Friday, February 1, 2013

Can the NFL Say Aloha to the Super Bowl Bye Week?



Dear NFL,
Drop the bye week prior to Super Bowl Sunday. It's no longer uber hyping the game; it's now just an onslaught of bad press. Players bristling and crybabying over media questions. Allegations of drug abuse, spousal abuse, homophobia, bankruptcy, gambling, game rigging, game throwing, predictions of imminent on field player deaths, dire revelations about life after football, and was it mentioned that several players are crybabying.

The NFL has lost all control of the spin. This past week the NFL was simply spun. The league would be better served letting players tweet because they are being chewed and spat out on media day. Media outlets {who have shown that they have zero interest in the actual game} are too fast and too furious getting out stories of murder, infidelity, and lip syncing. There is not one football related feel good story coming out of New Orleans. Just for the record, NPR reports that advertising for this year's Super Bowl is more Social Media savvy, yet ESPN is reporting that advertisers are rolling out ho hum campaigns. What's this? Are advertisers are creating more pre-game buzz than either of the teams? Yup.

Of course the NFL is a business, an American business. The NFL is a complex corporation that is both the pimp and the pimped. The NFL brand is tied to everything. Everything. The marketing gurus for the NFL are no doubt proud of what they have accomplished; yet it is a cautionary tale. Take note, people are talking more about the commercials already, the biggest sporting event in the world has become a guest star on its own stage.

The NFL has a lot of baggage, yet most likely enjoying this circus, embracing the motto there's no such thing as bad press. Dirty laundry doesn't clean itself; it makes sense that Ray Lewis is the NFL's poster child. The NFL, like Lewis, has things to answer for that it will never give an answer to.

Oh, by the way. Here's a Social media guide to Super Bowl XLVII

Anthony Chiles

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