Hill: Don’t blame the plane for Golden Knights’ avoidable media debacle

With apologies to my bosses, everyone has parts of their job they don’t like.

Even the most idyllic-looking careers have their downsides.

For some, it’s needless paperwork or expense reports. Not that this is coming from any personal experience.

Movie stars complain about travel and lack of privacy that are part of the gig.

Athletes and coaches have to speak to the fans through the media for a few minutes a day.

I know. The horror.

The reactions to the league fining Vegas Golden Knights coach John Tortorella and taking the massive additional step of docking the team a second-round draft pick have been predictable.

Media members are mostly puffing out their chests about a team finally paying the consequences of violating media policies, which is understandable from a group often frustrated by organizations across all leagues constantly trying to find ways to barely stay in compliance.

But there is a bit of self-importance on the media’s part that is being exposed by this case. Some of the expressions of some sort of weird validation are unnecessary and silly, especially when you compare them to the reaction of Knights fans.

It’s clear they don’t care. And that’s fine.

But it should be another signal to us in the traditional media that there is a clear disconnect in the relationship with fans that probably should be addressed. And I also would tell fans that the traditional media is more valuable to you than you probably believe and if you are a sports fan who cares about following the teams you love, a decline in objective voices with access covering them is a bigger loss than you probably think.

This applies infinitely more to political coverage too, but that’s for a different day.

The media is making too big a deal of this, and the fans don’t care as much as they should.

Which brings us to the team.

This was an unbelievably silly unforced error. Because while some fans have turned this into a debate of why players and coaches even have to speak to the media, that is not close to the right way to frame the discussion.

It’s not about whether they should have to do it. It’s just a fact that they broke the rules.

And for what? They just won a second-round series and instead of taking a victory lap chose to run into a brick wall.

It’s easy to comply with the media policy, and the Knights found a way not to do it. Actually, Tortorella found a way not to do it. He undoubtedly was told by team officials he had to appear at the postgame news conference, and let’s say on the 0.1 percent chance he wasn’t, he’s been around the league long enough to know it himself.

More likely, there was something that upset him behind the scenes.

Let’s please stop with the nonsense about having to catch a plane. Many Knights fans on social media incredulously have asked how the team could get fined when it had such a limited window to try to take off because of John Wayne Airport’s strict curfew on takeoffs.

Except the Knights’ plane took off at 11:13 p.m. from Daugherty Field at Long Beach Airport, which has a less restrictive noise ordinance. If you want details on it, there are probably enough notes on my laptop to write a dissertation. Same with flight tracking. The Knights’ plane landed at Harry Reid Airport’s private terminal at 12:01 a.m. and moved to Henderson Airport just before noon on Friday, where it remains parked as of Saturday evening.

Maybe something is being overlooked or not being accounted for in this line of thinking? Is there a diffference between taking off at 11:13 or 11:18 p.m.? That could be addressed at a news conference. I kid.

But let’s not be naive. What would have happened had the game gone to overtime? There had to be a contingency plan, as one league source confirmed after they stopped laughing when asked about the validity of the catching a flight excuse.

Shortly before Game 4, the plane took the 11-minute flight from Long Beach to LAX, and the Knights flew home from there after the game. Not sure why, but plans change.

The penalty was harsh. Maybe too harsh. But the message has been sent. The Knights probably won’t violate the policy again.

And you can bet PR departments in every major sports league are using this as an example to coaches and players that they must follow rules, even a media policy they find tedious.

The expense reports of the professional sports world.