Ferentz: Postgame address should stay unlisted

IOWA CITY — One of the odder phenomena of modern life is the reality show.

From 'Mob Wives' to crab fishermen to dunderheads on the Jersey shore, all it takes to have a nationally televised series seems to be cameras, lights and microphones.

A married couple has a deeply personal conversation behind closed doors with a television crew present to record it for the world. Whose reality is that?

That has spread into sports, of course. HBO's annual five-week NFL training camp show, 'Hard Knocks,' is great television. It also reflects people who are totally aware they are being filmed, and act accordingly.

You almost can't watch an NFL postgame studio show anymore without seeing clips of winning coaches' locker room talks to their players. They would get PG, maybe even G ratings.

Were they simply publicly leaked by some sneak with a cellphone camera? The rating would be MA more often than not. But at least they would be real.

Iowa football doesn't let network cameras in its dressing room before or after games. Good for Kirk Ferentz.

'I think it is mandated in the NFL ... If it's mandated, we'll do it,' Ferentz said. 'Otherwise, to me, not everything in life has to be public. That is probably one of the reasons I don't tweet or whatever else they do. I don't think everything has to be public. Football is a pretty intimate deal, activity. So that's what makes it fun.'

But there is a constant pressure on everyone in the public eye to offer access, to connect directly with the public. 'Branding' is one of the most tiresome words of the 21st Century, but college coaches feel pressure to brand away. Especially if the other team is doing it.

Last Saturday, Arkansas Coach Bret Bielema went to New York to be a guest analyst on CBS' pregame and halftime shows for its Alabama-Mississippi telecast. One nugget Bielema offered is that Michigan State has the worst visitors' dressing room in America, without as much as doors on its toilet stalls.

'I was reluctant,' Bielema said last week about taking that gig. 'But I'm going to do it because it provides exposure.'

Bielema's SEC record is 0-10 and he's living in the SEC West, college football's high rent district. He feels he needs to use every promotional rabbit in his hat, and you can't blame him.

Iowa isn't adverse to self-promotion, especially when it comes to trying to reach recruits. After its 24-10 win at Purdue on Sept. 27 and the Hawkeyes met as a team in their dressing room, Hawkeyes assistant coach Bobby Kennedy marched his wide receivers unit back onto the Ross-Ade Stadium field to have a group photo taken with the scoreboard as a backdrop.

The photo was on Kennedy's Twitter feed shortly afterward.

Right now, however, Ferentz has posted the same number of tweets as the ghost of Vince Lombardi.

'If somebody convinces me we have to do it to recruit,' Ferentz said, 'I'll probably retire.'

Then there's the halftime TV or radio interview as coaches are leaving the field. Maybe one in 100 are illuminating. The only value they usually provide is the entertainment from a coach being angry at his team or disdainful of a question. But the interviews are part of networks' deals with conferences and schools.

'I think it's really silly, typically,' Ferentz said. 'Really. ... I can think of a game where I was asked what I thought of about the play or first touchdown, the 80-yarder went down their sideline and got their stadium to go totally crazy. What do you think I thought?

'But I know everybody's got to get close and intimate. I get that.'

Ferentz said coaches would probably be in total agreement about the merits of halftime interviews.

'It's probably (like) people agreeing about grandkids being great,' he said. 'Everyone votes for that one, too. I would imagine it's probably about the same, neck and neck.'

Football games are already reality shows. ripe with successes, failures, agony and ecstasy. Leave the phony nonsense for the 'Real' Housewives.

Comments: (319) 368-8840; mike.hlas@thegazette.com