Ostrich-Gate Controversy

            As the Premier League comes to a close, and along with a team winning the title, teams are trying to avoid relegation. Along with this, pressure is building up, and one of the teams feeling this pressure is Leicester City. Having won many of their previous games and actually moving out of the relegation zone, Leicester has been looking good in their avoidance of relegation. However, going up against Chelsea, who are almost guaranteed to win the league this season, Leicester lost 3-1, leaving them out of relegation but not by as much as they previously were. The controversy comes outside the game, however, during a press conference with Leicester City manager Nigel Pearson. Basically, after getting annoyed by a journalist, Pearson asked him if he was an ostrich because he had his head in the sand. This continued, and he shortly walked out of the interview. Then, during the pregame conference for their next game, Pearson apologized to him, but was later called out for being a bully by yet another reporter. So now, other managers are either supporting Pearson or saying that what he did was wrong.

            One argument is that, as a manager of a team near relegation, he is obviously under a lot of pressure and that built up and led to what happened. Also, some say that this is how the whole reporter thing works, with them constantly coming at the managers with questions and then this leads to the managers reacting sometimes. Others say that Pearson’s was an act of bullying and he wasn’t able to manage his anger well. I think that, while not the best, Pearson’s actions were definitely well justified and he handled the situation well. First, I believe that the reporter was making Pearson repeat himself, and he felt that the questions were simply stupid. Also, to Pearson being criticized for his lack of anger management, I think that if he was angry, he handled it quite well. He never raised his voice, and he appeared relatively calm even when addressing the second reporter calling him a bully. I feel that most people are making too big of a deal out of the whole thing, and that it is just the relationship that reporters and managers will always have.