Peyton's SNL Performance

Last night, Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning hosted Saturday Night Live. After years of being entertained by his commercials, I was excited to see what he could do in front of a live audience. For someone who is not an actor by trade, he did pretty well. One of his funniest performances was in a mock commercial that spoofed the National Football League's United Way commercials, in which NFL stars are seen helping out in the community. In the SNL parody, Manning plays a game of football with a group of young kids. The comedy ensues as he verbally berates the children for not playing well enough and his passes knock the kids to the ground. He goes on to teach the kids "lessons" such as how to break into a car, and he hires a tattoo artist to tattoo his own face onto a young boy's leg. The skit was hilarious, but did the comedy come with a price? Manning is widely regarded as one of the NFL's "golden boys," a great role model and an ambassador for the league. The performance obviously was in jest, but the sight of Manning harassing children still might not sit well with some members of the public. These people might stop buying into Manning's squeaky-clean image. If I was Manning's publicist or one of the Colts' PR people, I would have been just a little bit nervous about this performance. You never know when an audience is going to take something too seriously.

Social Networking and Sports

The past few years have seen a dramatic increase in the popularity of social networking Web sites, such as facebook and MySpace. Sports organizations apparently took notice and have begun to create their own networks for fans. The National Basketball Association has developed Fan Voice (http://www.nba.com/fanvoice/index.html), which allows basketball fans to connect with each other. The league's Portland Trail Blazers have created their own site (http://iamatrailblazersfan.com/). As more and more people become engrossed in online social networking, these sites only will increase in number. By giving fans the chance to interact with each other and to feel that they truly are part of a community, organizations can generate positive feelings among their target audiences. One of the best things about this PR tactic is its low cost; Web sites can get messages across without eating up organizations' advertising budgets. Sports fans should jump at the chance to interact with their fellow die-hards, and this PR trend should continue for a long time.

Distancing Yourself From Controversy

The National Basketball Association made the right moves following Tim Hardaway's recent anti-gay rants. This situation could have been disastrous for the NBA (for Hardaway, it already has been), but instead the league handled things calmly and smoothly. Once media outlets began reporting on Hardaway's comments, the league removed the former player from his scheduled All-Star Weekend appearances and all but disavowed his association with the NBA. John Amaechi's decision to come out could prove to be a very positive thing for the NBA, but that only will happen if the league can convince the public that it is OK with homosexuality and that homophobia is not as big of a problem in the NBA as Hardaway's comments would lead people to believe. The league could take steps to make itself more appealing to the gay community. For example, heterosexual players publicly could state their support for gay rights and for gay teammates. When dealing with such an important issue, the one thing that the league has to be sure of is that it is not promoting or disseminating hate. Hardaway found this out the hard way.

Welcome!

Hello there, everyone! I am new to this whole blogging thing, but I hope to get the hang of it soon. So here's the scoop: I am a senior at the University of Georgia majoring in public relations. I am in my final semester, with only a few months left until graduation (assuming that all goes according to plan). As part of my PR campaigns class, I must maintain a PR-related blog over the course of the semester. If you enjoy sports or sports PR, then you might have come to the right place, because that is what my blog will cover. I plan to discuss my thoughts on the latest happenings in the industry as well as my plans to participate in said industry following my graduation. I will be back soon with my opinions concerning the current state of sports PR.