"I just went out there and gave a 110%"

Is anyone as tired of hearing that as I am? Anyone seen the Brenden Fraiser movie Bedazzled where he is turned into a pro-athlete that is stupid and doesn't know more than three sentences about how he played? While I think that was a good idea at one point, I honestly believe that athletes are more intelligent and educated these days and could really speak eloquently in interviews if they just knew what to say. 

Thanks to PJ (little shoutout) I read an article on athletes taking PR classes to help them deal with the media. Brilliant! (I hope you heard the Guinness commercial... finally my beer reference!) Why not just put a little bug into an athletes ear that says, "This is ok. That is not. Stand up. Speak clearly. Be sure you want to say that before you make the ESPN top 10 stupid list." 

Take Terrell Owens (more commonly known as T.O.), the cowboys biggest PR mistake. I remember the day he made the switch my texas-native coach fell to her knees and cursed the Dallas franchise. He is now talking to the media about how if the ball was in his hands more often the Cowboys would win more games. OK, cocky and confident are two things talked about in sports often... but rude and completely vain are what T.O. is coming across as. How does that look on the Cowboys? I'm sure you have a few fans that agree and think it's cool that he talks like that, but then there are the lifetime fans who can't even remember why they like the Cowboys that are embarrassed with this behavior. I'm a Jags fan and I'm upset about it! 

What if he had taken a couple suggestions from someone who knew that tact is important. He could still say what he feels but maybe more like, "I wish I had a more constant role in our games. I feel like I do make good things happen and I'll work hard to make good things happen." What's so wrong with that? Honesty without pomposity. The media will do the rest of the work for him. When I was watching SportsCenter and this topic came up they created a graphic of possessions, yardage, total points, and other things comparing T.O. and his other teammates combined. That could and should be enough to open eyes but he had to be rude about it. 

Some athletes won't change, I understand this. The article said maybe Mike Vick would have thought more about the dog fighting participation; I doubt that. I think they are going to do what they want but maybe a PR look on things could polish some players enough to make a difference. I think that the power of PR is misunderstood and I hope that we can someday spread tact and it's importance.