The NFL Crisis

As the Nfl and the Player's Union continue the lockout, and as the upcoming season is more and more in peril, both groups continue to shoot themselves in the foot with generally bad PR. First, look at the Player's Union. These are the guys that everybody wants to win. They are the face of the league. Drew Brees. Peyton Manning. Brian Urlacher. All players who fans both love and adore. I agree with many of the concerns the players have. First of all is the concern over the expansion of the season from a 16-game season to an 18-game season. It's a bad idea. They players know it. The owners know it too, yet they will overlook it if it means chances to pad their Titanic-sized wallets. Many notable injuries occur to star players every year, such as Tom Brady (2008), Brian Urlacher (2009), and Troy Polamalu (2010). If the league expands the number of games played in the regular season, it will exponentially increase the chances that your star players, or most marketable players, could spend a majority or at least part of the season on the bench due to injuries. This will cause an adverse effect to team revenue. If your star player goes down and your NFL team implodes because the don't have the right personnel, your revenues will reflect that the fan base has become uninterested in that season's team (2010 Dallas Cowboys anyone?). Second, the NFL brought in $9 billion dollars last year in revenue. That's right, $9 BILLION. With all that increased revenue, wouldn't one think that the NFL would offer the best healthcare to its players, coupled with the fact that football is the most physically demanding on your body? It's the opposite, actually. The NFL players receive the least amount of healthcare among the four major sports leagues in North America, (MLB, NHL, NBA, NFL.) With all these facts, fans want to root for the players. Except for the fact they can't get their act together. Between the lack of unity in the Union (ironic), and players speaking out of place for an organization that doesn't back those players feelings, the Union is in a world of hurt. Recently, Minnesota Vikings star running-back, Adrian Peterson, compared the player's woes with “...modern-day slavery, ya know?” No, Adrian, no. You just wrecked the PR the Union was attempting to put together. Peterson, who made $7 million last year, is far from a slave. That statement made fans across the nation think twice before jumping on the players bandwagon...

So for the owners now, how do the fight this uphill battle against the Player's Union? Well it doesn't help that owners are handing out ultimatums. If you have ever had relationship problems (and who hasn't?), you know that ultimatums are a surefire to either end up on the couch or packing your things. The owners and the NFL did just that when the stated that mandatory HGH screenings were going to take place in the NFL format, with or without consent of the players. The players' response? “Screw you.” Well done NFL. Maybe I'll get into watching pro fishing.

More Headaches for NHL

The NHL’s headaches continue as the league has continued taking fire for the seemingly increased amount of serious injuries happening on the ice. After the incident between Boston Bruins captain Zdeno Chara and Max Pacioretty, Air Canada, Canada’s largest airline company, threatened to pull its sponsorship.  The hit came in the second period of a game between Boston and Montreal with Montreal up 4-1. Chara checked Pacioretty into the boards and the divider between the teams’ benches, striking his head. The hit left Pacioretty with a major concussion and broken vertebrae in his neck, and Chara received a minor penalty and a major game misconduct.  No suspension. No fine. The hit upset Canadians so much that the Montreal Police launched a criminal investigation into the hit.

The ruling brought the league under more scrutiny in the wake of a series of dangerous plays that have happened along with an increased awareness of concussions. The NHL has enacted rules to decreased direct hits to the head but concussions have still risen this season.  Air Canada, one of the NHL’s longtime sponsors, threatened the NHL to remove its sponsorship unless they punish Chara for the hit. The NHL is standing by its decision to neither fine nor suspend Chara because the play was clean by rule book, and the league could find no intentional motive. It should be noted that Chara is the biggest player in the league at 6’9” and 255 pounds, making a routine check for him thunderous for smaller players.

Should the NHL have suspended him not based on the rule but for the sake of the league’s image? Yes. The NHL has risen in concussions and is facing more ridicule for the gladiator like play that takes place in rinks. The league should have suspended Chara to send a message to players, fans and sponsors that league is serious about protecting its players and has more to offer than just a bunch of “toothless goons” trying to knock each other out. Protect your skilled players so you have them to market to new potential markets.

