Should Cameras Be Inside the Alabama Locker Room?
Maybe some privacy is a good thing.
However, as NIL increases the importance of a player's (or even a coach's) image, the public is getting a longer look behind the curtain...for better or for worse.
"Inside the Locker Room" host Barry Sanderson brought up the topic Tuesday morning. He mentioned two examples: Hard Knocks which follows NFL teams, and Coach Prime which documented Colorado football coach Deion Sanders.
"Is that good? I think at some point we gotta keep the cameras out of the locker room," said Barry. "Why are we trying to put all this information out for public consumption?"
Sports writer Kevin Scarbinsky said he believes a large push is coming from the schools themselves. "Everybody wants to put together the ultimate hype video," he said. "That's become a goal now, and so many of these schools have hired very talented and creative individuals to lead their creative teams."
Scarbinsky gave an example of this creativity with Oregon's video from their game with Colorado.
"They somehow had audio of Colorado's players dissing Oregon players," Scarbinsky recounted. The video also featured audio of players dissing Lanning, and Shiloh Sanders saying he was gonna kick everyone's backside.
"I don't know how they got that audio!" said Scarbinsky. And although he thought it was fun, he does see issues with this trend.
"The problem is, it's become so high-glossed, almost over-produced... we're getting away from what the game is about," said Scarbinsky, "instead focusing on these other things: the taunting, the comments, how much the other team's been on television."
Barry Sanderson pointed out that players sometimes deal with the effects of these videos on the field, referencing Colorado Buffaloes player Travis Hunter who was hit hard and landed in the hospital.
"Sometimes that stuff spills over into things like that," said Barry. "It seems like what happens in the locker room used to stay in the locker room. Now everybody's in there."
And Kevin Scarbinsky thought it would continue this way until something serious happened. "When it gets to the point where a coach feels like it contributed to him losing a game, maybe we'll see a throttling back on it."
"Until then," he said, "it's full speed ahead."
Listen to the full interview with Kevin Scarbinsky: