Arizona Cardinals’ quarterback Derek Anderson was caught smiling on the sidelines in the midst of being shamed on MNF against the San Francisco 49ers (Anderson finished 16 of 36 with 195 yards and 1 INT in a 27-6 loss). This guy Jon Gruden was quick to point out that he’d prefer his players to look like they were actually upset about being embarrassed on the national stage, suggesting that Anderson’s smile was absolutely unacceptable. That Jon Gruden guy is such a tough guy.
I don’t blame this guy Jon Gruden for bringing it up because the MNF crew was already having a tough time finding talking points for an otherwise abysmal match up. Making a big deal about this guy smiling on the sideline was at least more relevant than talking about next week’s MNF game between the Jets and Patriots, which is what the MNF crew did a whole lot. However, as soon as this guy Gruden brings it up, most viewers (especially frustrated Cardinals fans), who may not have made a big deal about it, start to really wonder why the hell their garbage quarterback is crackin’ jokes on the sidelines when down 18 points.
Of course, this leads to a reporter begging the question during Anderson’s post game press conference. Anderson, who appears to be completely blind sided by what was originally a fair question, reacts accordingly when the reporter doesn’t budge from his line of questioning:
To me, after watching it a few times, it looked like Anderson was merely smiling, perhaps in reaction to something his teammate said. Nothing to get too bent out of shape about. Either way, it’s unfortunate he was caught on camera smiling (or laughing) at that time given how the game was playing out. It’s definitely something that could be construed the wrong way and, obviously, it was. Anderson clearly handled it very poorly, though. That’s fine (x5), but nothing’s funny.
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