Forget the House -- Protect this LOGO!

An avoidable PR nightmare - By Barry LeBrock

 

    So, your company just spent a gazillion dollars creating a fabulous partnership with a professional sports franchise.  The holy grail of PR and marketing -- an affiliation with the prestige of the NFL.

    Congratulations!

    Now as you focus on the next deal… and the next… make sure to glance over your shoulder every now and then.  Public Relations is never finished.  When the ink is dry on that sterling new contract, you better keep an eye on the rear view mirror -- even as you focus forward, stepping gently around the many potential landmines of properly promoting someone else's business.

   Case in point: Under Armour's deal with the Baltimore Ravens. 

   It's the Baltimore Ravens. What can go wrong!?!

   Well, umm, this…

                                 

      And suddenly, your brand affiliation goes beyond what you signed up for with the Baltimore Ravens.  Ladies and Gentlemen, this episode of domestic violence has been brought to you by…. Under Armour!  

     It has been said that all publicity is good publicity.  It has also been said that a picture is worth a thousand words.  The intersection of those two adages has the above image screaming "THIS is NOT good publicity."  200 times.  

   

    Under Armour is an amazing company; well run, highly regarded and undoubtedly respected in the incredibly competitive sports gear space. This situation though, was at minimum a wake-up call. At maximum, a huge fuck-up.   The company whose slogan is "Protect This House" might want to shift its focus to "Protect This Logo."  

     How someone from Under Armour PR didn't make a frantic phone call to the the team -- or better yet, drive over to nearby Ravens camp to personally yank down the banner that has forever linked them to a despicable man-on-woman elevator punch, is a big mystery and a bigger mistake.

     The entire point of Public Relations is to make people aware of your client's affiliation with something positive. Something  prestigious. Something  admirable.  Checking those lists, I can tell you for certain, domestic violence is not on them.  

Round Trip TIcket

  I don't believe LeBron James. 

  I don't believe he wrote the essay in which he delivered the news of his decision to go to Cleveland.  I don't believe a lot of what was written in the document either. But you know what?  It doesn't matter.

  He could have said "I'm going back to Cleveland because I love marshmallows and there's no better city in this country for marshmallow eating than Cleveland."

   Fine.  Go ahead. Enjoy Cleveland.  Enjoy your marshmallows. It's a free country.

   LeBron James lived up to his contract with the Miami Heat, and by the rules of the NBA, was entitled to choose where he wanted to play next. Two years from now, he could move on again -- maybe he will choose Phoenix. or Brooklyn.  Or Indiana.  Yeah -- Indiana. I hear some key players in the marshmallow industry are thinking of setting up shop there.

    The essay that LeBron "wrote" did resonate with most of the media-consuming public. Really, who can fault a guy who wants to go back to his home city to make a positive difference while making amends for leaving in the first place?

    Thing is, that letter was too perfect.  It has the unmistakable stink of a publicist, manager, agent and ghost-writer all over it. Having learned the hard way how much reputational damage a poorly executed public decision (or, rather "Decision") can do, the James camp expertly crafted the antithesis of "The Decision" television show.  The disastrous made-for-TV special that LeBron put on in 2010 upon his departure from Cleveland taught those cats a lesson -- a lesson from which they learned and adjusted.

   The Bye-Bye Miami essay checked all the boxes: thought, humility, solid reasoning, appropriateness, grace, appreciation… it was as close to perfect as a letter like it can be. Props to whoever actually wrote it. 

   And the Heat, well, they're left to move forward without the best player on the planet.  For a team that demands nothing less than an NBA title, and fell short with that player … good luck with that.

   The issue I would have if I was a member of the Heat, or even a fan of the Heat is … if the decision was so clear to LeBron, and so heart-felt that it (according to the essay) "is not about a roster and is not about an organization. It is a calling far above just basketball," then why didn't it come sooner?  Why did my team have to spend, err, waste the first 11-days of the free-agent signing period chasing this cat around the country with bags of money in tow?

     The Heat's free-agency plan was to fill in the pieces around LeBron.  They signed Josh McRoberts and Danny Granger, and drafted the James-annointed "best point-guard in college basketball," Shabazz Napier -- in large part to appease LeBron.  Those are some nice pieces to an NBA team puzzle, but they are not quite as attractive without the super-duper star to lead them.  The saving grace of LeBron's departure is that the Heat now have a lot more money to spend on big name free agents.  The flip-side of that argument is, "What big name free agents?"

