to break each other down, that we talk bad about the way that person played, because it affects the team the way one person plays if they don’t play to perfection.

So, if the New York media wants to be a part of our team and wants to continue writing about us, write positive things. Stay away from the negative, because it doesn’t do anything good for our team that you want to report all the negative things that happen and that’s all you want to talk to us players about. We live for one thing, and that’s to play football, and not to entertain you people in the media.

I have a serious question to ask Santono Holmes on this. Why?

To be honest, what did Santonio think he was going to gain here?

His point is rather valid, that the media shouldn’t write their stories in order to stir up controversy. He feels that some of what they said caused divide amongst the team.

Possible? Sure. But is there anything to be gained by the comments? Absolutely not.

First of all, like it or not, the media’s job is to stir it up. Rich Cimini and company need to get readers. Nobody is going to read their work if all they write is “The Jets are Great”, “Everything is Perfect in Florham Park”, ….etc. That will grow old, so they have to write items to draw attention.

Whether Santonio Holmes likes it or not, sometimes the writing is not going to be positive. He has to be able to rise above that and deal with it, rather than instructing the media on how to write.

Let’s take it a step further. Take all of the rest out of the equation, and assume that Santonio Holmes is 100% right about everything he said.

The question is, why say it?

After everything that happened at the end of 2011, most people didn’t want Holmes back in town. He is back, so everyone is waiting for him to act out again. People are waiting for him to step out of line so they can rip him.

Sometimes you have to show discretion. In order to not draw attention to yourself, sometimes you have to keep quiet, and not make comments that are going to get people talking. If you want to show the world you have changed, don’t make comments, even if true, that will cause people to talk about you.

Right or wrong, nothing positive could happen by him making these comments. So why make them?