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It feels like every week a different athlete is in the news receiving a DUI. This week the public found out about the alleged DUI’s of Phoenix Suns Jason Richardson, San Diego Chargers Vincent Jackson and former NBA pro Antoine Walker. The public also found out more details of former commentator Charles Barkely’s DUI.
Is it just me or do publicists need to do a better job of letting their clients know that images can be easily ruined by off the field incidents?
Other recent memorable off the field incidents are Plaxico Burress weapons charges, Michael Vick’s dog fighting ring, and the University of Colorado’s sexual assault against players on its football team
After Burress was suspended from the New York Giants, the team lost more games than they won. The year after Vick was prosecuted, his former team finished 4-12. Finally, the University of Colorado, which had football players that faced six counts of rape and their program was under investigation for using sex to recruit players, had a tough four seasons after those incidents. The went a combined 20-30.
Can we conclude that negative PR affects on the field play directly? No, but I think there is some correlation. I don’t work in sports PR, but I would love to know the conversations VP’s of media relations have with new players and coaches when they are first acquired. Sports PR heads need to use real life case study examples of how not to act.
Communicating about negativity should help prevent incidents, but unfortunately that isn’t always true.
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Ugh ... Plaxico ...
It's only fitting that the day after the G-Men bite the dust that I need to hear this name.
In all honesty, when Plax pulled his little stunt a month or so ago I was one of those people who wanted to believe that the team would continue the season unphased. What good fan wouldn't?
Now that it's all said and done I've kind of been reflecting on the impact he had on the rest of the team. Sure, the Giants had their fair share of screw ups without him, but I think when a teamate gets involved in a scandal, it effects the squad as a whole. Especially when you're as high profile as Plax.
Is there any direct evidence to suggest bad PR affects team performance? No. But it makes sense that a distraction like this would take focus off of their key obective--winning.
In all honesty the Giants peeked mid season. I wasn't happy with their performance yesterday as well.
Distractions can be vital, but sometimes they are meaningless (I know contradicting my blog post). I can't remember who it was (either Shannon Sharpe or Ray Lewis) of the Baltimore Ravens had really bad off the field issues the year they made the super bowl. That entire media week was basically reporters harassing the player about their problem. Anyway, the Ravens still won that year, so that's an example of when a distraction didn't really harm the team as much as we thought it would.
Good example Brian.
And let's face it, someone like Plax is going to get bad PR no matter what he does. Last season he skipped a bunch of practices and look how that turned out: a game-winning snag in the Super Bowl.
But I guess shooting yourself in the leg after carrying an illegal firearm is a little harder to come back from :)
Lord have mercy I could never do personal PR for the reasons you just stated. Controlling a public figure seems to be about the most impossible thing on the planet.
What PR professionals need to do to, frankly, scare the living day lights out of their poorly behave clients to show the correlation between negative media coverage and reduced earning potential. Fewer $$$ should really scare people.
In a world where there is so much access to media and so SO much access to public figures, PR pros are really challenged to help sports celebrities understand they impact their careers and the franchises they represent in all arenas, not just the stadium. They are ambassadors for the franchises they belong to and who, ultimately, sign the paycheck.
In the end no amount of media training for life, if you will, can deter some people from making bad decisions and getting negative coverage.
Lately it seems half the fun of what's going on on the field is talking about what's happening off the field.
Robyn - I think your last line sums it up the best:
"Lately it seems half the fun of what's going on on the field is talking about what's happening off the field."
This is so true.
Well Pr is all about creating and sustaining mutual relationships. If there is bad PR, its time to do approriate research and implement the Public Relations Transfer process from negativity to posiistivity.
GOT SOMETHING TO SAY?