{"id":397346,"date":"2025-11-22T17:10:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-22T17:10:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/397346\/"},"modified":"2025-11-22T17:10:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-22T17:10:12","slug":"breece-hall-takes-issue-with-media-efforts-to-get-access-to-justin-fields","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/397346\/","title":{"rendered":"Breece Hall takes issue with media efforts to get access to Justin Fields"},"content":{"rendered":"

As athletes have more and more avenues for speaking to the world on their own terms, it\u2019s important to remember that there are longstanding means of communication that have yet to be dismantled by their employers.<\/p>\n

Years ago, the NFL decided that the interests of the business compelled a certain amount of transparency from players. The rule is, and for decades has been, that players must be available to reporters: (1) after each game; and (2) once during the week before each game, either at a podium or in the locker room.<\/p>\n

Liberties routinely are taken, without incident. Players sometimes quickly leave the locker room without speaking. Sometimes, it becomes a big deal. Marshawn Lynch, for example, was fined repeatedly for not complying with the contractual obligation to speak to the media. Eventually, he opted to show up and to say, repeatedly, \u201cI\u2019m just here so I won\u2019t be fined.\u201d<\/p>\n

Far more often, reporters accept a short-term diss in order to not create longer-lasting friction. This year, the Giants refused on multiple occasions to make Jaxson Dart or Jameis Winston available to reporters, in direct defiance of the NFL\u2019s rules. The Cardinals shielded quarterback Kyler Murray from reporters, for weeks. Most recently, Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce hasn\u2019t been talking to reporters. (He recently took a break<\/a> from the low-key boycott.)<\/p>\n

The only exception to the rule requiring media availablility applies to players in the concussion protocol.<\/p>\n

In New York, quarterback Justin Fields remains subject to the league\u2019s media requirements, even though he has been benched. Brian Costello of the New York Post tweeted this on Friday: \u201cApproached Justin Fields at his locker. He said he was going to get a massage and did not have time to talk. I asked his reaction to move. \u2018There\u2019s no reaction. That\u2019s life. Shit happens<\/a>.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Jets running back Breece Hall took issue with Costello\u2019s post. \u201cPathetic move by you tbh,\u201d Hall tweeted. \u201cWish some of yall would grow up and stop acting like little kids nagging somebody<\/a> till they get mad lol.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hall is missing the point. The NFL, which employs Hall and every other player, has mandated all players will be available. Asking Fields during an open locker-room availability for his reaction to being benched isn\u2019t \u201cnagging.\u201d It\u2019s called \u201creporters doing their job.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what the reporters are paid to do. The NFL requires the players to be available, and the various publications with credentials to cover each team require their reporters to harness that availability for content that, as to the NFL and its teams, becomes free publicity for the product that pro football is selling.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the business calculation the NFL has made. There\u2019s less of a need to advertise the game when multiple media outlets will advertise the game in the best way possible \u2014 not as an ad but as the stuff that the media outlets are selling to their audiences.<\/p>\n

Players may not like it, but that\u2019s part of the job. It\u2019s no different from showing up for meetings, practices, games. Media availability is one of the obligations the players endure in return for the compensation they receive.<\/p>\n

It shouldn\u2019t be controversial. And it shouldn\u2019t surprise anyone. Costello was doing his job in asking the question. Fields was doing his job in answering it. He could have said, \u201cI\u2019m just here so I won\u2019t be fined.\u201d He could have said anything. He opted to say, \u201cThere\u2019s no reaction. That\u2019s life. Shit happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you haven\u2019t noticed, we\u2019re one of the few media outlets that tries to get the audience to understand and respect the various issues and challenges players face, especially when the 32 teams view them as interchangeable parts in a football machine that has been running long before they arrived, and that will keep running long after they\u2019re gone. <\/p>\n

Unless and until the league decides it\u2019s no longer useful to the broader business to require players to be available to the media twice per week, standing before reporters is no different than lining up against an opponent. It\u2019s part of the job. It\u2019s the business they\u2019ve chosen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As athletes have more and more avenues for speaking to the world on their own terms, it\u2019s important…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":397347,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[1232,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-397346","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-nfl","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115594462660381629","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=397346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397346\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/397347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=397346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=397346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=397346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}