Advocate staff photo by SCOTT THRELKELD — New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees (9) and New Orleans Saints tackle Zach Strief (64) celebrate Brees’ rushing touchdown against Tampa Bay Buccaneers during the fourth quarter of a 42-17 win Sunday, Dec. 29, 2013, at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.
The NFL has rules about its players answering questions from credentialed media, but anyone who wants to can circumvent those and frequently get away with it.
However, some players also go above and beyond when it comes to satisfying the league’s mandate to cooperate with media, giving remarks that educate both reporters and their audience.
No one on the Saints was better at that this year than veteran right tackle Zach Strief, New Orleans-based media determined in a vote whose results were released Tuesday.
Strief won the Saints’ 2014 Jim Finks Good Guy award after being unfailingly available and polite to reporters who covered a season that saw New Orleans finish 7-9 while falling short of the playoffs.
The late Finks was the Saints’ general manager from 1986 to 1992.
Strief often stuck around in the locker room after tough losses, such as the five straight the Saints suffered at home toward the end of the season. Occasionally, the post-game news conferences with coach Sean Payton would run long after both wins and losses, and players — as is their right — would get dressed and leave.
But Strief, a co-captain of the offense, opted to not take advantage of those opportunities and would hang around the locker room. He’d deal with waves of reporters, explaining to them his perspective on why the Saints beat an opponent or what the other team did to get the best of New Orleans.
Furthermore, at a time when players insisted their problems were strictly related to game-time execution, Strief was among the first to admit that some of his less experienced colleagues didn’t grasp what areas most needed work or how much consistent effort it required to be successful in the NFL.
Strief remarked Monday, “Look, that’s human nature to let some stuff slide because you think you can. And we learned the hard way that you can’t.”
He also conceded that veterans had let those players down by not teaching them the proper work ethic in what were some of the most candid interview sessions given by a Saint all season. Those were briefings where obvious shortcomings weren’t downplayed with cliches and no empty guarantees of a campaign-saving turnaround were put on the record.
“There’s a time when things can turn around, and there’s a time when things are what they are,” Strief said about choosing to not sugarcoat his team’s hopes late in the season.
The vote Strief won involved 16 media members casting ballots in favor of their top three candidates. Each voter’s top candidate received three points; the second got two points; and the third got one.
Strief finished with 35 points. Other players who received votes and therefore points were safety Kenny Vaccaro, cornerback Keenan Lewis, tight end Benjamin Watson, linebacker Curtis Lofton, defensive back Corey White, quarterback Drew Brees, right guard Jahri Evans and linebacker Parys Haralson.
Strief was chosen by the Saints in the seventh round of the 2006 draft and became a full-time starter in 2011. He won a championship ring with New Orleans from Super Bowl XLIV, which was on Feb. 7, 2010.
Strief also won the Finks award in 2012, during which the Saints were 7-9 while coach Sean Payton was suspended after the bounty scandal.