There's a great scene in the movie Bull Durham where Crash Davis (Kevin Costner) is teaching Ebby Calvin 'Nuke' LaLoosh (Tim Robbins) how to survive interviews with sports reporters. His advice is basically to restrict himself to banalities. Keep it simple. Crank out the old clichés.

Crash Davis: You're gonna have to learn your clichés. You're gonna have to study them, you're gonna have to know them. They're your friends. Write this down: "We gotta play it one day at a time." Ebby Calvin LaLoosh: Got to play... it's pretty boring. Crash Davis: 'Course it's boring, that's the point. Write it down.

While it's a tongue-in-cheek commentary on the generally poor quality of sports interviews, there is a grain of truth in Davis's advice. As a long-time sports fan, I listen to a lot of these interviews. And in the majority of cases, the players stick to their clichés. It's boring, but it allows them to steer clear of controversy. And controversy is the last thing you want to create in a team environment.

Today, however, a player from the Toronto Maple Leafs went way off script and his comments are at the top of the local sports headlines. Jason Blake, who has been struggling for two seasons to find his offensive groove, is being benched for tonight's game against Calgary as a healthy scratch (for the second time this season). The first time he was scratched, his comments to the media were fairly tame. Today, he couldn't contain his anger and let it show to the reporters:

“I don’t know what’s going on… we’ll try to figure it out sometime today,” Blake said. “It’s just extremely frustrating. To be honest, I was very, very upset in Boston, but I didn’t really know what to say because I was caught off guard. It was the first time in nine years that I was a healthy scratch. I’m even more caught off guard this time, and I don’t know what’s going on, to tell you the truth. I’ll spend the afternoon trying to figure it out.”

I dislike everything about this quote. From saying 'I don't know what's going on' twice, to describing how 'very, very upset' he was and then saying he is 'more caught off guard this time'. This is pretty selfish stuff. This doesn't sound like a player who respects his coach, his teammates or the team's fans. The story of the day should be the team's upcoming game in Calgary. Instead, one player has selfishly hijacked the media spotlight to help soothe his own bruised ego. From an organizational and communications perspective, this is a terrible example of a lone wolf hurting the organization that pays his hefty salary. Even from a hockey standpoint, how can he think that these comments are going to get him back in the starting lineup? And while it might be a bit of a stretch, perhaps the self-serving tone of his comments can help shed some light on the reason behind his lacklustre play of late. Wayne Gretzky was not only the NHL's most prolific player in history, he also gave thousands of great media interviews, always putting his team, coaches and fans before himself. Maybe Jason Blake can spend some of his time in the press box tonight Googling some of Wayne's old media interviews and picking up a few pointers on how an athlete should represent himself to the media.

Labels: Bull Durham, Jason Blake, sports cliches

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Flipping through the daily news releases at Canada Newswire, I am floored by some of the executive quotes that see the light of day. To be fair, most of the news releases on the site are actually fairly well-written. But every day, there are at least a handful that are simply awful. It makes you wonder who's writing these things (not to mention who's approving them).

Think about it. Each of these documents has probably been in development for weeks. They've been back and forth between communications/marketing and the executive office. They've been through 12 sets of eyes, legal, compliance, etc. And the result? Well, enjoy:

"Localizing the user interface in Japanese for Thomson Innovation means enhanced usability for our customers, enabling them to access our global, award-winning IP research and analysis resource with valued-added DWPI more easily within their local business environment," said Mr. Mark Garlinghouse, vice president and managing director of the Asia Pacific Scientific business of Thomson Reuters. "This investment demonstrates our strong commitment to Japan and plans to expand our market here with corporate solutions."

"This contract is a fantastic first step for Mint's global expansion, and is consistent with the Company's business model targeting the credit underserved population with tailored products by partnering with prominent corporations and consumer brands providing large distribution channels. Migrant workers are a large portion of the population who are underserved, and our prepaid payroll card makes receiving wages and the transfer of money simpler and cheaper than current available alternatives."

