There are stupid questions

Mike Macdonald is going to lose his patience with Seattle Sports soon

Sports radio has long challenged the notion that “there are no stupid questions” but Mike Salk raised the bar with Mike Macdonald this week. Not only did Salk ask the Seahawks head coach a stupid question on Tuesday, but he openly admitted to the world that he was about to ask a stupid question despite knowing what the answer would be and that it was only for a soundbite.

“So I feel bad asking this because it feels like a ‘gotcha’ question, but I really don’t mean it that way*…”

*so how do you mean it?

“And if there’s no way to answer it then I guess I would understand that, but look, I was out here yesterday and Sam (Darnold) didn’t have his best day. Obviously a couple of picks, etc., and I guess I almost have to ask but I hate asking this: Is there anything that could happen other than an injury between now and the beginning of the season that would lead to a different quarterback?”

Macdonald: “You guys are crazy.”

Salk: “There’s no way to ask the question without sounding like an idiot.”

You know what Seaside Joe does when he thinks of something he could say that would make him sound like an idiot if he said it? He doesn’t say that thing.

On THREE different occasions within a few seconds of talking, Salk warns the coach and the audience that he’s asking a stupid question:

1. “I feel bad for asking”

2. “I hate asking this”

3. “There’s no way to ask this without sounding like an idiot”

But instead of a warning or trying to excuse your stupid question so that when people like me call you stupid for it you can say “I know it was stupid”, Salk (and Brock Huard and Seattle Sports being just as responsible) could have chosen either of these options instead:

1. Ask Macdonald to explain why the first OTA session of the year that is open to media is or isn’t a good time to judge Sam Darnold’s performance as it pertains to his first season with the team

2. Don’t ask any questions about benching a QB with $37.5 million guaranteed on his contract after barely watching one day of practice

Salk had previously stated in the interview that he felt it seemed like all three QBs (Darnold, Drew Lock, Jalen Milroe) got equal reps, to which Macdonald clarified that his math must be really off and that not only did Darnold get by far the most reps with the starters, but that it would continue to skew that way in training camp. A point that was clearly ignored by Salk, or he just pretended not to hear it so he could ask his stupid question anyway.

Macdonald does his best to answer the question more respectfully than I ever would:

“I respect that you gotta ask it* but you guys — it’s just a crazy question. There’s not going to be…Sam’s our starting QB, we love him, he’s doing a tremendous job. I think it’s funny that the media is out there for like the first day and all of a sudden they know exactly how good we’re going to be and how good all the players are, and all the tempos. We don’t even put on pads yet. We haven’t made one tackle. It’s a great way to build culture by letting guys know that they can’t make mistakes. That’s exactly what we’re shooting for, so go out to practice, be tight, make sure you don’t make a mistake because then you know, god forbid, you’re the worst player of all-time because you made one bad throw or one bad decision.

That’s not what we’re trying to build. We want these guys to prepare the right way and then when they go out on the practice field, freaking let it rip and then we’ll go fix it. We got time…It’s June. It’s June 3rd. There plenty of reps, we’ll get those things fixed. Sam made a lot of great throws yesterday. He’s gashing us on third and Goal to start the day too. So yeah, that was kind of a crazy question.”

*I’m still confused as to why the show “had to” ask a crazy, stupid question — until Tuesday, I hadn’t heard a single person question if Darnold was in any danger

And as Salk is forcing a laugh while he’s being mocked by the Seahawks head coach for asking a stupid question, on the inside he should be worried that when gets his lucky opportunity to talk to the most important person on the team every week that Macdonald’s going to be thinking to himself, "This guy is an idiot.” Hell, Salk told us that after he was done talking that we WOULD think he’s an idiot. He was right.

In fact, expecting the hosts to have questionable questions is actually how the entire interview started, so maybe Macdonald already thinks that.

Within the first five seconds of the interview, Macdonald is already mocking Brock & Salk’s questioning by saying that they’re probably going to start with more cliche questions like “What’s different in year 2?”

Huard’s first question was about making certain changes in the offseason like trading Geno Smith by asking, “How was all that pivoting?”, to which Macdonald responds (after 5 seconds of silence)…“How was it? Umm, it was great.”

At the end of the interview, Macdonald is asked if injured players Ernest Jones and Uchenna Nwosu will be ready for training camp and maybe Macdonald let his true feelings seep through a little bit here:

“I would love to give you an answer on that, I just don’t really want to right now. So I really wouldn’t love to give you an answer.”

Obviously it is not an easy task to interview a head coach or a GM about the team in the offseason because people in those positions are taught and conditioned to answer questions honestly but also without any transparency or specifics or details that we ACTUALLY want to hear from them. Most of this interview is, by my count, completely useless.

Interviewing Macdonald about what the Seahawks plan to do on the field in 2025 and which players are standing out or struggling in practice is like interrogating a guilty person about a crime: He doesn’t want to be caught in a lie, but he also has to talk in circles and be vague enough as to not reveal any incriminating truths.

However, the detectives aren’t going to build any trust with the suspect by asking stupid questions.

By Salk lowering himself with an admitted “gotcha question” that “makes me sound like an idiot”, I find myself learning more about the interviewer than the interviewee. And that shouldn’t be the point of these weekly interviews with the head coach of the Seahawks.

I haven’t written anything about OTAs yet because there’s nothing to write about. Whether Sam Darnold throws a touchdown on every pass, or an interception, these are practice reps in which the intention can sometimes be to take risks that could lead to mistakes, which are also known as “opportunities” to be able to learn something about those moments BEFORE they happen in the regular season.

Asking Macdonald if the Seahawks would consider benching Darnold before the season would be no different than asking the coach if he would consider stepping down from his job before the season should Seattle not look good in the preseason. That’s a stupid question too…

Just because you warn someone that stupid questions are coming, it doesn’t stop that person from believing that the question doesn’t fall far from the tree.

Seaside Joe 2283