What a week! One thing that I can say about Sports PR & Crisis Management is the fact that you will always have a job, because there always seems to be a crisis in athletics! I feel like that I have missed out on some things while I was in South Africa, and one of them has been the multiple “PR Nightmares” in Sports that has been going on.
First, there seems to be another crisis in the Tour de France with multiple athletes being banned from the race due to doping. How is this going to impact the future of the race and the sport of cycling? Is this going to be a yearly ritual for cycling? Another huge sports crisis has been in the NBA, where one official, Tim Donaghy, has been accused of betting on games and point sharing. And there is Michael Vick and dogfighting— yikes!
It seems that everyone in athletics– athletes, coaches, support staff, managers, teams, etc– have a tough road ahead of them. They have to realize that their reputation and image is going to be impacted due to these PR Nightmares. What they have to realize is the fact that this is going to be in the news for a while and a topic of conversation among their friends, family, and the media.
What is sad is the fact there are many athletes out there that are honest, hardworking, law-abiding, and drug free– and it takes a few cases like these that taint these sports.
These people need to be out of athletics and the organizations involved (Tour de France, NBA, and NFL & Falcons) need to take a strong stand and make sure that they send a clear message to these individuals while addressing their fans and other target audiences.
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