I was a Jonathan Dwyer fan.
Loved the way he ran at Georgia Tech. He had some nice moments for my beloved Pittsburgh Steelers. Didn’t love that we let him go, but thought his landing in Arizona was a good place for him and his young family.
Seemed like it until yesterday, when it was Dwyer’s turn to be charged with domestic assault. In a case so terrifying his young wife left the state that should have been the scene of a rebounding career for her husband.
Football is a game of repetition, routine, and preparation. Unfortunately the daily routine in the NFL right now is assault, deny, and ignore. The players signing bonuses are lining the pockets of their defence lawyers, the pursues of their victims they are attempting to silence, and the accounts of the charities they use as image blockers. Given the daily arrests and accusations of its players, it seems that the NFL is proving they like routine.
But it’s not a routine that I like. Or society likes. Or the NFL’s sponsors as we now are hearing from. Can’t imagine it really is a routine the NFL likes.
The good news is that it seems like the sponsors have decided that if the league can’t referee itself, than they will step in. Kudos to the Radisson hotel for suspending it’s sponsorship with the Minnesota Vikings. Nike followed by terminating their deal with Adrian Peterson, as they had done with Ray Rice. Anheuser Busch, Pepsi, and even the Governor of Minnesota fired stern salvos at the league’s braintrust.
Kudos to the sponsorship community for standing up. All too often we see major corporations sit quietly while corruption infiltrates sport at the international level. Bribery, match fixing, unethical behaviour by officials all seem to get ignored due to the power of the marketing opportunity.
The NFL is the marketing conglomerate it is only because of the value of it’s brand. Right now that brand is deflating not only by the day or hour, but by the second. You can only imagine how many lockers that TMZ is digging through right now in a well-founded attempt to turn up some genuine dirty laundry. I am personally willing to bet there is at least a dozen more domestic violence scandals to come.
Sadly the Super Bowl is the number one day for domestic violence in the United States. Today presents an unbelievable marketing opportunity for brands to take a stand. They have started and I can feel that more will jump on board, perhaps even more quickly than they embraced the Ice Bucket Challenge.
Blowing the whistle can’t be a short-term play. Marketers need to ensure the NFL makes wholesale changes that impact society. From now until Super Bowl Sunday and beyond.