[sportscurmudgeon]

Matty:

Art Monk is indeed a quiet and intropsective and introverted and very intelligent man. But he did not "accomodate" himself very much to the "needs" of reporters. There were games where HE was the person that folks needed to talk to because he made the key play in the game - or very rarely was the player who botched the key play. In those cases he would talk to the press but it was clear that he did not want to do it and he was not working very hard to be helpful.

That is is right; no one can deny that.

But it did not make him popular with the guys who will do the voting. Only the press guys who covered the Skins for a while and got to know him really came to like him as a person - because they got to see his intelligence and his humanity.

BTW, have you noticed how few commercial sponsorships Monk has had here in the DC area over the time of his career or since he retired? That is part of the same thing.

We need joecrisp to chime in hiere. Joe, if you have deadlines and stories to write and maybe a sidebar to one of your gamers and the key player on the team is not available or is maddeningly late arriving for an interview and then answers all your questions in five words or less, is that going to make you happy with him? My guess is not until or unless you get to know him...