Mark's Thoughts -The Loser Discourse

We have another World Series winner. After four games the Red Soxs have once again made history, and are world champions. Like all champions the celebration continued in the locker room with the usual routine. Alcoholic beverages being sprayed, trophies being handed out, corporate spokes people trying to grab the mic for small plugs between interviews of players; however, the best post championship event of all is the loser discourse.

Yes the camera breaks away from the winning locker room to the opposite side of the ballpark/arena/stadium to find the third string side line reporter standing next to the coach of the losing team. (There are rare occasions when the star player from the losing side will come out, and that just makes it that much better.) The coach has just finished the post game remarks to the team, and he looks like the lone witness to a terrible train wreck. His eyes are in a dead stare, his hair is ringed through by worried hands(both for player who have probably lost it in the locker room, and for thinking about their own future with the team depending on the franchise.) The don't want to be standing with this scrub of a reporter, but like the loser of the election must give the concession.

There seems to be guide lines about how this conversation will go. All of these conversations do depend on situations(if the series/game was close or a blow out) and personalities. (Bobby Knight who wants to kill no matter what the outcome of the game was or Bobby Bowden who wants the spotlight regardless of what happened) Yet, even with those factor they follow the same out line.

1) Reporter sets the scene and tells the coach the most obvious statement, basically you lost and must feel awful. You have to love this! Because it gives the coach an opportunity to give the eye roll everyone in America wants to give to the reporter. Then you get the fought hard wasn't our day comment out of the way right off the bat.

2) Reporter points out the most obvious error in the coaching/play on the field everyone in the country has been talking about for days. This usually triggers one of two responses, more of the look of gloom and doom as the coach mentally pictures how many times he will have to answer this same question between now and the start of next season. (or his life in the case of a Red Sox, Cubs, etc. franchise) Or the, "we don't make excuses for.... " line. This is great because if said scrub reporter presses a little fireworks are just around the corner.

3) Next the reporter says something like, "So what can you say about these (insert team that just cut out their hearts with a spoon)?" I am always waiting for a coach to go nuclear at this point and tell us what he is really thinking about that team, but it usually always is the coach talk of they were the better team today.

4)The future. Somehow the reporter always has it in his head the coach want to talk of the future. It is really good when the reporter starts talking about contracts that are expiring and how they can't hope to keep this core that got them to this point. As if the poor coach needed another reason to find a ledge to jump off. Plus they never want to talk about the future, because they know they should have taken advantage of the here and now to be a champion.

5) After the no comment about the future the best part happens. The reporter sends it back to the crazy celebration happening just yards away, and you can see it. The look on the coach, like he has to tell someone they are dieing, when he realizes he has to go back into the locker room. Back to the morgue of the sports world. He has to deal with all of the second guessing and critics. He has to deal with the egos of the players who had a nice little stretch and think they are franchise players. If you look close you can also see the little glimmer of hope that maybe the scrub reporter would invite him to the other locker room, (of course if it is Bobby Bowdon he is in the other locker room shaking hands with all the players on the other team and explaining how he helped them achieve this greatness) anything but go back to being the losers.

It is hard to see this happen to a competitor, but it makes for great TV.