     In the 11-days that Miami spent chasing LeBron, all the other high-level talent either signed elsewhere, or got so deep in talks with other teams that the Heat are left on the outside looking in.   

     So, round and round the free agency wheel spins.  2010's big winners are 2014's big losers and vice versa -- all because of the whim of the best player in basketball.  Surprise, surprise... turns out that Cleveland-Miami trip LeBron booked four years ago was actually a round-trip ticket.

"Man Up?" Try Shutting Up.

 

At what point in our history did it become acceptable to bash people publicly for virtually reason -- or even no reason?  Actually, forget acceptable. In 2014, it has become almost mandatory. In the quest to be noticed -- in the fight for readership, reaction and response, perhaps it is just easier to bang out 100 vitriolic characters of venom than it is to craft 100 insightful sentences of something meaningful.

 

Isn't that the American way?  Easier instead of better?  Anything to make noise that rises above all the … noise.

 

Why is it that the opinion of a 280 pound couch potato with a bag of Cheetos in one hand and a smart phone in the other, holds any weight at all?  And since when does having a forum translate into actually having something to say?

 

Social media went into full flogging mode Thursday night during game-1 of the NBA Finals when LeBron James cramped up so badly that he had to be carried from the court. "Man up!" was the sentiment most often expressed on Twitter.  Sure, some of it was kind of humorous…

                               

And some of it was just an opportunistic way for businesses to get noticed…

                             

 

  But most of it?  Most of it was just mean-spirited nonsense…

 

 Even Jonathan Martin weighed in.  You remember him, right? He's the former Dolphins lineman who left the team, in part because he couldn't handle the verbal taunts of some of his teammates.  Amazingly, Martin tweeted at LeBron, "Bruh, drink some Gatorade and get back in there!"

 

Essentially, "Man up."

 

Muscle cramps are debilitating. Short-lived, perhaps, but debilitating none-the-less. Telling somebody who's having cramps to "Man up and get back in there" makes as much sense as heckling a paraplegic in a wheel chair. "Stand up, ya bum!"

 

Let's all take a step back. Let's all pause a moment for some perspective. And let's all ease up on each other a bit.  Cramps can be a bitch… but so can karma!   




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NBA - Sterling / Silver - Save the Precious Mettle

Barry LeBrock

(An edited version of this story appears on FoxSports.Com)

Never before has an issue so widely debated been so inevitable in its outcome. As a nation's eyes turn to Adam Silver, the new NBA commissioner can simply sit back and do nothing. This thing has already been decided. The league's Donald Sterling problem; a situation that seems to have a hundred possible resolutions actually has just one and it will end up taking care of itself. 

Sterling lives in a world where money rules. Yes, we all do to an extent, but this is a man whose exorbitant wealth has allowed him to bypass many basic human decencies on his way to a life of excess and power. Notably stingy for the first 90% of his Clippers ownership, it is only in the past few years that he has been willing to peel some bills off the top of his formidable stack to put a competitive team on the floor. And now it is the almighty buck that will ultimately be his undoing. 

Sterling's recent egregious racist comments blew up over the weekend. Clippers business partners started bailing the moment America opened for business Monday morning. CarMax, Kia Motors, Red Bull, Virgin Airlines... the list goes on and on. They're all gone. The companies either cut ties immediately or suspended their financial support of the Clippers until an investigation determines that the facts in question are indeed, facts without question.

With the businesses checking out, Sterling loses the precious revenue stream of in-arena advertising. TV sponsors are in the starting blocks, knuckles down, and will be bolting as well. So many sponsors will leave that any who dare stay will seem as though they are advocating Sterling's views. Guilt by association. Customer boycotts will eventually send any stragglers scurrying as well. 

Every single sponsor will be gone. TV and radio networks will follow the money right out the door. Then the players will go. Black, white or other, current Clippers whose contracts expire will leave. Free-agents will double over in laughter at the mere suggestion that the Clippers want to make an offer. The team will be completely non-competitive, if in fact it can even drum up five guys to put on the court. 

