Vic on JDR Stopping Garrard's Radio Show

Stephen from Jacksonville
"Del Rio cancels Garrard's weekly show" is the headline read on ESPN. It sounds to me like sour grapes. David was out promoting the product and doing his best to help build a fan base and Del Rio didn't like the fact that he wasn't included. It's not like Del Rio and his bland personality are out there trying to get people excited about Jaguars football. Mr. Ketchman, you know better than I do, but is there really anything wrong with what Garrard was doing?

Vic: I’ve been covering the Jaguars from their inception and that includes two head coaches and I can tell you that Jack Del Rio didn’t do anything Tom Coughlin or any other coach wouldn’t have done. What you don’t know, Stephen, is that Friday’s practice schedule is tailored for players to get home early, relax, do things around the house and spend time with their families. Why is that important? Because they’re going to be gone all weekend. They will report to the stadium on Saturday morning and they will go from there to the hotel, etc. No coach shortens the work day so his players can do radio interviews. Friday afternoon is the concentration line, Stephen. The players cross it when they get within 48 hours of kickoff and coaches want their players to have a singular focus from that point on. It’s been that way forever and every beat guy who covers any team knows this to be true and they know it to be fair. The game plan has been installed and coaches don’t want anything being said that might reveal its contents or the medical condition of a teammate. When we get to Friday afternoon, Stephen, every coach in the league becomes hyper-sensitive. Friday is lock-down. I knew coach Del Rio would get ripped on this thing because America loves nothing more than a good freedom-of-speech argument and this made for an easy target. Coach Del Rio was in a no-win position. Also, it provided another excuse for fans not buying tickets: He wouldn’t let Garrard interact with us. That is such crap.