Good PR will get your client noticed and the professional will remain nameless. Bad PR will get the client under public scrutiny and the professional almost certainly fired. THQ, the video game company behind the new game, Homefront ,is most likely handing out pink slips in the PR department. The video game is based on a fictitious plot where the United States has lost its position as a world power and is occupied by the nearly formed Great Korean Republic. In an attempt to promote the game's release and send a message of peace to North Korea, THQ released a thousand balloons over San Fransisco Bay. However, due to poor planning and inclement weather, the balloons never got off the ground...literally.

The weather made it impossible for the balloons to get farther than the bay before they dropped into the water, causing outrage among locals and environmental groups. The bay has been plagued with environmental problems, prompting criticism from the organization, Save the Bay. Initially, Gamestop, the video game retailer, was accused of the publicity stunt but denied allegations all together. THQ was then forced to step up and take responsibility with this statement:

The balloons released at the Homefront rally event today were made from a 100% organic product and are 100% biodegradable. The balloons have no history of causing any environmental pollution on land or in water. Although we're confident that there will be no harm to the environment, we've retained a clean up crew to remove any potential lingering debris. This was a THQ-sponsored promotion and GameStop had no involvement, whatsoever.

So where did THQ go wrong in an attempt to promote Homefront? Well first, THQ failed to research before it decided to pull the publicity stunt. Had it been aware of the environmental situation in San Francisco Bay, it would have first talked with groups, such as Save The Bay, to let them know that all the balloons are biodegradable. It would have saved the THQ the tarnished reputation in which they were called environmentally reckless. Second, THQ failed to check the weather. Had they checked the weather and had a reliable meteorologist, they would have been advised to reschedule the event for another day.

But THQ's promotional blunder wasn't all bad. I applaud the company for stepping up and taking responsibility for their actions. Even still, it all goes to show that research is the most important step of the communication plan. It establishes a baseline for your plan and gives it a fighting chance to get off the ground.  

Public relations disaster locked and loaded for Texas State Legislature

 "It's strictly a matter of self-defense," said state Sen. Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio. "I don't ever want to see repeated on a Texas college campus what happened at Virginia Tech, where some deranged, suicidal madman goes into a building and is able to pick off totally defenseless kids like sitting ducks.”

This is the main reasoning given to those who doubt the gun bill legislation being pushed through the Texas State Congress. The bill would allow students and teachers to carry guns on campus, making it the second state, behind Utah, to enact such legislature. However, would a shootout on campus be a good idea? And how will the state legislature be able to avoid being voted out of office if and when a shooting occurs on one of Texas' 38 campuses.

The Department of Public Safety's public information (pr) should at this point already be working on a contingency plan for when this bill backfires on them. First, legislators better be ready to go to every university campus, and address real fears and concerns over the new legislation. The number of students concerned with the bill are numerous, so any spokesperson or representative sent to a college campus better be ready to answer many questions. The majority of students oppose the bill, saying the wouldn't feel any safer in classes and would actually be more fearful knowing a classmate has a gun on them. Let's note that the maturity level and emotional IQ of some college students is not there. Parties and guns do not mix under any circumstance. Republicans in Austin are failing to communicate with their public, the first rule of pr, and are simply not listening to countless students say they are uncomfortable with a gun on campus.

Second, the legislators better have some kind of contingency plan when an emergency occurs. If a shooting occurs in the next fours year on a Texas college campus, the majority of representatives will be voted out of office. This might be a prime opportunity for Democrats to claim the governor's seat, which has been in Republican power since 1994. That year George W. Bush beat Ann Richards, ending the Democratic party's hold over the Texas legislature.

Finally, whether or not a shooting does occur, Rick Perry and his cohorts in Austin will have to answer to a large voting demographic, young voters, who will be outraged over the legislation he has signed off on, and rightfully so. This is where legislators need to write op-ed pieces, and the DPS needs to be releasing news release and facts sheets.

