Phoo AP
According to Mac Engel of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Dallas Cowboys nose tackle Jay Ratliff almost got into a physical altercation with Cowboys beat reporter Calvin Watkins of ESPNDallas.com.
Engel indicated that Watkins asked Ratliff about the news of Sam Hurd being arrested for selling drugs. Then before they knew it, both Ratliff and Watkins were being separated by Marcus Spears and Martellus Bennett.
Later reports indicated that Watkins was really pushing Ratliff with questions about Hurd and Ratliff told him to “walk away” and of course he didn’t and that’s when the mayhem started.
Might be time for the Dallas beat reporters to interview players behind glass partition.
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Reporters need to learn when to back off and get out of people’s face and personnel life’s.. No one likes when you tell someone to back off and yet they keep grilling you. Now Think about the man your doing that to 250+ lbs And testosterone Out the roof And you want to Keep pushing someone like that? that is hyped out and adrenalin flowing… Ya Maybe The reporter will learn When someone says back off maybe ya should do it…
should have popped him in the mouth to shut him up
As a reporter, Watkins should know better than to push an athelete about a personal issue. Especially a giant one. Ratliff should have let him have it. Someone also needs to let Jackiewicz have it. He’s a crappy writer who can’t stay nuetral as any high school newspaper writer knows. Go back to Springer Paul.
come on people. the reporter was out of line trying to get his story. BUT the comments here??? “should’ve wacked him” ???? ‘popped him in the mouth’???? If the players, and I don’t care how BIG they are cannot deal with the questions he must have known would come up, (the drug arrest being a BIG DEAL), then they shouldn’t be allowed to give interviews. They should be kept in stall somewhere and let out for practices and the BIG GAME. They can play football, and for some reason they (and a lot of others) feel it makes them omnipotent and above any social manner at all. This guy is not the first to be ask a potentially embarrassing question! Look at the ones Sarah Palin has fielded with grace and intelligence….I am just tired of the neanderthal attitude that seems to come OFF the field AFTER the game is over…This type of player is giving the game a whole new AND UGLY personna.
Regardless of the type of questions the reporter was asking, when he was told interview was over, he should have walked away as requested and when he didnt, he was the one out of line not Ratliff. You cannot and never will be able to justify wrong, no matter how hard you try. I know I would not be willing to get my head busted just for a story after being told to walk away…..would you? Didnt think so!
Maybe the police need to check Ratliff out too? Why would he be so defensive when Hurd was caught with this hands in the cookie jar?
Calvin almost really was a “beat” writer.
The media is the problem and always will. There are many parents out there that are looked up to as role models by there kids. But, if some the stupid things we did were exposed and aired by the media, we would be in the same boat.
The NFL requires players to talk to the press. the NFL is warning Barber they will fine him if he wont ansrew the most belitteling of dumb quetions desinged to embaris him. They ask what were you thinking when you did this or that when in fact they were playing a GAME not thinking In order to play a game at the highest level a player must suspend to much thinking or he will never reach the highest level of play to compete in the NFL It is so easy to see mental mistakes when you are in your armchair. Try doing it while you are busting throgh the line with 11 guys trying to rip the bal out of your hands and take your head off.
These football players are employees of an NFL team and are required to answer questions from reporters. Though it’s easy to compare this incident to an animal trainer eating a banana in the midst of a group of Apes.
Did I miss it, or is Ethics in Journalism no longer taught? The question is ONLY valid if the writer has other sources that indicate such a connection may exist. Even so, approaching it in such a way is NOT how one does investigative reporting, much less sports beat reporting.