And finally, in a beautiful irony, it will be the little guy that drives the final dagger into the heart of the big, mean, racist monster. Clippers fans -- the ones who have spent their hard-earned and precious dollars to support this team and its owner over the years will stay away. The same way Dodger fans withheld support during the recent Frank McCourt ownership debacle, Clipper fans will spend their entertainment dollars elsewhere. This is, after all, Los Angeles. There's plenty else to do and see.

How fitting that after accumulating his great wealth through decades of monthly rent checks, ticket sales, pricey concession-stand beers and in-arena advertising, it is now the very people who have enabled him who will stop the Sterling gravy train dead in its tracks. 

This game is over. Team for sale. No need for Adam Silver to flex any muscle or waste any breath.  Of course he will though. He'll come down hard. What does he have to lose?  Being against racism is like being in favor of Thanksgiving.  Its a one-way debate.

Be that as it may, the situation will take care of itself, much the same way that athletes police the fields or courts on which they play. Unwritten rules have been broken. The code has been dismissed. Donald Sterling is finished as an NBA owner.  No sponsors, no broadcast networks. No players, no fans. No chance for this to play out any other way. 



Views: 1,743 

Circle Game; Colorado's LaTroy Hawkins Rounds Out an Unlikely Career

Barry LeBrock

(An edited version of this article appears on FoxSports.Com)

In the most angular of sports, contested between the sharp, fixed points of an uncompromising diamond, it is the sweet curvature of a perfect circle in which the unlikely career of Rockies reliever LaTroy Hawkins has played out.

In the lonely, dirt-encrusted 18-feet of diameter that is the Major League pitcher's mound, the oldest player in the National League starts a year of raw round numbers; he is on his 10th team and playing in his 20th big league season. On and on his career spins in the perfect arc of seasoned veteran know-how.

Unlike fellow 20-year veteran, Derek Jeter, for the 41 year-old Hawkins, Cooperstown does not await.  Make no mistake about that. A record of 68-90 and a lifetime ERA of 4.37 has him on the Hall of Fame's "must purchase ticket for entry" list, but he has built a career of impact and influence none-the-less.  "The guys in this clubhouse , we see how valuable Hawk is," manager Walt Weiss insisted Wednesday before the Rockies third game of this young season. " He's a special guy.  He's got a gift to lead. It's real. It's authentic.  He's built up so much respect in this game. He's had a tremendous impact on our club already and he hasn't even made an appearance yet." 

A few hours later, he did make an appearance. And racked-up the102nd save of a career that was nearly derailed almost before it started.

Hawkins made his Major League debut in 1995, but his visions of grandeur and success dissolved like sugar into what quickly became the cliché of a big league cup of coffee. After just three appearances and an ERA of 13.50, he was sent to the minors.  During the all-star break that summer, he was visiting his hometown of Gary, Indiana, contemplating a new direction.

"I was frustrated with baseball. I went home and I was like, man, I don't know if I want to keep doing this. Then one day I was hanging out with some buddies and my friend's brother asked if he could borrow $2.  I said to myself, 'borrow two dollars!?!'  and it got me to thinking, my check is $1400 every two weeks -- 2800 a month -- and I was like, man, I'm going back to baseball!"

And, twenty seasons later, here he is, plugging away, saving games and taking care of the younger kids the way the late, great Kirby Puckett once did for him, buying him suits for road-trips and allowing the rookie to focus on baseball.  "I didn't have to worry about anything -- rent, food, nothin'.  And when I thanked Kirby, he'd always say 'T-Hawk, just take care of the next person.'"

Round and round it goes. The circle of life in sports' most linear game. "The first time I made a million dollars," he says, "I started taking care of other guys.  I think the first suit I bought was for (future Cy Young winner) Johan Santana..." Paying it forward, just like Puckett had requested.

In baseball's version of Six Degrees of Separation, Hawkins' bloodlines run deep and impressive.  He has a common teammate with Pete Rose (Carl Willis, who played on the 1985 Reds with Rose and the '95 Twins with Hawkins), and is only two degrees removed from the likes of Roberto Clemente and Hank Aaron.  He was also traded once upon a time for the very first player listed alphabetically in Major League history (David Aardsma).   Longevity does have its quirks.

