Every football team should hope their quarterback steals an aspect of Peyton Manning’s game, and for Dak Prescott, he chose the ability to evade questions.
Prescott is a really good quarterback, but despite what Carolina Panthers head coach Matt Rhule thinks, he’s not Peyton Manning. But that doesn’t mean Prescott can’t watch film of Manning and strive to be the two-time Super Bowl champion.
During a recent interview with 105.3 The Fan’s afternoon show GBAG Nation in Dallas, Prescott was asked if he attended the “cliché quarterback school” to learn how to get in and out of press conferences quickly.
“I’ve watched a lot of Peyton Manning interviews in my day,” Prescott admitted. “So I took some nuggets from him. Learned how to say a lot without saying too much, you know?”
GBAG Nation’s Eric Chiofalo asked Prescott to provide a scouting report for a fictional team and the Dallas Cowboys quarterback responded with “they got a lot of talent obviously, it’s gonna be a good matchup, but I’m confident in my guys.”
While Prescott’s ability to offer generic interview responses made for a fun segment on 105.3 The Fan, it also highlights the futility of press conferences. Professional athletes are forced to sit in front of reporters before and after sporting events, and while it may have served a purpose decades ago, social media has made the practice of mandatory press conferences somewhat obsolete.
Players don’t want to say anything interesting in a press conference setting and when they do, it’s rarely about the game and more often caused by emotion. But every week, football players like Dak Prescott will be ushered out to the podium to answer questions with predetermined, generic answers.