The most bizarre Super Bowl Media Day moments
Super Bowl Media Day has turned into an adventure before the big game arrives. Players come up with creative responses to questions they’ve heard a million times, and the non-traditional sports media certainly has their fun as well. We’ll look back at some of the most bizarre Super Bowl Media Day moments.
“I’m just here so I don’t get fined” is a quote that will live on in NFL history forever. Marshawn Lynch didn’t want to give the press anything on Media Day in 2015, so repeated the line over and over for over five minutes.
According to Bleacher Report, the fine he would have received for not attending was $500,000, so it probably was a good idea for Lynch to appear, even if the media didn't have as much fun.
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Reporters sometimes use the Media Day showcase to get to know the participants more personally, but the queries to achieve this aren’t always the most effective. For example, during 2023’s Media Day, Philadelphia Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni was asked if he lets his daughter date.
Taylor Sirianni was only five years old at the time of the question, as her father let the world know. Kindergarten relationship questions may not be asked again for a long time.
Perhaps more than ever, Patrick Mahomes’ wife Brittany has been in the public eye. It’s generally well known that her and her husband were high school sweethearts, but that didn’t stop a reporter from asking Patrick what his plans were for Valentine’s Day in 2023.
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The quarterback admitted that he didn’t realize the day was so close, and asked the press to keep this gaffe a secret. The matter didn't seem to affect the couple much, considering Brittany's passionate support of her husband on gameday.
In one of the most unforeseen twists in Media Day history, TV Azteca reporter Ines Gomez Mont attended the 2008 version of the event in a wedding dress. She would proceed to ask Tom Brady and Eli Manning if they would marry her according to the Chicago Tribune.
Mont paraded around the premises as some of the lesser-known Patriots and Giants lifted her up for show.
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Joe Montana is one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time, but one reporter got the San Francisco passer confused with his opposite number in Super Bowl XXIII, Cincinnati Bengals signal caller Boomer Esiason.
Montana was asked why his nickname was “Boomer”, and the quarterback made it clear that the question was asked to the wrong player.
Super Bowl Media Day can also be used for bulletin board material between the two teams, as it was back in 1979. Dallas Cowboys linebacker Thomas Henderson said that Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Terry Bradshaw lacked the intelligence to spell “cat”, even if he was provided with the “c” and the “a”.
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Bradshaw threw for 318 yards and four touchdowns in that Super Bowl, which spelled a w-i-n for the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Washington quarterback Doug Williams received a bizarrely worded query from a Jackson Clarion-Ledger reporter before Super Bowl XXII. There are varying accounts, but ESPN’s version claims that the reporter asked Williams “How long he has been a black quarterback?”. It was a “yikes moment” footnote in the historic rise to prominence for Williams.
In 2019, a comedian from Jimmy Kimmel’s late night TV show tried to get infamously tight lipped New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick to laugh. Guillermo, as he is known, gave Belichick a blanket with the former’s face on it. According to Yahoo, Belichick responded by saying he would one day wear the blanket in public.
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Rob Gronkowski was made for Super Bowl Media Day, and had an interesting moment in 2015. Somehow, he got a hold of “A Gronking To Remember”, which was fan fiction written for the tight end with, shall we say, an adult audience in mind. Gronkowski read a small passage from the piece that made him laugh.