 Here's another one: despite all the years of service, LaTroy Hawkins has not won a World Series. A four-game sweep of his Rockies at the hands of the Red Sox in 2007 was the closest he's come.  "That's always the carrot that guys will chase," he says, "but not everybody is that lucky, that fortunate.  I've been fortunate. I've played on some good teams, but we came up short. What more can I ask for?  I wouldn't change a thing."

The career paths of those who came before him tell him the end is near, but Hawkins insists he will keep playing "as long as I can get guys out." And round and round it goes. The helped becomes a helper. The rookie becomes a veteran. The kid becomes a man. A scared youngster walks hesitantly into a major league clubhouse in faded Levi's and strolls out confidently a couple of decades later, a grown man sporting Armani.  It's the circle of baseball, and it seems to fit perfectly on LaTroy Hawkins.  



Views: 948

Sunday Smack - Patrick Reed's Verbal Warning Shot to the PGA Tour

Barry LeBrock

(An edited version of this article appears on FoxSports.Com)

All that was missing from Patrick Reed's televised post-tournament interview Sunday was the WWE Heavyweight Championship belt slung over his shoulder, and a strategically placed opponent writhing in pain in the background.

Reed's impressive triumph at the WGC Cadillac Championship was capped off with a verbal rampage that was far more Hulk Hogan than Ben Hogan: a grandiloquent cherry on top of a sweet and well-earned Sunday sundae.

The newly-minted youngest champion in WGC history had just ripped through the best PGA field assembled this year to his third professional win and second of this young season.  The man is on a roll.  He is the only player on the planet to pull off the hat-trick of playing his way into the top-20 of the world rankings, finish in the top-20 of last season's money list and win three events since the start of 2013.

Reed's lofty degree of early-career success is a case that, to some extent makes itself. But just in case people hadn't noticed his dizzying ascent, he matter-of-factly spread the gospel of Patrick to the nation moments after sinking his tournament-clinching putt on 18.

Interviewer Steve Sands asked the 23 year-old Reed about comments the golfer made Saturday, expressing his belief that he is amongst the top five players in the world.

"I've worked so hard," the Reed soliloquy began. "I won a lot in my junior career. I did great in my amateur career. I went 6-0 in match play in NCAAs, we won NCAAs (at Augusta State) two years in a row... Now, I have three wins on the PGA Tour. I just don't see a lot of guys who've done that, besides Tiger and the other legends of the game. I believe in myself. I feel like I'm one of the top five players in the world. I feel like I've proven myself."

Whoa!  Echoes of Bobby Jones, right?

The comments spit in the face of the established and accepted norm in golf.  But take a look around.  What outdated, unwritten rules from so many years past remain pristine and untarnished?  You don't have to stop tweeting and look at the world through your Google Glasses to see things are changing faster than anybody can quantify.

Football players can't lead with their helmets. Basketball players are wearing jerseys with sleeves. A handful of baseball players aren't even on steroids anymore.  Things change, people. Everything eventually does. And in this second decade of the 21st century, communication is at the top of the list. If you disagree, write me a letter. When the mailman delivers it, I will call you to discuss. After 5pm of course, when the long-distance rates go down.

Given the evolving nature of communication, who says a little smack talk backed up by performance has no place in golf?  What were you hoping for, perhaps "There are so many great players out here I was fortunate to come out on top this week"?  Yuck.

You can keep your staid and rehearsed answers that we've heard a thousand times after a hundred final-round victories. Give me a secure, confident kid; bolstered by the muscular magic mix of youth and success, his sun-kissed cheeks as red as his Tiger-inspired final-round shirt. Give me the young gun, too green to have yet been gut-punched by professional golf's grand lesson of humility, joyously spewing bullet-points from the resume of his past, all too certain of his continuing success and grandiose plans for the future.

Even the most gentlemanly of golf's old guard can see some beauty in the beast of Reed's self aggrandizing answer. Through his media liaison, I asked Gary Player about the comments. "Frankly, I quite liked Patrick Reed's candor, his self-belief and obvious confidence," the legendary Player responded. "To me it's not really whether he is Top 5, but rather that he thinks and believes he is. You cannot be a champion if you don't believe totally in yourself and your ability."