Whatever the result is, and as hard as it is to keep my opinion out of this, Republican legislators have a huge public relations debacle on their hands already and not a single shot has been fired.

A Fighting Chance

When Micheal Haley scored his first NHL goal on February 11, you would figure it would be the highlight of the night. However, the goal by the enforcer who was called up from the minors was just a side note. The 9-3 beat down of the Penguins also resulted in 346 total penalty minutes between the two teams, 15 total fighting majors and 4 all-out brawls. The reason? Nine days before, Pittsburgh back-up goaltender, Brent Johnson, dropped the Islanders' franchise goalie Rick DiPietro with one punch, breaking bones in his cheek. Later in the game, Islanders' left winger Matt Martin took down the Penguins' Max Talbot in a similar retaliatory fight. The game left the Penguins even more injury-ridden while the perennial bottom-dweller Islanders gained a surge of confidence and many young players with promising careers ahead. However, the game left bigger questions on the table.

Fighting in hockey, although not the cornerstone it was before the lockout in 2004, is still a major part of hockey. Fighting is used by enforcers to protect skilled players and make opposing players think twice before laying a lick on the their star players. Fighting can either spark a fire for a team or leave it demoralized. No matter how essential fighting is to hockey, the NHL still faces a public image problem.

As far as fans go, there are two types. There are T-shirt fans who like hockey but love the fighting. They are not concerned with the defensive strategy or how effectively a team does or doesn't use the dump and chase (or Hitchcock hockey). Then there are true fans. Those that understand hockey, have played hockey, and have a respect for the game. Unfortunately, few NHL fans truly understand the game, due to the fact that the geographical distribution of NHL cities has most teams in warm weather markets, such as Tampa Bay, Phoenix, Los Angeles, and Raleigh. The result is many fans grow up playing other sports because there is no readily available ice rinks as there are in the Northeast and Midwest. Fans in these regions are not drawn to the game because of the players' ability to stick handle or defensively shut down the offense. They watch for the fights.

On the other end are people not associated with the sport calling for an end to fighting in hockey. Some call it barbaric, although I might note hockey is the only sport where players formally shake the hand of every opposing player after a playoff series. And what if the NHL answered these concerns by banning fighting? Would the NHL have an influx of fans, especially with a lockout looming over the most popular sports league, the NFL? No. Hell no. The anti-fighting activist who come to the surface after an instance such as the Penguins-Islanders brawl would simply disappear. They have no stock in the game, they don't understand it, nor have they ever played.

So should the NHL change its game? No. Should it change its image? Yes. Hockey players are some of the most skilled, coordinated athletes on the planet, many of whom learn to skate before they can walk. Sell this to prospective fans. In fact, in past seasons the NHL has done a great job of selling young stars such a Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin, and Steven Stamkos. Recent rule changes have been made to open up the game and increase scoring chances for an offensively friendly game, similar to how the NFL changed its rules. Of course there will always be instances where the league will be questioned for its fighting, and it doesn't help when former NHL superstar and Penguins' owner Mario Lemieux criticizes the NHL for how it handled the recent brawl. However, since 2005, the NHL has been building its image and attracting new fans. All while fighting has been legal.

The Concussion Crisis

The NFL is at a crossroads. The league continues to be extremely popular (nearly 68,000 spectators attended games in 2009), extremely profitable (the league brought in nearly $7.8 billion dollars in 2010), and extremely dangerous (concussion rates have gone up nearly 30% since the 2008 season). The most dominant professional sports league teeters on the brink of uncertainty. Much like the former Soviet Union, the NFL is self imploding. A certain player lockout hovers on the horizon but is the least of the concerns for the league. It is the recent discovery of the physical impact the game is having on thousands of former players that threatens the culture of America's game, and only a massive public relations push can save the league from collapse.

