THE LITTLE BOY NEXT
DOOR HAS BEEN PRACTICING
THE STAR SPANGLED BANNER
FOR THE LAST TWO HOURS
... not sure which way that leans, come to think of it!
Posted on 09/23/2017 8:55:42 PM PDT by TaxPayer2000
In case you wondered whether the National Football League would again find itself at the center of political controversy this season, wonder no more: the answer is yes.
On Friday night at a rally in Alabama, President Trump called NFL players who kneel or sit during the national anthem “sons of bitches,” and said that teams should fire them.
Trump appealed directly to NFL owners by asking the crowd: “Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ‘Get that son of a bitch off the field right now. Out! He’s fired. He’s fired!'” And he directly encouraged fans to walk out of games when a player protests during the anthem: “If you see it, even if it’s one player, leave the stadium, I guarantee things will stop.”
The first team owners to respond were John Mara and Steve Tisch of the New York Giants: in a statement on Saturday, they called Trump’s comments “inappropriate, offensive and divisive.” More owners have followed. At the league level, the NFL released a statement in which Commissioner Roger Goodell called the comments “divisive” and said they “demonstrate a lack of respect for the NFL, our great game and all of our players.”
But what matters next, for the business of the NFL, is how NFL sponsors react.
Trump discussing the NFL, and player protests, in Huntsville, Alabama, on Sept. 22, 2017.
The NFL is estimated to bring in an all-time-high $14 billion in revenue this year, and more than $1.5 billion of that comes from fees that official league sponsors pay to be associated with football at the highest relationship level.
When there is an NFL scandal — whether it’s a horrifying report about 110 out of 111 deceased players’ brains testing positive for CTE; or a domestic violence case ruling not going the league’s way; or a growing number of players protesting the anthem, potentially offending many fans — all that matters to the business of the league is whether sponsors walk away. And they never walk away. (Even when TV ratings dip, it is for the most part a financial risk to the cable networks that show games, not to the league unless ratings get so bad that advertisers flee.)
Who are the “official sponsors” of the NFL at the league level? Big brands including Anheuser-Busch InBev, Barclays, Bose, Bridgestone, Campbell’s, FedEx, McDonald’s, Microsoft, Nationwide, Nike, PepsiCo, Ticketmaster, Under Armour, and Visa.
Will these brands take a side in this latest battle of words: President Trump vs the NFL?
Chris Lucas and Preston Brust of the band LOCASH performed at a Pepsi NFL Kickoff event on Sept. 9, 2017 in Leesburg, Virginia. (Getty Images for Pepsi)
Some brands may say something, but don’t expect them to say very much. And don’t expect any to shrink in any way from their relationship with the league.
That’s because, in the words of Wasserman managing partner Elizabeth Lindsey, who works with brands like these on their NFL sponsorships, “Football is football… a phenomenon, a juggernaut… It’ll always continue to garner attention from the marketers, primarily because it garners that much attention from the fans.”
(NFL sponsors, and how they react to NFL scandals, was the topic of Episode 2 of our Yahoo Finance Sportsbook podcast on the business of football, with Lindsey as our special guest. You can listen on iTunes or scroll down to the bottom of this post.)
For past examples, look at how league sponsors responded when the NFL was under fire in 2014 for its handling of the domestic violence case against running back Ray Rice. Many issued statements expressing outrage, but none did more than a delicate PR move.
AB InBev said it was, “disappointed and increasingly concerned by the recent incidents that have overshadowed this NFL season” and was, “not yet satisfied with the league’s handling of behaviors that so clearly go against our own company culture and moral code.” PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi said she was, “deeply disturbed” by “the repugnant behavior of a few players and the NFL’s acknowledged mishandling of these issues.”
Three years later, AB InBev and Pepsi are still proud league sponsors.
For a more current example, look at Under Armour, which has already put out a tweet on Trump’s comments about the player protests. (And Under Armour has dealt with Trump-related PR problems all year.)
That tweet perfectly hedges, attempting to please both the people offended by player protests and the people offended by Trump’s criticisms of the player protests. The company “stands by the flag and by our athletes.” The statement appears to take a strong stand, while actually saying nothing.
In the days to come, as news outlets dissect the fallout, and pro athletes send out tweets, look for NFL sponsors to either do nothing or issue a careful, walking-on-eggshells statement.
But as political issues continued to bleed into sports in 2017 (and into all industries, all corners of American business), soon sponsors may be forced to do more than put out a cautious statement.
And yet blacks were worse off after Obama than before. He didn’t do a damned thing for them, but their minds are closed to explanations.
Maybe they should just start the game with an opening prayer.
“Big brands including Anheuser-Busch InBev, Barclays, Bose, Bridgestone, Campbell’s, FedEx, McDonald’s, Microsoft, Nationwide, Nike, PepsiCo, Ticketmaster, Under Armour, and Visa. “
We know who to boycott now.
Yeah, I know. The likelihood of avoiding what is coming is about the same for football and North Korea.
I’m sure Muslims would go along with that,
providing Allah got equal time. LOL
THE LITTLE BOY NEXT
DOOR HAS BEEN PRACTICING
THE STAR SPANGLED BANNER
FOR THE LAST TWO HOURS
... not sure which way that leans, come to think of it!
Nope, the a-holeness has extended to the game itself: seattle seahag Bennett tackled a white qb last week and then gave the black power fist gesture.
Getting rid of the National Anthem will not solve the nfl’s problem.
I’ve often wondered how much bias could be avoided if we take all the adjectives away from journalists.
ping
This was the final punch the NFL needed. Now as the league defends the disrespectful players and doubles down on Trump attacks look for the ratings to be dismal.
I hope he got an excessive celebration penalty. Or maybe taunting?
So Yahoo is trying to say it is pointless for us to boycott football. Will see about that. Maybe you’ll be next Yahoo.
“The solution is to stop playing the anthem before games.”
Too late for that. We now know what these over paid children think of us. If you support trump, are conservative, and still support this country, you are a racist. A bigot. Your holding these million dollar black men down.
They play the National Anthem at Knotts Berry Farm before they open the gates in the morning. Really neat. Anyone kneals there will get trampled on.
To save time, I’ve already decided I’m racist and a bigot. If this keeps up, and it will, the next step is white supremacist. If you’re going to pay a penalty for something, you might as well get some use out of it. :)
None of the news articles that I checked mention a penalty against that raysisss prick bennett. If the gesture went unpenalized, the nfl must love it long time.
LOL
To save time, I’ve already decided I’m racist and a bigot.
Relax, its not so bad. Using the definition of racist being tossed around these days, most all white people are racists.
Professional football is dying.
Fewer parents are allowing their boys to play because of the fear of injury. Young people are cutting their cables and are less interested in sports.
The NFL giving normal people the finger will only accelerate the decline.
This is Battlestar Galactica weekend on SyFy if you want something to replace football for a while. They’re replaying the whole shebang. And so say we all.
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