The NFL, PR and some of my other favorite abbreviations

This week marked the opening for free agency in the NFL. As an avid fan, especially of the Denver Broncos, I have paid close attention as the signing period can have a major influence on the following season. For those who are less familiar, it’s an even bigger deal in Denver this year because long time coach Mike Shanahan was released and replaced by former New England Patriots offensive coordinator, Josh McDaniels. Such a change in the leadership of an organization leaves many questions to be answered, and free agency is one of the earlier peeks into what a new coaching regime is going to bring to the table.

By now, some of you may be saying “Jason, this is a blog on marketing. Where are you going with this?”

Well, the answer is simple. The NFL, in the end, is a business. A franchise’s success depends largely on the revenue it can generate, and as such, the sport also faces many of the same problems businesses face. Yes, the players bloated salaries may not reflect anything of the common employee, but the basics are still the same. And if a team is not careful, it can fall victim to common business problems.

The Denver Broncos are now falling into such a problem. Last weekend, the press (which has become more and more intrusive into behind closed door dealings, as is true with any industry) got wind of story that involved the Broncos possibly trading away their quarterback, Jay Cutler. Cutler has been breaking records and was recognized for his accomplishments with an invitation to the NFL Probowl last year. Many Denverites saw him to be a continuing fixture in this team, and so the word that he may be traded came as a blow to many, including Cutler himself. The trade did not end up happening, and the level of the Broncos interest in actually going through with it remains a large matter of speculation, but the damage was done.

This is where the marketing issues came in.

The sensational idea of this story was enough to inspire the imagination of writers around the league. Rumors began to spiral out of control, and the fans (the NFL’s key stakeholders and primary target audience) were impacted. Denver fans in particular felt a large amount of anger, confusion, and disappointment in the new staff members, their confidence in the new management obviously shook. Add to that, Jay Cutler began to issue comments to the press that he still felt like the team wanted to do away with him and that he was hurt by such a ploy.
A visit out to the Denver Broncos site yielded no information from the team itself, and both Coach McDaniels and General Manager Brian Xanders only made passive statements to the press that they were not going to trade away Cutler. It is also worth mentioning that many season ticket purchases become finalized on the opening weekend of free agency. This means big business for the franchise, but having such controversy cannot possibly help the bottom line.

And here lies the key. The time of passive PR in any business is over. News agencies are equally content to publish speculation as they are facts, bloggers with wild opinions and unjustified credentials are now being quoted as “quality sources”, and still, these points of view can and will impact your bottom line if not addressed in a pro-active fashion. Everything in your organization can find its way to the public spotlight in a matter of moments. It’s the new way of the world, and from the White House’s stimulus package to small business ventures, we see that “transparency” is the key buzzword, but more than that, it is a form of public representation meant to curtail the tidal wave of speculation that can rule the airwaves now and damage a company’s credibility and profitability.

Someone once told me “Be willing to speak your own truth, or someone else will speak it for you”, and those words seem to ring true now. While I remain hopeful that my favorite team will work out its own problems, the fact is, a bad business decision of not handling the press directly will continue to haunt the team through the off-season, and perhaps beyond. Investing a little effort into a more open PR structure could have saved the team some money, and a lot of internal and external anguish.

Go Broncos. I hope.