Social Listening Post-NFL

The brand I chose was the NFL, or the National Football League. The NFL in recent times has been under some heat for allegations regarding multiple topics related to players in the league this offseason. The most prevalent of recent allegations has to do with quarterback, Deshaun Watson, who was accused of 22 sexual assault allegations. Many fans and outsiders aren't particularly happy with how the NFL dealt with one of their top quarterbacks and players in the league, many believed he received lesser punishment due to his status and skill within the league, receiving an 11 game suspension for the 2022 season(NFL seasons are 17 games long, 21 including playoffs). I chose the NFL being that the NFL is by far the most successful American sport of the modern era, and is the league and sport I am most interested in personally.

The NFL's value proposition is rather ironic to me, aside from striving for a high quality of play on the field which is sort of a given when it comes to professional sports, they often push many progressive social programs about inclusivity and respect and equality for all. All of this is a very reasonable proposition for a company, what's ironic is that many of their most popular and best players over the years have been charged with sexual assault, domestic violence, documented racist language, etc.

A common complaint you see is the inconsistency of suspensions in the NFL, in this post by former NFL offensive lineman, Rich Ohrnberger, he refers to the outrageous inconsistency after a suspension for wide receiver, Calvin Ridley, received for betting on his team to win a game they were playing during the 2022 season. Ridley received an entire season suspension for betting on his own team to win a game, while Watson had 22 sexual assault allegations that lead to roughly 2/3 of an NFL season not including playoffs.

Another woman obviously not thrilled with the Watson situation, portraying how she felt about another fan defending the NFL and Watson for the sexual assault allegations.

Here we have two users ragging on the NFL and the Cleveland Browns(the team Watson plays for) for even considering allowing Watson to play ever again in the league.

The NFL is constantly promoting itself across any and all social media platforms, they post videos of extreme athletic feats from players within the league during their games, while fairly often incorporating posts promoting social justice campaigns(Black Lives Matter, Civil Rights Corps, Art Rooney they created, etc. The NFL tends to post more about these matters during the months dedicated to these programs, so they aren't necessarily consistent with it, but they do post often enough where you know that is something they seem to care about.

The NFL is a juggernaut in sports media, during the season they completely dominate the air waves in the United States, many people simply can't get enough of it. The NFL utilizes earned media like none other, they use any social media or TV they can get their hands on to post highlights of awesome plays throughout the season, and their fans(including me:) ) repost the content everywhere, along with former players who continue to promote the game through their podcasts and social media as well. The NFL is constantly telling a story as well, during games they always have they crazy stats from all the way back in the 70's, not to mention the Football Hall of Fame that is just full of information from the dawn of football essentially. I think the biggest marketing issue challenge for the league is coaches, players, and owners being on the bad side of legal issues, and with the amount of players and people within the NFL, it's nearly impossible to complete nullify all illegal actions that occur. 

Here we have former players, Pat Mcafee and AJ Hawk, on the Pat Mcafee Show promoting one of the biggest games of the season.

The NFL in general tends to sweep very large issues under the rug, usually the person that is in trouble tends to receive a slap on the wrist and sort of just isn't talked about again. I will say the league tends to listen to the fans and give them what they want in terms of prime time games and matchups they want to see. Generally, I think it is a good idea to try and keep these issues hush hush for the NFL, by no means am I saying its ethical or correct, but as a multi billion dollar corporation, they don't want bad PR.

If I was the NFL, I would have made a similar decision that they made, they did have an intendent evaluator that looked over the case and actually only recommended a 6 game suspension, in which the NFL chose 11. Personally, I would have at the minimum done a full season suspension at the minimum, simply due to the fact that the previous player mentioned, Calvin Ridley, got a greater suspension for something much less egregious in my opinion.

The power of social media can never go unnoticed, being able to manipulate what the public thinks of your company is essential to the success of your company. Overall, the NFL does have great relations with their fan base, and understand how to market it, they could act on some legal instances better in my opinion, but overall do a fantastic job of displaying their product.