The American Public has seen how tarnished a league can become when faced with both a lockout and a culture change, Major League Baseball being the best example. The leagues become damaged. Baseball, once crowned America's Pastime, now plays second fiddle to the football. It is this reality that faces the NFL. The Collective Bargaining Agreement, set to expire on March 3 at midnight is but a quarter of the problem. It is the concussions and studies showing their effects that have finally showed the dark side of the league.

The problem: many former players are coming forward with injuries not seen in the general public. Outside The Lines, ESPN's investigative show told the story of former NFL lineman Tom McHale, who played nine seasons in the league. In 2008, at the age of just 45, McHale died, leaving behind a wife and two young sons. Autopsy reports showed that McHale suffered from Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, or CTE, at the time of his death, which is caused from repeated blows to the head.

William “Refrigerator” Perry, the Chicago Bears defensive tackle famous for his “Super Bowl Shuffle”, is nearly immobilized as a result of a bruising career.

So if the problem is the physical toll, how do we solve the problem of the warrior mentality that has long been a part of the game?

It starts at the lowest levels. The NFL needs to seriously consider doing a public information campaign where parents are alerted to the dangers of playing football at a young age but that football can easily be picked up once the player has matured. The NFL needs to offer and promote flag football leagues that work more on the skill of the sport than the hitting. Furthermore, if young children do decide to play football, coaches need to be held legally liable to teach correct tackling form and the NFL needs to reinforce then in order to ensure the public they are doing everything they can to reduce injuries.

But more than enforcing good tackling form, it is important to let the players know that if they are hurt, especially head injuries, they can sit out a practice or game. Growing up, the sports culture has always been to play hurt. Be a man. Warrior Mentality. But at what price are we willing to sacrifice our bodies to playing a game? It comes down to coaches and parents understanding their kids and not pushing the kids to play hurt. The league must pass this culture down to college, high school, and pee-wee players through its pr department.

Second, Roger Goodell, the Commissioner of the NFL, needs to put down his foot on the idea of and 18-game season. What kind of message does that send to players and fans to subject the players to extra games while “trying” to reduce concussions? And if the league does have a lockout, even more efforts will have to be made in the pr department in order to ensure that the NFL does not suffer the same fate as the MLB.

The Value of PR

So after surviving the great Snowcalypse 2011 and the cabin fever that came along with it, I have emerged this bright Sunday afternoon to write this blog. The creative juices seem to hibernate with the blizzard that occurred but have now emerged from the long winter to write, so here we go.

This past week, a shoot-out occurred in the downtown district of Amarillo. Granted, 100 years ago, this would not be as alarming, although a gun fight in any time period is not something to brag about. The altercation resulted in one man dead, one arrested, four officers on administrative leave, and more than 40 rounds exchanged between the two sides. What the city council of Amarillo must figure out is how to control the PR dilemma that they are now facing. Serious questions are being posed by citizens, asking whether the downtown district is safe. However, Amarillo is not the only city facing this crisis. Cities across the country have either faced this problem or teeter on the brink of chaos when a bank robbery or high-speed chase. And it’s not just the immediate danger citizens are put in. It’s the aftershock that city officials must learn how to deal with. Any city with half a brain has an ad hoc plan for this type of situation but that is not always the case. Dallas recently had to review its high-speed chase policy after the wreck ended with the pursed car colliding with another civilian car .

 Cities constantly have to put forward a huge PR effort to convince citizens they are safe, especially in downtown regions.  It all comes back to the saying, perceptions is reality. You can have the safest town in America, but if it is perceived to be dangerous, you won’t have visitors, investors, new businesses, etc.  So while we can’t ensure people will be 100% convinced, Amarillo City Hall would be very wise in developing a communications plan specifically designed to inform citizens about the safety of the downtown area.  It doesn’t have to be expensive brochures. It can simply be a press release, city hall meetings, or social media that can put the citizens at ease. Whatever the tactics may be, the city council members should know that every dollar spent towards an effective PR plan is worth it.