"Citadel Solutions' decision to use AC Plus for its fund administration services demonstrates the value of robust data management and its potential to generate revenue. Asset Control helps to take the operational burden out of data management, with Citadel Solutions as an example of a firm that is harnessing AC Plus' capabilities to streamline data capture and standardize its distribution. By using AC Plus to enrich the platform it provides, Citadel Solutions is able to gain a competitive advantage through the application of advanced technologies."

These companies invested time and money in crafting these news releases and sending them out into the world in an effort to build awareness, increase their profile and generate new business. What lost opportunities.Read More

There's a story in today's Edmonton Sun about an HIV/hepatitis scare, after it was discovered that some hospital workers had been administering medication using reused syringes. Health officials are urging 2,700 patients to be tested for HIV and hepatitis as a result.

The reporter gets quotes from a variety of sources. I found two of those quotes particularly interesting. One of them is effective, while the other leaves you wondering what the spokesperson was thinking.

Judge for yourself and see who tells their story more effectively:

#1. Alberta's health minister, Ron Liepert, refused to lay blame until the Alberta Quality Health Countil is finished its review of the incident. Here's his quote:

"This is a system made up of human beings. There will be mistakes that will happen and we've had other mistakes in the past."

Talk about a lost opportunity. Instead of assuring residents that everything will be done to ensure this never happens again and that the health and safety of Albertans is their top priority, he sums it up with something that sounds like a line from 'Que Sera, Sera'.

#2. The more effective quote is this one, from NDP Leader Brian Mason, who says:

"This government spends more money and makes a greater effort to educate drug addicts about not reusing syringes than they do the health professionals that we depend on to protect us. If they have not put in place the educational practices and procedures to make sure this isn't happening then we should assume it is happening in other places in other forms."

It does what a good key message should do -- it boils down the person's viewpoint into a simple, compelling statement that's easy to remember. The comparison with the education program for drug addicts is pretty effective and makes the government look as if it has its priorities out of whack. It also serves to make the health minister's quote (hey, we're people....things happen) look even sillier.

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I found this quote in the Toronto Star today, in a story about the rising costs of Prime Minister Harper's security detail. The reporter asked Chris Mathers, an international security expert, to comment on the PM's rising security costs and what factors might impact those costs. Mathers offers up the following quote:

"Whether the prime minister chokes on a chicken bone or someone tries to shoot him and he's injured, they have to know where the closest hospital is, how to get him there, is there a helicopter to Medevac him out – right down to who takes him and who stays and shoots it out if it's a group of terrorists."

I don't know about you, but for me, the first thing that came to mind while reading this brief quote was the George Bush pretzel-choking incident of 2002. The next image that came to mind was Ronald Reagan getting shot outside the Washington Hilton in 1981. And the third image was one of a shootout between terrorists and the PM's security personnel.

Anything that can be said in a negative way can also be phrased positively. In this case, another approach might have been to reinforce the positive benefits associated with the Prime Minister's security detail, the extent of their training, the wide range of situations they're prepared for, etc. This is more palatable than reciting a list of things that could go wrong (and in the process, generating a series of extremely negative images in the minds of the readers).

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An article in the October 22 Globe and Mail reveals that former MP and Toronto mayoral candidate John Nunziata was charged with assault. The charge followed an altercation with his ex-wife's boyfriend at a children's hockey game. The boyfriend claimed he was kicked by Nunziata (who says he plans to pursue counter-charges). The incident in question was at Mr. Nunziata's 11-year-old son's hockey game. The following excerpt is taken directly from the Globe story:

Mr. Nunziata, who has joint custody of his children after his divorce from Caroline Brett last year, was standing with his daughter, 14, who became “upset” about a comment made by either Ms. Brett or her boyfriend, Mr. Nunziata claims.

“So I approached him and said: ‘You're upsetting my daughter, please stop,' ” said Mr. Nunziata, 53. “He told me to f**k off and he pushed me. Then a bunch of people got in the middle, and that was the end of it.”

But yesterday, officers laid charges against Mr. Nunziata after his ex-wife's boyfriend, Murray Milthorpe, 48, went to police and claimed to have been kicked in the buttocks by Mr. Nunziata. Police photographed a bruise as evidence. Mr. Nunziata denies the claim, saying he was facing Mr. Milthorpe during the dispute and couldn't have kicked him.