Doral was a place for Patrick Reed to celebrate. You'll have to forgive the premature anointing of his own greatness as he joined just four others who have won three tour events by age 23. It probably didn't help derail his myopic big-picture perspective that the dream foursome he joins is made up of Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, Phil Mickelson and Sergio Garcia.

Reed says he didn't even realize his comments made a stir until the day after the tournament. He insists he has no regrets about the interview, but with the benefit of retrospect said Wednesday, "I believe if I keep playing the way I've been playing and putting in the hard work then I will become a top-5 player in the world. That's my next goal and I believe I can be a top-5 player."

He came into this season with the goal of cracking the top-25 in the world rankings by the end of the year. After his recent victory, he checks in at #20. That goal, naturally, has been tweaked. "Now I'm looking for the top-10 or the top-5."  

So, go ahead and gush over your Joe Whatshisname and his scripted run-of-the mill humble Sunday soft talk. Give me Patrick Reed and his truth-saying, star-slaying, gauntlet-laying swagger. You can call it cocky. I call it refreshing.

Remember -- it's March. The Masters is still a month away, Tiger's back has comprimised an already teetering game, Phil is floundering, and Sergio, Rory and Adam Scott finished a combined 14 over par at Doral. This sport desperately needs a good story, and right now, Patrick Reed is it.  Man, oh man, Patrick Reed is it.

Time to choose your Hogan. I'll take Hulk. You've got Ben. Best 2 out of 3 falls. May the boldest man win.



Views: 2,281

A Victorious Loss

Barry LeBrock

      Every once in a while you will hear a story that completely blows apart a long-held belief; the complete opposite of everything you've ever thought on a subject.

     The opposite is also true; occasionally you'll come across some information that solidifies what you already thought.  I had one of those moments Monday night while watching NFL Network's excellent series "A Football Life." 

    The Focus was Don Shula.   

     Growing up in Miami, Don Shula might as well have been the King. Or God.  He  was a man that seemingly had the whole world's respect. He did not demand it, he simply commanded it by his actions, his successes and the sheer force of his persona. 

     I was watching the show not to learn something new -- what could anyone say about the NFL's all-time winningest coach that I didn't already know? -- but because A) I am Jonesing for football, and B) It was on Don Freakin' Shula.  What was I gonna do instead, help my kid with his homework!?!  But I did learn something new. Something that reinforced, and even advanced every opinion I have ever had about the man.   

    The revelation came from right under the oft-broken nose of one of the all-time great Dolphins, Larry Csonka.  The former running back told the story of a trip the Dolphins made to Oakland to play the Raiders in the early 70's  (my research shows the game he likely referred to was played on September 23, 1973).  Now, you have to remember; the NFL was not the well-oiled, ultra-efficient league back then, that it is today, so when the Dolphins arrived at the stadium for their Saturday walk-through, they were shown  not to the visitors' locker room, but to the Raiders locker room.   

    Csonka remembered, "I'm using a locker that belongs to one of the Raiders.  I open it... and there's the game plan. The game plan! There's what they're going to do to try to defeat us tomorrow!

     Our offensive line coach, Monte Clark is walking by and I say, 'Hey Monte, look at this!'"  

 

       The next day, the Dolphins lost the first of only two games they'd drop all season; a 12-7 defensive battle in which 46 year-old George Blanda accounted for all of the Raiders scoring offense with four field goals.

     Back in Miami to prep for the following week's game against New England, Csonka encountered Clark again, wondering how his team could have lost to Oakland despite having the Raiders game plan.  Clark responded, saying when he told Shula about the find, he was instructed to throw it in the garbage.

     "That is Shula," says Csonka. "He said, 'Throw it away.' Because when you have [the other team's] stuff, and you use it, that's cheating. Shula won't cheat." 

 

    Long story short, after their return from Oakland, the '73 Dolphins went on to reel off fourteen wins in their next fifteen games including a 27-10 AFC Conference Championship victory in Miami over those same Raiders.   Two weeks later, the Dolphins hammered the Vikings 24-7 to win Super Bowl VIII.   

 

     A season that will be remembered by most for the Dolphins dominance, will be remembered by the precious few who know the truth behind that week-2 loss, for the uncompromising principals and quiet integrity displayed by one of the greatest coaches in the history of sports. 







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