In the category of something only media would care about is Curtaingate at The Licht House.
It reminds Joe of when some in local media were crying because the Bucs didnt’t schedule a season-ending news conference with Jameis Winston after his 2015 rookie year that concluded with a trip to the Pro Bowl in Hawaii.
Some local media types wailed in horror. ‘Oh, the Bucs didn’t make Jameis available after the season. Oh, that’s BS.’
Meanwhile, nothing stopped the same local media from either contacting Jamies directly or through his representatives (you know, cultivating sources) or interviewing Jameis at the Pro Bowl. Joe did the latter, and Jameis was very accommodating in Hawaii.
Back to the present, the Bucs decided to erect a curtain this season to keep players hidden in the space spanning from the stadium tunnel where players leave the field to where they enter an area that leads to their locker room. Maybe it was a 35-yard space. Then, after Week 1, the curtain was relocated, along with media, to strategically block media from seeing players in that space; the area where Mike Evans famously screamed “3rd-and-28” and had a mini-meltdown after December’s crushing loss to the Falcons.
This has some in the media barking on the subject. Just one X example is below.
Joe laughs at this kind of stuff.
Media is free to request a photographer or videographer on the field, folks that can catch all kinds of postgame happenings. Also, media outlets are free to buy a ticket and position someone near the stadium tunnel to study what is going on, or to secure amateur fan video shot as players leave the field. (Colorful stuff has circulated after recent Bucs games, and it was used by NBC.)
The NFL literally tweaks media rules every year, at nearly every event. Heck, it wasn’t long ago media was allowed on the field late in the fourth quarter. And that ended and fans didn’t suffer.
Blocking the view of players’ short walk to the locker room is insignificant, though it will mean local media will lose the often viral social media video, which is a great way to irk some media types.