Sure, this is a sad, unfortunate, embarrassing situation. And granted, Mr. Nunziata is undoubtedly enraged at the incident itself, as well as the ensuing charges and media attention. But this doesn't open the door for anyone, especially someone with such a public profile, of dropping an f-bomb in his statement to the reporter.

But that's not the worst of it. In my humble opinion, the truly inappropriate quote from Mr. Nunziata is this one:

"I didn't kick him. I don't know how he got the bruise on his ass, but I mean, he deserves an ass-kicking, but I didn't give it to him. This is an abuse of the process. It's all about a vindictive ex-wife and her boyfriend."

There's an old saying we use in our media training sessions -- that it's easier to get toothpaste out of the tube than it is to get it back in. This quote is a perfect example of that. Let's be clear. I'm not taking issue with the sentiment or questioning the veracity of the statement. I have no idea whether this gentleman does or does not deserve said buttock-kicking. The problem is that for Mr. Nunziata, these words are now part of the public record for the remainder of his days. In the Google-age, where nothing fades away into obscurity, a public figure (or anyone, for that matter) simply can't have something like this attached to their name.

Think about it. This quote, while it might generate some words of encouragement and slaps on the back from other burned ex-husbands out there, is certainly not going to help John Nunziata going forward. It isn't going to help him if this case goes to court. It isn't going to help him with respect to the integrity of his public personna. It isn't going to help him attract or retain clients with his consulting career.

So what would I have done differently? Well, I haven't been in this situation, so I won't pretend to know precisely what was going through his mind during this interview. Ideally, though, he could have asked the reporter for a few minutes to compose himself before speaking and then written down one or two quick messages on a pad of paper. Messages along the lines of the following:

"I want to be 100% clear that this individual's allegation is untrue. I was attending my son's hockey game, as I've been doing faithfully since he was X years old. Suddenly, I found myself in the middle of a confrontation started by my former wife and her companion, who were also in attendance. I plan to vigourously defend my name and I'm confident the facts will support the version of events I have provided to the authorities, with whom I am cooperating fully. But that is of secondary importance to me at this point in time. My top priority continues to be the happiness and well-being of my children, who are caught in the middle of this unfortunate situation."

Is it perfect? Probably not. Is it better than his actual quotes that appeared in the media? Absolutely. And it took me less than five minutes to write. There isn't a reporter around who won't give you five minutes to get back to them or to collect your thoughts. Even if you're gritting your teeth as you read it off the page, it's better to take the high road.

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Dick Pound (the former head of the World Anti-Doping Agency, an officer of the Order of Canada and a Vancouver Olympic Committee board member) has done hundreds of media interviews throughout his career. This is someone who knows how the process works. Which makes his recent remarks in La Presse that much more surprising.

In the August 9th article, Mr. Pound was defending the holding of the Summer Olympics in Beijing despite China's spotty human rights record. The quote in question:

"We must not forget that 400 years ago, Canada was a land of savages, with scarcely 10,000 inhabitants of European descent, while in China, we're talking about a 5,000 year-old civilization."

The comment is nearly three months old. But it was brought to the surface last week when it was learned that a Quebec aboriginal-rights group has filed a complaint with the International Olympic Committee's ethics committee over the remarks.

A story in the Globe and Mail on October 22 said, "Mr. Pound subsequently characterized what he said as a clumsy comment that has been taken out of context."

From a communications standpoint, this is concerning for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the fact that Vancouver is next in line to host the games. B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell has taken Pound to task in the media, calling the comments 'disgraceful' and demanding an apology.

We often tell clients to use colourful analogies, examples or anecdotes to help tell their stories. When properly thought through, it can be quite powerful. But in this instance, in trying to make an argument for China, he inadvertently threw Canada under the bus.

In the end, it comes down to an unfortunate choice of words. Today, one day after the Globe and Mail article appeared, Dick Pound has officially apologized for his comments. That was definitely the right call. Failing to do so would have lead to a lingering, growing issue in the months ahead. Being the experienced spokesperson he is, Dick Pound recognized that. If he had only put a bit more thought into his key messages a few months ago, this whole scenario could have been avoided.

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