Texans running back Arian Foster got some attention this summer for breaking a streak of silence with the local media by answering every question at a media session by saying that he was just trying to be the best teammate that he could be.
Foster followed that session by writing on Twitter that the media is “full of propaganda” and then wrote that the media chastises him for not giving them what they want after another terse chat later in camp. Foster addressed the two meetings during an interview with USA Today that had the running back blaming his uninformative answers on the poor questions he’s asked.
“I only have that reputation with the local media, the Houston media here it’s they ask really mundane questions and when I give them mundane answers they get upset with me,” Foster said. “When you’ve been in the same city -- it will be six years [in Houston], you get the same questions and I feel like as reporters it’s your job to write your story, not have your interviewee write your story and so I kind of hold them accountable to that and they get really upset. Especially when I was injured I just didn’t have anything to say so I thought if you don’t have anything to say why should you have to talk? And they felt differently.”
The NFL has requirements for players in terms of being available for the media, but there are none that force players to be good or engaging interviews. As a result, Foster’s choices on that front, banal as they may be when dealing with local media, aren’t likely to have consequences on anyone but Texans fans who’d like to know what their favorite team’s starting running back thinks about the mundane developments of an NFL season.