Asking a coach whose team is behind at the half of a playoff game 44 - 3 'how he feels' or 'what he plans to do' is asking for a painful dropkick in my book!
Here's the problem: The halftime questions for the coaches are a bad idea, but they're supposed to add drama to the game, and they are network policy on all the broadcasts.
The sideline reporter is required to ask the coaches a question on the way into the locker room. The coaches are, by contract, required to answer the question. Sometimes, there really isn't much to talk about; what's a good question for a coach who is getting clobbered and whose team is clearly outmatched? They really can't ask the coach, "So what jobs is your agent working on for when you get fired at the end of the season?"
A few years ago, Lloyd Carr, then Michigan's coach, got asked a pretty foolish question by one of the sideline reporters; he was clearly annoyed, and answered, "That's a really dumb question." There was a lot of hoopla in the press about it at the time. I'm sure he got called on the carpet for the remark.
I agree that some of the sideline reporters aren't very good, but really, the announcers in the booth have pretty much covered anything. The only questions left are sometimes, "Is so and so going to be able to play in the second half?" and "What do you think you'll be able to do to come back in the second half?" As for the coach that's winning, the stock answer to the inevitable, "What's your team doing right?" question is, "We still have a half of football to play, and I just hope our guys are able to keep it up blah blah."
It's so predictable, and it's the inevitable result of really stupid network policy. We simply learn nothing from these sideline interviews, and they're not entertaining.
I'll go a step further, and say that we don't really need sideline reporters at all, it's a goofy distraction. And I think it has very little to do with the sex of the sideline reporter; I've seen former NFL players ask the same dumb questions.
As to the constant talking, it's a tradition from radio. Dead air was never allowed, so the trick was to have the game caller describe everything that was going on, and to have a "color man" banter and go into backgrounds. I was thinking what might happen if on TV, there was no commentary at all, you watch the play, and then maybe there's a comment or two, replicating the actual stadium announcer. I think it might be really, really weird! But it might be good.
Or you could have music so there's no dead air. LOL!! That would be a huge deal! I'm in! I'll score football games instead of commercials!! Then we could all complain about the bad music...
I think we're going to see a lot of changes in football in the coming years to minimize head and spinal injuries, as people have become aware of what can happen to these athletes later in life. I realize this has nothing to do with announcers, but my point is that stuff changes.
