Fast Company recently asked me to look into an issue that is near-and-dear to my heart: have the off-the-field antics of loonies like Mike Vick and Pacman Jones given the NFL a black eye?
You tell me, have the off-the-field drug and violence incidents dampened your enthusiasm for the 2007 NFL campaign?
I didn't think so, especially if you happen to be a Patriots fan.
The Eagles efforts this year have, however, forced me to turn off the television...or at least change the channel to Top Gear.
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How the NFL and its corporate partners have been able to avoid apermanent black eye despite persistent drug and violence problems.
Last February,140 million people tuned in to watch the Indianapolis Colts defeat theChicago Bears in Super Bowl XLI. It was the third most-watched programever (behind only the MASH finale and Super Bowl XXX) and theculmination of a season in which 222 million unique viewers flippedtheir television dial to an NFL game. The league also set a high markin attendance, with more than 18 million tickets sold. Once again, theNFL could enter the off-season knowing it was the sporting world's topbusiness, with more than $6 billion in revenue.
Then came the off-season and a handful of troublemakers who decidedto "make it rain" on the NFL's parade. The league's postseason all-stargame, the Pro Bowl, ended up being noteworthy for the chatter aboutwhether steroid offenders such as San Diego Charger star linebackerShawne Merriman should be allowed to play. Less than two weeks later,Tennessee Titan cornerback Adam "Pacman" Jones allegedly instigated amelee and shooting at a Las Vegas strip club, which left a bouncerparalyzed. Jones had brought $81,000 in a garbage bag and showered some40 dancers in dollar bills (known as "making it rain") and then wantedthe money back. His repeated run-ins with police got him suspended forthe 2007 season. Esteemed NFL alumni, including Mike Ditka, delivered ablack eye of a different sort in June, when they testified beforeCongress that the league hasn't provided enough benefits to formerplayers suffering from multiple injuries, dementia, and homelessness.Oh, and let's not forget Michael Vick's submission to federal dogfighting charges.
If any one of these events happened inside almost any otherbusiness, clients would be fleeing--or at least threatening to--andshareholder lawsuits would be flying. Rival sports leagues have hadboth their popularity and their effectiveness as a marketing platformfor corporate partners tarnished by one player (think Barry Bonds orKobe Bryant). Yet the NFL sloughs off scandal as smoothly as PeytonManning picks apart defenses. This remarkable resilience is a testamentto its powers of crisis and brand management, as well as aninterlocking series of corporate relationships as fierce as any defense.
The NFL's corporate partners are the crème de la crème of Americanmarketers, including Pepsi, Sprint, and Visa. Theleague has made membership all the more alluring in the last couple ofyears by shrinking the number of official sponsors from 40 to about 20,and the number of licensees from 450 to less than 100. "The combinedtotal of spending by our sponsors through rights fees, marketing, andadvertising is $1 billion annually," says NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy.Most of that money goes to the league's television partners CBS, ESPN,Fox, NBC, and the NFL Network. Companies without official sponsorships,such as Anheuser-Busch, still find a way in, making dealswith teams or players. (See "The Money Game.")
If companies with marketing arrangements with the league havedeep-seated concerns about the players' on- and off-field woes, theyare as tight-lipped as Bill Belichick. "I don't think enough inspiringstories come out about the players," says Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank.(He may be a tad biased, considering the NFL owns an equity 
stake inUnder Armour, which is an official league supplier offootwear.) "The NFL has been very proactive in letting us know whathappened in each situation and what they are doing about it," says AndyAllmann, director of promotions and sports marketing for SouthwestAirlines. "If we thought it was an epidemic, we wouldn't be partners."
The NFL and in particular second-year commissioner Roger Goodellhave received near-unanimous praise for the personal-conduct policythat was enacted in April. Created in concert with the PlayersAssociation, the new get-tough rules provided the framework for thesuspensions of Jones and others, even when the legal system has yet torun its course. That's precisely the point of the policy. It's aboutmore than just protecting the NFL brand and its sponsors. It protectsfootball's status as a team sport, rather than a loose group oftroublemaking individuals. The NFL's McCarthy says that the leaguedefinitely took a hit on the Vick matter. (Commissioner 
Goodelldeclined our interview request.) But given the league's response andNike's and Reebok's faster-than-you-can-say-PETA actions dumping him,the publicity quickly became about a single player, not the AtlantaFalcons and certainly not the NFL as a whole. "Individual players don'tseem to be a disability to the brand," says Stephen A. Greyser, HarvardBusiness School professor in sports management.
At a time when 2 million more women watched the Super Bowl than theOscars, and when the April release of the 2007 NFL schedule warrantedlive coverage and analysis on ESPN, a few knuckleheads can't dimfootball's appeal. Weekend tailgates, backyard barbecues, and the $269DirectTV "Sunday Ticket" package help make every game a mini event. Theuniversal appeal of stylized violence crosses red and blue state lines,from northeastern cities to Texas towns.
Southwest's Allmann admits that there is a theoretical tipping pointat which the NFL's popularity wanes, but he doesn't see it yet.(Apparently, the arrest of 10 Cincinnati Bengals within 14 months isn'tit.) Carl Banks, the former All-Pro linebacker who hosts a footballradio show on Sirius and is president of sports licensing forteam-outerwear maker G-III Apparel, is more cautious. "NFL fans have adeep emotional attachment," he says, "but if they feel betrayed, theywill find something else to do." Yet even this naysayer knows the powerof entertainment. "Right now, I think the only thing that could hurtthe NFL is an inability to provide a quality product."
For now, that's the NBA's problem.
(Photograph by Matt Hoyle.)
(Fast Company, October 2007)
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