NY Giants’ Jason Garrett outlandishly asks for media to call him ‘coach’

NY Giants offensive coordinator Jason Garrett took an unnecessary swipe and made an outlandish request to reporters during a press conference 

NY Giants offensive coordinator Jason Garrett made an outlandish request to reporters prior to practice Thursday, asking those in attendance to call him “coach.”

Garrett is out of line here.

There is a line of professional respect between players, coaches, and the reporters who cover them, but it is wrong for coaches, like Jason, to expect reporters who have never played for them to address them in a similar fashion their players are asked to on a daily basis.

Garrett, just like Deion Sanders — who recently told reporters to call him “coach,” — seem not to understand that their profession does not entitle them to the same treatment as a “doctor,” who acquired a P.H.D or M.D. through their education.

Head coach of Jackson State or offensive coordinator of the Giants are positions near the top of Sanders’ and Garrett’s profession, but in broader society do not carry the same respect as doctors, Presidents, governors, or mayors.

Sanders went so far as to walk out of SWAC media days, when a reporter called him by his first name, rather than addressing him by his title.

“You don’t call Nick Saban, ‘Nick.’ Don’t call me Deion,” Sanders told Nick Suss from the Clarion Ledger. 

Besides conflating himself to Nick Saban’s level, Sanders was out of line to expect a reporter to address him the way one of his players would. For the record, Suss says that he addresses Saban as “Nick” and Lane Kiffen as “Lane.”

Personally, I have covered the NFL for various outlets on a full-time basis dating back to 2014 and in various part-time capacities since 2011, and have never called a coach by anything but his first name. Not out of a lack of respect, but rather because in a press conference or interview setting, I respect the subject as an equal, which coaches such as Sanders and Garrett are to the reporters they are speaking with.

Other than team-employed content creators, the media in attendance don’t have their checks signed by the owner of the franchise they cover, and thus should not be asked to call people like Garrett or Sanders “coach,” when in their presence.

Reporters are not under a coach’s command, nor are the coaches superiors in any way to the media in attendance covering them. To ask they be addressed by “coach,” rather than their first name seems like an attempt by these coaches to impart some false form of superiority over the reporters writing about and discussing them.

Whether that’s what Jason was trying to do or not, it was the wrong stance and wrong precedent for Jason to try to set.

Matt Lombardo is FanSided’s National NFL Insider and writes Between The Hash Marks each Wednesday. Email Matt: Matt.Lombardo@FanSided.com