We know all too well in Baltimore what it’s like to have the spotlight of the national media fixed on our team and our city. Whether it’s people around the nation poking fun at us because of TV shows like “The Wire” or sports writers and website hosts (who are unabashed Steelers fans) jabbing us over the Ray Rice scandal, we’re keenly aware of how much it stings to be put on the proverbial slab and opened up.
Imagine, then, how Roger Goodell, the NFL, and the 32 owners must feel week-after-week when some other incident pops up and they’re led to slaughter once again.
As you saw a couple of weeks ago when the likes of Anheuser-Busch stepped up to voice their displeasure with the league’s on-going legal issues, the only thing that will initiate some real action from Goodell and the owners would be the loss of significant corporate revenue. Season ticket holders can send in angry letters and the likes of Keith Olbermann and others in the media can slam the league, but nothing motivates the Commissioner to act quite like a threat from a $200 million “partner” like Budweiser or Coca-Cola.
I wrote about that very subject ten days ago in my daily sports blog, Drew’s Morning Dish – (www.drewsmorningdish.blogspot.com) – and predicted that someone of national prominence would threaten the league with sponsorship termination if the NFL’s image continued to take a hit.
This week’s Saturday Night Live TV show featured a funny player introduction piece (well, I thought it was funny, I’m sure Goodell didn’t) centering on the Ravens and Carolina Panthers.
Here it is for your enjoyment or dismay, depending on your level of humor and willingness to see your team getting raked over the coals on national TV (again):
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5P_GqS30xg#t=31[/youtube]
Unfortunately, this is precisely the sort of publicity people at Budweiser, McDonald’s and Chevrolet can’t stand to see connected with the product they’re supporting with their marketing dollars and city-by-city branding efforts.
It’s the biggest challenge Goodell faces in the wake of the Ray Rice case and various other domestic violence incidents over the last six months. If his players can’t stay out of jail and stay off the police blotter, one of the NFL’s big corporate partners will throw in the towel rather than subject themselves to scrutiny from their customer base for aligning with the league.
Frankly, I’m surprised someone hasn’t pulled out already. While there are clearly far more “good guys” in the league than bad ones, the weekly stories, videos and accounts of criminal behavior have piled up to such a degree that you have to seriously consider handing over your corporate money to an entity that employs derelicts in virtually every city.
It’s reasonable to watch that Saturday Night Live clip and feel a tinge of anger and thoughts of “come on man, stop piling on”, but the reality is the league made its own bed here. Or, the players did, I suppose.
It’s not just the NFL who can’t keep their players out of the doghouse. The situation at the University of Texas is a prime example of the simplicity of “doing the right thing vs. acting like an idiot”.
Head Coach Charlie Strong has kicked off nine players from the Longhorns football team since the spring. All he’s asked them to do is — go to class, don’t test positive for drugs, don’t slug a woman, and don’t get arrested. Seems simple enough, right? Just do those four things and you will skate through Texas without a hiccup. Nine guys couldn’t do it, so he kicked them off the team. And, somehow, he’s the one getting beat up down in Austin.
Think about that for a second — someone comes to you and says, “OK, look, we’ll give you $200,000 worth of education. Just go to class, don’t get arrested, don’t test positive for dope and don’t hit a female. Just do those four things and we have ourselves a deal.” Somehow, you fail to uphold your end of the bargain. And it’s the football coach’s fault? I don’t get it.
The players in the NFL have made this messy bed and now they have to sleep in it, all while the owners feel the brunt of the pressure of surviving and thriving with sponsors publicly getting antsy.
People like Saturday Night Live and TMZ and Deadspin have no horse in the race as far as the NFL goes and they use their creative freedom to do what nearly every other person in the country has been doing over the last year — which is…make fun of these guys who just can’t seem to conduct themselves appropriately like the rest of the great unwashed generally does seven days a week.
I feel bad in some ways because I know people like John Harbaugh, Eric DeCosta, Kevin Byrne, Matt Birk, Torrey Smith, Dan Wilcox, Jason Brown and a few other players that I’ve done some charity-related work with over the years and I see them represent themselves and the league with great integrity and professionalism. I’m sure every team in the league has a group of players that are outstanding role models and contributors in their own communities.
That said, these days, the players who can’t stay out of trouble are doing far more harm than the positive players are doing good.
It is what it is, unfortunately, and until the arrests stop, the NFL is going to continue to be a public whipping post for the media and the fans.
And they have no one to blame but themselves.
