ESPN’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers reporter Jenna Laine apologized via Twitter after she and other reporters received backlash for their interaction with running back Giovani Bernard following Sunday’s loss to the Cincinnati Bengals.
Laine and other reporters confronted Bernard in the Buccaneers locker room after the 34-23 loss in which Tampa Bay had a 17-3 lead heading into halftime. Looking for an answer about a botched fake punt that appeared to be a call Bernard wasn’t looking for when the ball was snapped, reporters wanted to talk to Bernard, who instead was hoping to leave the locker room.
“Oh, now you guys want to talk to me,” Bernard said, according to Laine.
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You can hear Laine respond on the video saying, “You were injured all year,” referring to Bernard playing just five games due to an ankle injury that forced him on the injured reserve. Players that are on IR don’t have to be made available to media.
One other reporter also said, “What have you done for us to talk to you about all year?”
In a lengthy Twitter post, Laine said first that she apologized to Bernard, saying there was “no benefit” and “my intention wasn’t to make it some ‘gotcha’ moment, but to illustrate how tense things can get in the locker room when a team isn’t meeting its expectations.”
“It captured him in a vulnerable moment, the optics of it are all wrong and it didn’t tell the whole story.”
The second part of Laine’s apology was for her “very defensive comments after” about posting the video, which received mixed reactions in her comments.
“My intent was that these athletes didn’t get to where they are with hand-holding, they’re some of the toughest people on the planet and accountability is part of their daily lives. I realize that it came off as cruel and insensitive. In no way was I attempting to weaponize his injury against him either by pointing it out.
“The most difficult thing about this has been that in this moment I became what I swore I would never be, lacking empathy, and that was something that was very much needed here.”
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Bernard would eventually take questions, consistently repeating, “It was all me.”
Head coach Todd Bowles noted that Bernard did know it was a fake punt.
“Miscommunication, that’s all it was on my part. I take complete fault for that,” Bernard said.
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