Naomi Osaka is the No. 2-ranked women’s tennis player in the world, a four-time Grand Slam champion and one of the most popular players in the sport.
This week she announced she will not be doing any news conferences at the upcoming French Open. The reason? They are often damaging to the mental health of players, she says.
In a statement posted on social media, Osaka wrote, “I’ve often felt that people have no regard for athletes’ mental health and this rings very true whenever I see a press conference or partake in one. We’re often sat there and asked questions that we’ve been asked multiple times before or asked questions that bring doubt into our minds and I’m just not going to subject myself to people that doubt me.”
She wrote that she has seen athletes break down after press conferences and that she doesn’t understand “kicking a person while they’re down.” She also took on those who run the sports leagues, writing, “... if the organizations think that they can just keep saying ‘do press or you’re going to be fined’ and continue to ignore the mental health of the athletes that are the centerpiece of their cooperation then I just gotta laugh.”
In several lengthy threads on Twitter, ESPN’s Howard Bryant has some of the smartest thoughts I’ve seen on Osaka, starting with, “My overall feeling is that since athletes have been positioning themselves as ‘entertainers’ no different from musicians or movie stars, refusing press was inevitable. They perform. Once it’s over, they’ve fulfilled their public obligation.”
Times have changed. For generations, media coverage promoted the sport — building interest in the athletes and the games they played. Athletes wanted media attention. And the press was the conduit between athletes and the fans.
But athletes no longer feel as if they need the media.
Osaka is getting some support from those in the sporting world, but it’s not unanimous. Former Australian tennis star Sam Groth, in a column for Australia’s Herald Sun, wrote that Osaka’s decision was a “slap in the face to a sport that has given her everything.” He wrote, “Her announcement, to me, is misguided and fraught with hypocrisy. You don’t want to speak with a group of journalists who follow the tour around the world, yet you’re happy to post images to millions of faceless followers on social media platforms? … Players of her standing have a responsibility to promote their sport and do what they can to protect its future.”
But do modern athletes still see it that way?
Bryant wrote, “Osaka’s statement was unsurprising, because she is part of a generation raised on two principles in this area: 1) they owe the public nothing outside of performance, and 2) the idea of a public responsibility/accountability is being destroyed in a time of privatization.”
He added, “They’re taught there’s no value to public wealth, public good, public journalism. The assault on each over the past 50 years has defined this country. This gen ever more tightly controls their appearances, their statements. They will replace public information with propaganda.”
Bryant was speaking mostly about athletes in general, but he also made some excellent points about Osaka and tennis specifically. Unlike most sports, journalists cannot enter locker rooms in tennis. For the most part, press conferences are the only place the media can speak with tennis players. In this case, Bryant writes, “Osaka has cut herself off to public access, to questioning not of her liking.”
And, really, that’s what this feels like — that Osaka just doesn’t want to do press conferences because she might not like the questions.
While I am not suggesting that athletes don’t have mental stress participating at the highest levels of their profession, I am skeptical that someone who can stare down and beat Serena Williams in a packed stadium in a major tournament could not handle a few questions from the press, even if those questions are sometimes pointless, cliched, irrelevant or even insulting.
As Awful Announcing’s Andrew Bucholtz wrote, “No one’s telling her she has to actually answer questions, and no one’s even telling her she has to attend press conferences; she’s welcome to just pay the fines for skipping them. But her complaints about this as proof that sports organizations ‘continue to ignore the mental health of the athletes that are the centerpiece of their cooperation’ feel a bit much.”
As Bryant noted, “Those press sessions are hardly rigorous, and accommodations can always be made for difficult circumstances. But what I heard today was part of a larger trend of control based on their wealth. It’s the future.”
Osaka isn’t the first athlete to refuse to talk to the press. And she won’t be the last. But will it become a major trend?
Maybe this will be an exception. And it should be noted that Osaka never plays particularly well at the French Open and that this could be a preemptive tactic to avoid being questioned about another early exit there. In addition, those who cover sports will tell you that the tennis media is different from other sports media. Bryant described it as “an international motley of various levels of professionalism.”
But my guess is other athletes, particularly top stars in all sports, stood up and took notice of Osaka’s statement and will keep a close eye on how it all shakes out.
As Bryant said, “Speaking to the news media has been part of the job. It is part of how we view professionalism. This new generation, as they grow in independence and power, coupled with a country extremely hostile to public journalism (public anything), may be the ones to end that custom.”
Rush’s replacements
Earlier this week, the radio show hosted by conservative Dan Bongino debuted on Cumulus Media’s Westwood One in the noon to 3 p.m. Eastern slot. Seeing as how that was the same time as the late Rush Limbaugh’s show and considering Bongino’s conservative perspective, Bongino was seen as the show for those who listened to Limbaugh.
However, Limbaugh’s show was distributed by Premiere Networks and now Premiere, a subsidiary of iHeart, has officially replaced Limbaugh. The Wall Street Journal’s Anne Steele reports that Clay Travis and Buck Sexton will take over the noon to 3 p.m. show. It will be called “The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show” and will begin on June 21.
Travis’ background is mostly in sports. He has a sports talk show on Fox Sports Radio and is the founder of his own website, Outkick. Clearly Travis doesn’t, as many conservatives like to preach, “stick to sports.” His views are most definitely right of center and should go over well with those who listened to Limbaugh.
Sexton is a radio veteran, having hosted a show on Premiere.
Premiere is hoping the age of their two new co-hosts (Travis is 42 and Sexton is 39) will pump new life and attract a younger audience compared to Limbaugh’s show. Then again, Limbaugh’s show was doing fine and among the most popular radio shows in the country.
Premiere Networks president Julie Talbott told the WSJ, “We’re not going to replace Rush Limbaugh, we’re going to have an evolution of the show with fresh voices — those that grew up on Rush and admired him.”
Psaki might stick around
