A prominent NFL player agent said that "multiple brands pulled back from doing deals" with NFLers this fall "because of cases of domestic and family violence," according to Lindsay Jones of USA TODAY. California-based agency EAG Sports Management CEO Denise White said, "A lot of companies don't want to have an affiliation with the NFL, when it comes to one-on-one, engagements with players. There are big, big companies that have sort of stopped publicly doing national campaigns with the NFL because of the landscape." She added, "They will get over this hump, and after this is over with things will start to die down and things will be better definitely for next season. But this season, marketing deals have definitely been affected by the climate out there." The "low point for White came when a company, whom she declined to name, pulled a campaign for which one of her clients had already been paid to produce." Marketing Arm Managing Dir Matt Delzell said that “tying an advertising campaign to an individual NFL player might be too big of a risk for many brands in the future.” Another agent said that he "isn't worried about any of his clients losing endorsement opportunities in the 2015 advertising cycle," but he is "anticipating he'll have to answer significantly more questions about his clients' personal lives before new contracts are signed." Still, Jones notes sponsorship numbers provided by the NFLPI "show individual deals are up by 6% this fall." NFLPA Assistant Exec Dir of External Affairs George Atallah attributes the rise to a "trust between partners" and the NFLPI to "place the right players with the right brands." NFLPI has "signed 25 new licensees this year, compared to only 10" in ’13 (
USA TODAY, 12/9).
