Some NFL players will no longer be interviewed in locker rooms midweek

Going forward, the way that many interviews are conducted with some NFL players could be different.

Ted Karras, player rep for the Cincinnati Bengals, spoke with the media on Tuesday to explain that while media will still have access to NFL locker rooms, interviews may be conducted elsewhere – in a place to be determined by each team.

“In an effort to protect the sanctity of the locker room and the comfort of the players, each team is gonna figure out a program to where we conduct our interviews outside of the locker room,” Karras said, in a video shared on X (formerly Twitter) by Mike Petraglia. “Now this doesn’t bar you from the locker room. We can’t do that. But what we want to do is get cameras off guys in private moments in our locker room…We want to make this as smooth as possible. This is not an indictment against you. This is what our membership feels is best for the players.

“This has been a topic of conversation since COVID,” he added. “With the COVID protocol, when no one was in the locker room. It’s been brought up several times since then. Now we figure it’s the time to do it. But we’re still gonna have everyone – we’ll still be available. Really we just want to protect – I think what brought it to light was a couple guys naked on camera this year. I know that’s happened a few times throughout the history of the league. But this will not affect gameday, I don’t think. We’re gonna come up with a good solution to make the week as smooth as possible, get everyone the time they need and again, protect the sanctity of the locker room.”

Bengals player rep Ted Karras explains the new media policy to “protect the sanctity” of the locker rooms across the NFL pic.twitter.com/Hq18xIcPaJ

— Mike Petraglia (@Trags) October 3, 2024

In response to a later question, Karras clarified that the new rules are “not an excuse to avoid the media.”

“No, we are contractually obligated to be available one time a week for questions. At least to talk, one time a week, available all days but we’re required to talk once a week. That will not be an issue…We want to make this as smooth as possible. I know this is an inconvenience to you. But again, with the recent incidents in the league and what our NFLPA membership wants, we’re implementing this.”

It doesn’t appear that every NFL team will be making this change, but we’ll have to see which other teams decide to follow suit. The full NFL Media Access Policy can be found here.

Ed. Note – An earlier version of the headline made it seem as though all NFL teams will follow this new policy. 

[Mike Petraglia on X]