Cincinnati Red Brandon Phillips opened his mouth.. and opened up a huge can of worms. He said what he felt, he meant what he said, and the rest is history. And so might be the Reds in a heated pennant race that had Cincy fans fired up and now has them deflated.
Brandon talked to a Dayton Daily News blogger prior to the biggest series of the year for the surprising Reds who haven't exactly been world beaters over the last decade. Check that.... he let it rip.
"I hate the Cardinals. All they do is b---h and moan about everything, all of them." "Compared to the Cardinals, I love the Chicago Cubs. Let me make this clear: I hate the Cardinals." The result? A full-blown brawl between the two teams and the Cardinals reclaiming what they'd lost in the division standings and also some pride that should carry for a few weeks.
The comments were never retracted by Phillips. He stood by his locker and stood by his words. Many players - especially after a 3-game series sweep at the hands of a division rival - would claim to have been misquoted, misrepresented and misled by the media. Phillips wasn't and didn't... which is to his credit. "We lost, and that's how it is," Phillips said. " Yep.. 7-3, 8-4, 6-1.
But when your team goes from 2 games ahead of the Cardinals to 1 game behind the Cardinals in a series that was never close, you begin to wonder about media restraint.
Cardinals players said they'd been challenged before. They said they never would have said those things, whether they were in first place or last.
Bottom line.. Phillips gave the media what they love. He gave em' some juicy quotes and something to run with. So what's a guy supposed to do?
At HTK MEDIA... we talk about anticipating the questions, controlling the moment in the locker room, and using the platform to deliver positive comments that benefit the player and the players on his own team. In the end, Phillips hurt himself, his teammates and ultimately his chances at playing on a bigger stage. Playoffs ... here today... maybe gone tomorrow... with just one interview.
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