From the Rams locker room today

[RamDez]

TYOKA JACKSON STATEMENTS 12-30-2004





“ To me they sound that way (on whether the criticism of Martz is personal), and to me that’s sad, that’s sad. What kind of journalistic integrity is that, to make blanket statements about a guy’s personality and don’t know him that well? I could talk about you, but I could only critique you as a reporter. Other than that, that’s all I’ve got. When you guys walk out of here, you won’t have people standing out there yelling obscenities at you. You won’t have anybody out there critiquing your job today on national TV, you won’t see it. “



“If you guys make a mistake, it’ll get edited out, but it just doesn’t work for the rest of us like that. I look at it and I’m thinking, what do these people think, who say these things and have no idea what they are talking about. What do people who never played the game, what are they talking about when they sit and critique people who sit down and work 18 hour days trying to win a football game in the National Football League, and they sit and critique one or two plays?”



“What are you thinking really? You go home and your day is over and you can come back and talk about something negative the next day. I don’t understand people like that.” “



(Asked what is “out of bounds for reporters)

“When you go into “deep” analysis about what you think is going on, but have no clue about what is really happening. Analyze what you just watched, and say, ‘I saw a team that didn’t play well, or I saw a team that maybe didn’t play to its ability’. But when you go further and say, ‘well it looks like they packed it in, or it looks like he lost the team’, what are you talking about?



How many team meetings have you been in, the people that make these statements? Were you in minicamp? How many times have you come in the weight room, or seen coach come through and have personal conversations with players in the locker room about stuff other than football? Anytime? No. How many times have you seen him put his arm around players and ask them how their kids are?”



‘He’s lost them, they don’t want to play for him anymore, they don’t respect him’, I hear that and shake my head. To me it doesn’t sound like that person who’s talking has any idea what they are talking about. I know they don’t. Where is the integrity to not speak about things you know nothing about?”



ABOUT MARTZ



“Here’s the point right here. I can’t make a statement and describe a guy, a human being, a man his age, and make you understand who he is over the 4 years I have known him. I think he’s a great guy, he’s an honest guy, he’s a man of integrity. He’s too honest sometimes. He tells you guys things that are too honest, and you guys take it and run with it. He’s an honest person, he’s an emotional guy, he has layers just like the rest of us human beings.



I can’t sit here and explain to you the four years I’ve had a relationship with him in just two or three minutes. I can’t do it. That’s what I’m saying. So when you as a journalist make statements about a team, and what’s happening in reference to a team, there’s no way you can do that with a level of understanding if you don’t have any. I can’t sit here and tell you what’s going on in the Jets locker room; I haven’t been there, so I can’t do it.”



Jackson also revealed that Mike Martz got the game ball from his players after the MNF win over the Eagles, to let him know the players "have his back".



Barry Waller

Gridiron Gateway