Nobody’s watching, nobody cares, nobody’s listening.
It’s a catchy, repetitive phrase, that would be ideal for marketing purposes. If the goal was to convince people to not tune in to games. But the goal is the exact opposite, and the phrase uttered by Hall of Fame defensive back Rod Woodson from the set of the Alliance of American Football’s halftime show into a hot mic ranks as one of the early not-so-memorable moments for the startup league.
Saturday afternoon’s game between Arizona and Salt Lake streamed on Bleacher Report. When the first half ended and the coverage shifted to the TV studio from which pre-game, in-game, and post-game content emanates, the four-person crew didn’t realize they were live.
At one point, host Alex Flanagan tells Marvin Lewis (via Deadspin.com), “You’re not on TV, you’re on Bleacher Report. It’s different.”
To which Woodson replies, “Nobody’s watching, nobody cares, nobody’s listening.”
While surely intended by Woodson to be a commentary on the audience generated by the stream vs. the crowd that would have tuned in if the game were on television, many will interpret the line as an editorial about the league as a whole. The truth is that people are watching and listening and, presumably, caring. For a brand-new sports league, the AAF’s numbers have been surprisingly strong.
Whether Woodson cares about that, or whether he’s simply in it for the paycheck, is a different issue. But even if he doesn’t care beyond what it does for his checking account, he should pretend that he does whenever sitting at that desk and speaking into a microphone, regardless of whether he knows that the things he’s saying are being broadcast who whoever may be watching and listening.
Still, as hot-mic misadventures go, Woodson could have said a lot worse. Which would have made the story a lot better.