Football's New Mission

Three days a week I watch football.  During every single game I see the commercial for nomore.org.  They show player after player saying "No More not my business... I'm sure they'll work it out... but he said he was sorry, NO MORE."  It should be no surprise that the NFL is taking a stand against domestic violence.  After all the bad press with Ray Rice hitting his wife, and then accusations against Arian Peterson abusing his child, the NFL is at risk of having the image of the overall establishment damaged.  Most people understand that you can't judge all football players by the actions of a few.  However, like any company with a dishonest employee, punishment must be swift and sure in order for the public to separate the actions of one from the whole.  With the events coming out so close to one another, there is an even greater possibility for people to look at the NFL as being easy on violent crimes. 

The choice to join NOMORE.org was a wise one for the NFL to make.  It will not only tell the world that the NFL stands against domestic violence, but it will also shine a light on men who are the opposite of those appearing in the news lately.  They are generating good press for the few chosen men who are "passionate and demonstrative about their beliefs" and who "are confident in their manhood and know that women should be respected and revered, and they are not afraid to take a stand for what they believe."  There is no smarter way that they could have approached a mountain of bad press about the poor choices of a few players.

You can read more about the foundation, or view the original article at:
http://nomore.org/nfl-troy-vincent-football-new-mission-domestic-violence/

NFL needs to clean house

This year there have been many off the field PR issues in the NFL. There was an article on ESPN that was titled: "Cleaning House" that talks about how the NFL is creating new rules and policies to try and promote better off the field role model behavior. The first issue that we all probably heard about was the Ray Rice beating his girlfriend in the elevator. This issue was the big start of the cleaning house issue. Rice was the foreshadowing for the vibe of the season. So how is the NFL suppose to act? Is it the NFL who should be held accountable or the players them selves? I personally feel the NFL should be held accountable because salaries that are offered are so high and there fore I think the expectation. 

In a public relation aspect the NFL really has its work cut out for themselves. The first issue is they did not look into the Rice issue before the rest of the media did. This created major back lash on them and really killed the professionalism of the NFL. The other PR back lash was the Raven organization because they first put a statement out saying they supported Rice. After the video of the elevator issue came to main media the Ravens I feel handled the issue the best. The Owner came out with a statement in front of the press in person saying they took responsibility for not looking into the Rice issue further and failed to conduct a proper and professional investigation. He also said the fans deserved better from their football teams and that they will be better. This is what so many PR issuers do not do. The honest way to go was the best they made us as viewers see them as regular people who make mistakes.

http://www.newstribune.com/news/2014/sep/14/press-box-nfl-needs-clean-house/
http://www.baltimoreravens.com/

Look closely into political campaigns. You will learn 'something' from them.

     I haven’t been interested in politics because I have always thought they get paid from us, citizens but they do not do what they are supposed to do. In 2007, I interestingly read 2007 president election campaign handbooks about each candidate. Everyone had different promises. After the election it turned no promises had completed appropriately. Thus, when I went to PRSA website to read some articles, I found “What Political Campaigns Can Teach PR Professionals” would be interesting. I had a doubt whether political campaigns can influence PR practitioners.

     Did anyone know that it has been said that the world’s first PR professionals were politicians? The article starts with this fact and gives some information which is common senses for both political and public relations campaigns. It doesn’t directly say what things PR professionals can learn from political campaigns. But when you read through the article, you will understand what the title meant. Some of things from the article are that (1) to counterbalance one negative message, there should be three or more positive messages; (2) PR practitioners need to work harder than they may have realized to combat negative attacks; and (3) repeat key messages.

     If you are going to work in PR field, this article helps you have some ideas that you have to keep in mind to be an effective PR practitioner. Please visit http://www.prsa.org/Intelligence/Tactics/Articles/view/10843/1101/Casting_Ballots_What_Political_Campaigns_Can_Teach#.VGKIDtEtDIU to read this article.

Steriods in Baseball Alex Rodriquez

Professional athletes play as a big role model for many people. In the textbook it talks about how public relations in the entertainment business can involve serving as a publicist for a celebrity/sports figure. What happens when public relations campaigns are initiated to generate public awareness of an individual who has done some bad things? Alex Rodriquez has been suspended from playing in Major League Baseball all of last season because he has taken steroids. This is not the first time has been suspended because of it.

Professional athletes are role models for many people. If you know people are looking up to you why set a bad example. When it comes to taking steroids your morals and ethics come into play. You have to make a decision on where you know what you are doing is against the rules but it can make you play better. That’s something that so many people face with is to make a decision about steroids. Athletes of all sports know that kids look up to their favorite athletes so set a positive example for kids and do things right. Show kids that hard work and dedication does pay off.

Here is an article about Alex Rodriquez. This article is fairly lengthy.

http://m.mlb.com/news/article/3811116/  

No class of mine would be complete without referencing something in sports so my PR topic is the battle for renaming and re-branding the Washington Redskins. There are dozens and dozens of articles that talk about what is appropriate for the Redskins to do and all kinds of speculation into why nothing has been done yet. I think this is a HUGE  public relations matter for the sport world. There is a group of people widely unhappy with the implications and associations of the Redskins, people that are offended by it (albeit more recently public since the Redskins were formed back in 1932), yet the organization has done very little about it.

Here at LCSC we faced a comparable situation with the Nez Perce tribes being offended at many of the mascot ideas that we had in order to go along with the Lewis-Clark State Warriors that we are. Instead we've been forced to go more with the Lewis and Clark aspect. Does this mean the end of the Warriors?

Here's a link to many of the different articles about the Redskins if any of you are interested :)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/washington-redskins-name-controversy/