I'm sure we're all familiar with this classic. After Jim Mora's Indianapolis Colts suffered an embarrassing loss to the San Francisco 49ers, he was asked what he thought his teams playoff chances would be. He said, "Uh playoffs? Don't talk to me about playoffs! You kidding me? Playoffs?" In addition to being a legendary post-game interview, this is probably the most imitated of the bunch. Everybody loves shrieking "playoffs" in that classic high-pitched voice.
Because of the popularity of the "Playoffs!?" interview, this classic Mora post-game interview often gets overlooked. After a rough loss, Mora said "We did diddly poo on offense, we couldn't run, we couldn't stop the run, we sucked." Sometimes I wished that Mora could come back to coaching in the NFL, or anywhere for that matter.
What really puts this one over the top for me is Herm Edwards' facial expressions. "You play to win the game", Edwards says, then pulls back with a very puzzled look at the reporter. He then says once again more emphatically, "You play to win the game...you don't play it just to play it". Whatever the case, this little rant of Edwards helped to spark the New York Jets out of he funk they were in at the time. Maybe they didn't know that they were supposed to play to win?
After the Arizona Cardinals pretty much gave away what would have been an awesome upset over the Chicago Bears, the frustrations of Green were just festering. "They are who we thought they were! And we let them off the hook. If you want to crown 'em then crown 'em! But the Bears are who we thought they were!" Most fans could relate, seeing as this would be normal banter you would hear from a fan after a tough loss.
This is the perfect example of how great on-field post-game interviews are. After Bart Scott went on a rant for around a minute about how nobody gave his New York Jets a chance against the New England Patriots, he was asked how he felt about playing the Pittsburgh Steelers the following week in the AFC Championship, to which he responded: "Can't wait". Two simple words with an intense tone made Scott a star.
This one moment was the genesis of the free fall for no. 2 pick Ryan Leaf, who many consider the biggest draft bust of all time. After his first loss (of many) in the NFL, Leaf snapped at a reporter asking normal questions. This is the moment when the whole world finally saw how immature this kid really was.
What a difference a year makes. From playing in the Super Bowl to being one of the worst teams in league, Bill Callahan's "We've got to be the dumbest team in America" rant just about sealed his fate as yet another former Oakland Raiders coach.
Mike Ditka was clearly in a bad mood during this interview. From watching it again, it seemed like he would have rather been getting a root canal at the time. A reporter asked "Mike, why are you in such a bad mood?" To which Ditka replied "What do you care? You'd be in a bad mood if you were 2-7." Can't argue with that.
Mike Gundy expressed his passion after a game about a newspaper article ripping on one of his quarterbacks. Gundy basically said to not attack the hardworking kids, but rather attack him (Gundy) because he can take it. Of course, there was the classic "I'm a man, I'm 40" which put this one over the top.
Mike Singletary was referring to a young Vernon Davis here. Davis committed a few stupid personal fouls, which caused Singletary to remove Davis from the game. This might have been the best thing to ever happen to Davis as he needed that at the time.
Practice? We talking about practice? How dare someone ask a practice question to the Answer. Oh, see what I did there?
This was another one of those classic on-field interviews right after the game. There were some questionable calls in this game. Shaq was none too pleased as he dropped the F bomb -- the reporter told him they were live, to which Shaq responded "I don't give a [expletive]". Basically Shaq was like "Yeah I'm cussing on live TV, what are you going to do about it?"
This is the most emotional I've ever seen Keyshawn Johnson, after an opening day loss and knowing that starting quarterback Vinny Testaverde was likely lost for the season, Johnson couldn't mask his despair. Of course, nobody would have remembered this if it weren't for the double-handed slam on the podium. It was like the perfect note to finish the sympathy symphony.
During a miserable loss on Monday Night Football, cameras caught Cardinals QB Derek Anderson laughing with a teammate on the sideline. When asked about it, Anderson went nuts. You're not fooling anyone Derek -- we all know you were trying to trump Denny Green's tirade from years ago. "They are who we thought they were" will always trump "It's not funny, I take this [expletive] seriously".
There were many great Bobby Knight post-game interviews to choose from, but this was my favorite. Different from the typical 'angry guy' interviews, Knight was pleasantly silly here. Knight was explaining his displeasure for the term 'Game face'. He questioned what a game face actually was and proceeded to make a bunch of silly faces like he was convulsing. Even Coach Knight has a lighter side.
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