Danny Amendola Draws Ire Of Insufferable Boston Media

Boston sports media sucks, and a good way to make it worse is to toss it some mildly controversial chum while the boredom of the NFL offseason has it itching for something to be shitty and annoying about. That's what Patriots wide receiver Danny Amendola did on Tuesday when he hung up in the middle of an interview with a local Boston sports radio station.

Amendola did an interview for Adam Jones Show on Tuesday, and after Jones began the interview with a few harmless questions about his inability to stay healthy, Amendola hung up. Which, whatever, it's a dick move to hang up on a radio host who hasn't said anything antagonistic, but things like this happen. It's not a huge deal.

That didn't prevent Adam Jones and his sidekick from building an entire segment around the interview—which was pre-recorded and otherwise would have never seen the air—during which they played the conversation in segments while pausing to give their own chuckleheaded commentary on how things went down. The whole bit goes on for a seemingly interminable amount of time, and it ends with Skippy and Goatface busting on Amendola for being hurt all the time while slapping each other on the back. It's annoying.

Then it was time for some good old-fashioned scolding, courtesy of the Boston Globe's Adam Kaufman, who wrote 1,142 words(!!!) about the fact that Danny Amendola hung up on some radio guys during a pre-recorded radio interview that nobody would have ever known existed if those dudes hadn't decided to turn it into a thing. You know where this is going:

Maybe Amendola took exception to being termed injury-prone or fragile. Perhaps he doesn't enjoy the thought of being unlucky. It could be that he feared a question was coming about offseason trade and cut rumors. Or, it's entirely possible he'd just prefer to turn the page and look ahead to 2014. None of that matters.

When you're a professional athlete – even a college athlete – part of the gig is dealing with the media and doing so in representative manner. Someone like Jose Canseco can hang up on all the talk show hosts he wants; he's the only one in control of his brand. Amendola is employed by the Patriots, who just so happen to call the CBS Boston affiliate their flagship home.

That last line is deliciously haughty, and a perfect encapsulation of what is so goddamn annoying about the way the NFL media goes about its business. It's not enough for Kaufman to scold Amendola from his own self-interested point of view as a media person, he also has to be offended on behalf of the New England Patriots' brand. In this world, nothing is ever more important than the brand identity and the corporate partnerships of the NFL and its teams, and players who forget that need to be put in their place. Once again, NFL writers are clowns.

[ CBS]