This past week, there seems to be a lot of sports stories in the media. Some are focusing on the start of the Beijing Olympics. It’s been really neat to see the advertisements that have featured some of the primary landmarks in Beijing (ex. Great Wall, Forbidden City, Summer Palace), and be like– hey, I was there! 🙂 I lived it! 🙂 But there have been many stories that have been what I consider to be PR Nightmares in athletics. Here are two that I have been following in the news:
Brett Favre back with the Green Bay Packers: The dilemma between the Packers and Favre has been going back and forth over the past couple of weeks due to the fact that Favre was talking about making a comeback in football, but not with the Packers. However, it seems that the Packers are going to allow Favre to come back and be placed on their active roster. But the question is– what kind of message is this saying to the athletic community? Personally, I think that Favre should have retired and walked away as an athlete– he had a great reputation with the athletic community, the Green Bay Packers fans adored him, and he was an example of an athlete with good PR. Now, people may only remember him as the athlete that caused this issue, and there may be people that will not forget it. Athletes need to realize when it is time to say, that was fun– and be ready to move on to the next chapter of their lives.
Doping violations rock various sports: As the beginning of the Olympics inches closer, there are more doping violations that are coming out in the press. First, swimming had a few athletes that tested positive and are facing bans from the sport. Then the Russians were cast in the spotlight recently for having seven female athletes in track and field suspected for tampering with their drug samples. Plus, this week the International Olympic Committee (IOC) took away the gold medals from the USA’s 4×400 relay because Antonio Pettigrew admitted that he was using performance enhancing drugs during that period of time.
So what are the common themes between these two cases? First, both are having to deal with issues of reputation management and corporate assocations. Favre’s actions and behavior are affecting his overall image, his relationship with the Green Bay Packers, and how people perceive him as an athlete and role model. Before this incident, Favre was viewed very positively and had a great send off when he announced he was going to retire from football. Now, it will be interesting to see how people react to him being back, and whether he has established enough social capital with his fans and other audiences to make a “comeback.”
The issue with the doping violations in swimming and track and field are not only impacting the way people perceive the athletes, but the sports in general. People are starting to look at these individual performances in a different light and ask themselves– gee, are these performances due to the fact that these athletes work hard and are talented, or are they “real?” The perception of both the sports and athletes has been dramatically impacted due to the negative associations of being linked to these doping allegations. Athletics has an uphill battle to fight– they have to reestablish their credibility as a clean activity, plus gain the trust from their various target audiences. It is going to take time and commitment to accomplish both of these tasks.
Hope you all are having a great day!
Best Wishes,
Karen 🙂
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