It became apparent that Alan Zemaitis was not happy with media this week.

"What newspaper are you from?" the junior cornerback said when a reporter asked the first question on his 10 a.m. conference call yesterday morning.

His answer to that first question was very short -- and seemed very terse.

"Whatever the coaches say" was about his only response when asked what adjustments the secondary might make in practice before the Central Florida game.

This, from a guy who always seems to have something interesting to say about everything.

A guy who reporters can often count on for a fresh and funny perspective. Why was he being so curt on that morning?

Well, maybe he's just tired, I thought. I knew he probably had to get up for a mandatory breakfast early this morning and maybe even a weight lifting session as well. No reason to think anything of it.

I was wrong. As the teleconference continued -- and each writer took his or her turn asking questions -- it seemed clear something was bothering him.

It wasn't the usual Alan Zemaitis. He was holding something back.

But by the end of the teleconference, it came flowing out. Zemaitis voiced his displeasure with the media's negativity about the team's loss to Boston College on Saturday.

"You open up the newspaper," he said, "and see somebody criticizing you who doesn't even know what was going on."

No, he didn't point any fingers at any particular person in the media or on that conference call. But that's not the point.

The point is, he criticized the media in general. He's a player whose team is coming off of a loss, and he doesn't like the stories reporters are writing about it.

Of course, I've seen this sort of thing before -- an athlete getting upset about seemingly negative articles.

There are certain beliefs out there about what a sports writer is and what a sports writer does.

Many of you believe we are overly critical, negative and anxious to tear down the teams we cover.

While many of us don't agree with that belief, few of us ever try to fight it.

Because we know we're only trying our best to earnestly explain what happened in the games we cover. And, we admit, sometimes there are aspects of the game we don't understand. Sometimes we have to use what players told us after the games and what we observed during it to interpret what happened on the field in front of us.

Sometimes that means we have to inadvertently criticize a player or a group of players or an entire unit of the squad.

And if that makes some players mad, we don't worry about it much.

The way we see it, those same players would be equally happy if they read a positive article written about them. If they want the good, they'll have to take it with the bad. It creates a comfortable balance.

But, then, a player like Alan Zemaitis comes along, and we don't know how to reconcile him.

Like any player, he hates a less-than-positive story dragging him down. But it also seems like he could care less about having positive things said about him.

It throws the balance off a bit because he doesn't want glory. He only wants to play football, and he doesn't want to be disturbed while doing it.

Yet it's what the media does to him. He sees people second-guessing his Nittany Lions chances this season, and he hates how some stories "try to take the wind out of your sails."

"I can play football with my boys in the back yard any day of the week and have a blast," Zemaitis said.

He thinks the money that's put into football coverage is what spoils it and takes the fun out of it. He would rather keep football in a place where it's pure, where he can enjoy the sport for what it is.

"I have about 15 brothers and cousins, and we go out in the backyard and have enough for two teams and my dad can be the ref," he said.

"I can have memories from that, instead of intercepting a ball against Ohio State and taking it back for a touchdown."

Throughout our lives, we hear players say things like this. They say they "play for the love of the game."

The difference with Zemaitis is he sounds believable when he says this.

Which makes him a difficult guy to criticize at all. But there are more people on the team than just him.

And though college football players are, unfortunately, still not paid for the millions of dollars they make for others, those on scholarship still go to school for free because they play football.

Even those not on scholarship get to run out of that tunnel and wear that uniform. There's a lot of people who wish they could do that.

For those rewards, they have to deal with certain less-desirable things. The media is one of those things.

But I have to say I admire Alan Zemaitis for his honesty and his idealism -- even if he hates how we cover his team right now in the wake of a loss.

I respect that he's mad about losing, and he wants to defend his teammates.

While I don't think anyone has written a story that unduly criticizes the team, I can sympathize with that. Even agree with it.

But, in good times and bad, the team is going to be covered accordingly.

And that's something every person involved with Penn State football -- fans included -- will have to understand.

Whether what we write upsets them or not.