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SBJ Football: NFL Drops Hammer On Myles Garrett


The Rams and Chargers may have some growing pains in L.A., but don’t assume that means Angelenos aren’t paying attention to the NFL. While I was in town this week for SBJ conferences, three different Uber drivers chatted me up at length about football. Only problem: Two were Cowboys fans, and the third was a Raiders diehard.

 

NFL HEADLINES DOMINATE RECENT NEWS CYCLE

  • On Oct. 4, I said the NFL was on a winning streak because fans are focused on “actual football, not everything else that causes headaches.” So much for that. In a span of about 72 hours, three fraught topics re-emerged suddenly: Colin Kaepernick, violent/reckless play and player discipline. So how’s it going for the NFL? Good on the latter two, TBD on Kaepernick.

  • The league has to be pleased with Baker Mayfield’s unqualified criticism of teammate Myles Garrett’s helmet attack on Mason Rudolph late last night. Here was a young, up-and-coming franchise QB, speaking live on Fox, NFL Network and Amazon Prime, taking the enlightened position, and not trying to minimize or justify Garrett’s extraordinary violence. A host of other players weighed in on Twitter as well, calling for severe penalties.

  • Not 12 hours later, the league dropped the hammer, banning Garrett indefinitely and suspending Steelers C Maurkice Pouncey for 3 games and Browns DT Larry Ogunjobi 1 game, plus a host of fines. Player discipline has been a persistent public relations challenge in Commissioner Roger Goodell’s tenure, but reaction today was approving. SI’s Albert Breer: “Good on the NFL for taking this seriously, and moving fast.” Boston Globe’s Ben Volin: “Nice, swift decision by the NFL today.” Bleacher Report’s Mike Freeman: “Appropriate punishment.” Browns owners Dee and Jimmy Haslam also said, “We understand the consequences.” I’m told the league also spent the morning assuring sponsors action was coming. It was unprecedented discipline and faster than usual too.

  • The NFL gets positive reviews for handling the Cleveland brawl. But what about Kaepernick?  After Tuesday’s surprise announcement of a nearly unprecedented leaguewide private workout on Saturday, skepticism rained down from columnists and Twitter critics. Is this political cover for teams who sincerely want him? A way to force Kaepernick into a spot of declining an offer? A gambit to avoid some unknown new legal liability? Some teams have inquired about his availability, a league source says. However tomorrow's workout goes, it gives new life to a storyline that carries tons of risk. On the other hand, it raises the possibility of a resolution to the long-running Kaep issue, which would be welcome.

 


LEAGUE MAKES HEADWAY ON REAL-TIME FAN INSIGHTS

  • I’m closely following the NFL’s new data platform operated by KAGR, which spits out near-real-time fan insights generated by mobile ticketing. It seems to have immense potential, and this week, KAGR CEO Jessica Gelman told us about a very straightforward win already in the books: A dramatic increase in response rates to fan satisfaction surveys sent to single-game buyers.

  • Halfway through 2019, responses are up 53% over the year-end total in 2018, the NFL says, and they think it will be nearly 90% higher by the playoffs. Here’s why: For the first time, clubs are quite certain the surveys are actually going to the people who attended, said NFL Club Business Development VP Cory Mingelgreen. In case that sounds like a low standard, consider how the mailing list was developed in the past: Surveys went to fans who held the tickets on the Monday before a Sunday game, even though up to 40% of ticket transfers and resales occur after that.

  • Now, the distribution list is developed after the game, targeting people who actually scanned a ticket on their phone. The NFL isn’t necessarily getting different answers, but has much more confidence in the answers because the sample sizes are bigger, Mingelgreen said. 

 

 

BEHIND THE SCENES OF THE NFL'S HELMET INITIATIVE

The NFL believes new connections in manufacturing could yield big gains in helmet effectiveness
  • Myles Garrett used a helmet as a weapon last night in Cleveland, but 75 miles east on Interstate 80, the NFL, industry and academic partners gathered to talk safer helmets this week. The NFL Helmet Challenge Symposium in Youngstown brought together physicians, scientists and engineers who have been studying concussions and helmet design for years with a new group: the 3D printing industry. 49ers co-chairman DrJohn York: “They see it as a business opportunity, and they also see it as an engineering challenge to design something that’s never been designed before."

  • The host of the three-day, 300-person summit was America Makes, a public-private nonprofit institute dedicated to developing the “additive manufacturing” industry through research and collaboration. Most of its work focuses on the Defense Department, and any new advances in NFL helmet design could readily be applied to helmets for the armed forces, said Partnerships & Community Relations Director Erin O’Donnell.

  • The symposium kicked off a contest for anyone to design a safer NFL helmet, with up to $1 million in prizes and another $2 million in prototyping capital available to entrants. Winners will be announced in 2021. The NFL thinks that relatively modest investment plus new connections in manufacturing could yield big gains in helmet effectiveness. York credited his relationships with Youngstown State President and former Ohio State football coach Jim Tressel and America Makes founding director Ralph Resnick for spurring the concept. “The symposium is not here because I live here, but it probably wouldn’t be here if I did not live here,” York said.

  



SPEED READS

  • Good scoop from my colleague John Ourand this week: Fox Sports only has 17 ads left to sell for Super Bowl LIV, with around 11 weeks before kickoff. Some have gone for a record rate of $5.6 million per 30-second spot, and every ad sold this year has been over $5 million, according to Fox Sports Exec VP/Sports Sales Seth Winter. Sectors that have been particularly active? Technology, automotive and packaged goods/beverages.

  • Fox Sports analyst Jay Glazer says the NFL and Commissioner Roger Goodell have donated $175K to his military/veterans charity Merging Vets & Players. Glazer and retired NFLer and Green Beret Nate Boyer founded MVP in 2015 to help combat veterans and former athletes transition into new careers.

  • The Wall Street Journal's Tripp Mickle covers Apple as closely as anyone, and he doesn't see the tech giant making a foray into NFL rights anytime soon. Appearing at SBJ's Endeavor Streaming Sports Media & Technology conference, Mickle said that even though Apple has $200B in cash on the books, rights to The Shield may still be a little too rich. Mickle: "If they did leap into the sports world, it would probably be something with a broader appeal. ... Could you partner with Tencent or Baidu and bring the NBA to a larger market? That may make sense."

  • A roundup of headlines out of New York on Thursday really took issue with Jets Chair & CEO Christopher Johnson's declaration that coach Adam Gase will return next season. The N.Y. Post's Steve Serby: "The Insane Timing Of Christopher Johnson’s Commitment To Adam Gase." The Daily News' Manish Mehta: "Jets Fans Should Not Trust Anything Christopher Johnson Says." Newsday's Bob Glauber: "Johnson Sticks His Neck Out By Sticking With Adam Gase."

  • A correction: Jonathan Barker is the head of live event production for the NFL. Last week’s edition got his first name and title wrong. My apologies.

 

 

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Something on the football beat catch your eye? Tell us about it. Reach out to either me (bfischer@sportsbusinessjournal.com) or Austin Karp (akarp@sportsbusinessjournal.com) and we'll share the best of it. Also contributing to this newsletter is Thomas Leary (tleary@sportsbusinessdaily.com).