One of the stranger media moments of the NFL season so far came this past weekend in Las Vegas, where new Chicago Bears head coach Ben Johnson became extremely terse with a CBS sideline reporter during a routine in-game interview.
Coming out of halftime, Johnson was asked whether he needed to change up his approach after failing to score a touchdown in the first half. The first-year head coach became visibly aggravated toward reporter Aditi Kinkhabwala.
“We’re going to be just fine,” Johnson said, staring daggers through Kinkhabwala.
After Chicago scored a comeback win and the video went viral online, Johnson addressed his behavior Monday at a press conference, admitting that he overreacted and promising to clean up his interactions with the media going forward.
“In the moment, I didn’t think too much of it, I’m in game mode,” Johnson said. “But then, when I look back at it, I am a little disappointed with what that looks like. I didn’t hear very well, and that’s not an excuse, but when I thought I heard, I needed to make some changes, and not a question, I didn’t take that so well.”
By addressing the incident directly and owning up to the mistake, Johnson likely can put it behind him. Bears fans don’t want their coach to handle himself like a jerk, but they likely care much more about the back-to-back wins, so long as he can be a professional and apologize when necessary.
The situation between Johnson and Kinkhabwala was likely a misunderstanding. As Johnson noted, he misheard the reporter’s question and took it as a confrontation. The same juices that flow through a coach to motivate a team often spill over into interactions with the media or even fans.
In this case, Johnson admitted his mistake rather than trying to hide from it.
About Brendon Kleen
Brendon is a Media Commentary staff writer at Awful Announcing. He has also covered basketball and sports business at Front Office Sports, SB Nation, Uproxx and more.