After all the tests are run and all of the numbers are crunched the teams need to make the crucial decisions of what players will benefit their team, which player will make them a champion. Any football guy can tell you that it takes much more than just shear talent to be a successful NFL player and it takes much more than 53 incredible athletes to win a Super Bowl. It is integral that these players are also good people, hard workers, and great teammates with superior learning ability and leadership qualities. The winning teams in the league establish and maintain their winning identity because they draft high character individuals who gel well with coaches and provide an enjoyable presence in the locker room.
Agents and publicists know all of this. They all know that these types of individuals are exactly what teams are looking for and they intensely media train their clients to be able to express the right image to these teams. Most of what these teams see of these players is solely on television. At the Combine players are only allowed to visit with each team for 15 minutes total. In this brief time it is easy to establish yourself as a high quality individual, but these teams aren't meeting with these players to see how good they are, they are meeting with them in order to see if they aren't the type of individual they want in their locker room. With that said, as easy as it is impress, it is even easier to say something to totally scare teams away.
These organizations are playing with large amounts of house money. The last thing they want to do is hand out millions of dollars to a 21 year old kid who will make bad decisions, surround himself with the wrong people, lose focus on the game, and be a bad teammate. Any rumor or inclination that these prospects will prove to be inadequate people can drop his draft stock, drop his selection number, which in turn will potentially cost him millions if not tens of millions of dollars. A team will risk league minimum on a freakish athlete with questionable character but they will not invest in a guaranteed 20 million dollar contract in a player who will prove to be a cancer to the organization.
Regardless of how these young men act in their personal lives, their agents are thoroughly training them to say the right things and exhibit the right image in the public forum that will make them attractive to an NFL franchise. It is so easy to scare a team off from taking you. For example, during an interview top prospect Cameron Newton revealed that he not only wants to be a football player but also "an entertainer and an icon". Bad news.
Within minutes these comments, which taken out of context, hit the internet. Only a brief comment such as that can make a player look like a man who will not care enough about the game of football to focus all of his energy on winning. It comes off like he is a guy that will make poor decisions once he is rich and famous and propel his stardom amongst football circles to become a star amongst celebrity circles. This comment, paired with other many off-the-field issues for Mr. Newton, could prove to make him drop down drastically in the draft and cost him (and his agent) millions of dollars. These agents know that every word is as heavily examined as every physical test they perform atb the combine. A quality media trainer, especially for a player who needs to already shake a bad image, is just as important to a prospect as is their personal trainer.
Interesting! I would have never put together the need for a publicist with a recruit so early in the football process...by the time they have the million-dollar contracts? Yes, absolutely. But not before they are even drafted (if he is drafted).
ReplyDeleteGranted, nowadays with social media, coaches and the NFL can go an find everything about their potential draft candidate on the Internet; so it is doubly important that the college players take into consideration any predisposed image before further undergoing interrogation. Newton said only a few words and that all, but ruined his chances...sometimes in the field of PR, that is all it takes.
I also respond well to your point subtle comparison between coaches/NFL teams and the media. In this case, they overlap and form the one niche audience the players need to communicate their message to. In terms of image and presentation, a football player only needs to cater to one audience (albeit, an important audience).
Excuse my lack of knowledge on this topic, but at what point do, what I'm assuming are, college athletes hire agents and publicists in preparation for the draft?
ReplyDeleteIt's good that they realize the importance how putting out a professional image to the teams they want to play for, but are the publicists simply media training them for the interviews or are they getting the ones who need it tutorial for the intelligence quizzes or are the intelligence quizzes not all that intellectual? I have so many questions!
I think that if players don't have a professional image and act appropriately then their teams suffer majorly. Remember there is no I in team.
ReplyDeleteNice blog post! Very interesting! It only seems obvious that these young kids going into sports need to have someone showing them the ropes. They need media training and image consulting. They also need a team of people that have their best interest at heart.
ReplyDeleteThis blog definitely recreates every boy that thought they were amazing at a sport when I was in high school. The cockiness that some portrayed would at most times leave me wanting to vomit and never take them seriously so I can totally understand why a coach would turn their heads. Being a professional athlete is no joke. There's tons of perks that come with being famous, but we've seen and heard many athletes that abusive their privileges. I guess I never really thought about most of them being media trained, but I now can correlate the two and how important it is to be media trained. Saying one wrong thing and costing yourself millions makes me cringe.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed this post because I never knew of this process. As Alex mentioned, it is very interesting that they have publicists that early in the game. It makes perfect sense though because of how much is at stake.
ReplyDeleteThat's interesting. It's something that I wouldn't really think about, but makes a lot of sense now that it's laid out in front of me. It's hard for me to imagine the pressure that comes with having that much riding our your reputation and personality. It must be even harder from a PR perspective, trying to keep your client under control and performing at the top of their game. It makes me appreciate the relatively less stressful job hunt I have to go through, at least I know millions of dollars aren't dependent on my interview.
ReplyDeleteThis was a very interesting post to read and I learned a lot from it. Just like it said it is very important to know what you are saying to the public and what gets out. You do not want to make yourself look like a certain image that you are not. Sports is one aspect that really has to take this seriously. Just look at Tiger Woods his actions that he caused has now made him look at as not a athlete anymore but a cheater to his wife. The challenge is getting the image that you had before back and showing that he is a great athlete and is not all about women. It’s the PR professionals job to help them know what they do or say can affect there image. It’s all about media training. The more the agent or publicist explain to there client what to say or act like the better off they will seem to the public!
ReplyDeleteI just thought sports publicists helped with already established athletes with professional contracts. It is really interesting to learn a different side of it. Great post dan!
ReplyDeleteThe combine is a joke. There have been many NFL players who have performed on a sub-par level who have excelled, and vice versa. The combine has just turned into a PR opportunity for the league to hype up the draft for the next month.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Briana's comment. young atheletes can be innocent, therefore not understand how their actions can effect them. Publicists need to guide them in making the right decisions in the media spotlight. Sometimes players dont realize the decisions they make off the field can effect them ever getting back on the field.
ReplyDeleteThis is really interesting. I never thought about the fact that new players and recruits would need agents too. Now that I see it from that side though, it totally makes sense they need just as much publicity help as the established players.
ReplyDeleteI personally beleive that PR is slowly going to play a bigger and bigger role in Sports because of issues like these. Athletes are under the public scope more then politicians in some cases. One wrong move and their reputation and salaries may be on the line. In situations where there is no room for erro you need PR professionals who are excellent at crisis management. Anywhere an athlete goes there is a camera rolling, a fan watching, or media recording. They need to be better prepared and teh best way is having a publicist who knows social media and knows how to handle a crisis big or small.
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