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NFL warns Playoff teams about trash talk


Jetfan13

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According to Peter King of SI.com, NFL VP Ray Anderson contacted all 8 playoff teams and told them they're on notice: Respect the game, cut down trash-talking.

As a followup, Adam Schefter of ESPN reports Anderson warned teams if any illegal acts occur during this weekend's games, past comments will be considered in evaluating discipline.\

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According to Peter King of SI.com, NFL VP Ray Anderson contacted all 8 playoff teams and told them they're on notice: Respect the game, cut down trash-talking.

As a followup, Adam Schefter of ESPN reports Anderson warned teams if any illegal acts occur during this weekend's games, past comments will be considered in evaluating discipline.\

The NFL sucks the life out of what could be a really fun experience. Trash talking is harmless. Friggin socialists.

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Goodell is an embarrassment.

Word. This is Bud Selig saying "Uh, don't do steroids." Goodell will sit back and watch the ratings explode for this game on Sunday because the trash-talking alone will bring people running to the TV to watch. Big Roger has to wag his finger, though. "Oh, yeah, don't hit each other too hard, either, boys! And don't do any of those funky TD dances--even though we'll feature both things in our highlight packages all week!"

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Saw this coming a mile away... and frankly, it doesn't bother me that Goodell doesn't want his six-figure employees and ambassador's of the NFL brand calling each other assholes.

They can talk trash, and still maintain a level of dignity in doing so. Ideally, the NFL is a "family" brand, not a "20- and 30- something year old American males who need to over-compensate for something in their lives" brand.

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Saw this coming a mile away... and frankly, it doesn't bother me that Goodell doesn't want his six-figure employees and ambassador's of the NFL brand calling each other assholes.

They can talk trash, and still maintain a level of dignity in doing so. Ideally, the NFL is a "family" brand, not a "20- and 30- something year old American males who need to over-compensate for something in their lives" brand.

The NFL lives and dies to sell beer and giant pickup trucks to the "20- and 30- something year old American males who need to over-compensate for something in their lives" set, my man. If women and babies come along to watch, all the better.

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Speak for yourself, I am fully armed, fully stocked and have virtually every scenario covered. Anybody who thinks that "The Zombie Survival Guide" is fiction is not living in reality.

:lol:

I'm going to rely on looting supermarkets and scavenging ammunition, myself.

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Speak for yourself, I am fully armed, fully stocked and have virtually every scenario covered. Anybody who thinks that "The Zombie Survival Guide" is fiction is not living in reality.

Yeah but what about when the machines attack? I will pm you directions on how to build an EMP device in your basement if you like. The zombies will be nothing more than a distraction, the machines are behind it ALL>

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Word. This is Bud Selig saying "Uh, don't do steroids." Goodell will sit back and watch the ratings explode for this game on Sunday because the trash-talking alone will bring people running to the TV to watch. Big Roger has to wag his finger, though. "Oh, yeah, don't hit each other too hard, either, boys! And don't do any of those funky TD dances--even though we'll feature both things in our highlight packages all week!"

Amen. Many people don't agree with Rex's style, that is well documented. What can not be argued is the buzz that this creates, the excitement it causes. If Rex can ever win the Super Bowl I think that there will be other NFL coaches that emulate his brash style to an extent.

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This is the same NFL that has beer companies sponsor every game with retarded commercials. I like having a few beers. But let's face it, ANY NFL game feature about 20,000 drunken assholes, a small number of them them getting into fights and driving home drunk.And it allows both ESPN and it's own network to have almost daily features of big(often illegal) hits.

But those are small potatoes comapred to the NFL's bigest hypocrisy. The NFL also requires teams to provide injury reports, and not becasue of the health of their players, but becasue of the point spread. If gambling is such a bad, evil, awful thing, why do they allow that? And why do they grant access to the lockerrom to newspapers and their reporters since such media carry point spread information and touts almost every day of the season. ESPN does too. It's as complete charade.

I love football, and you wouldn't be reading this if you didn't. But the NFL took off when gambling exploded. It would be better if the NFL was totally open about it. I've been in Belfast and Dublin when the EPL season opened. Anyone can go to a bookie and bet on damn near any game or prop.It isn't seedy or nasty or violent. And people are gamling here anyway. Who not be open about it? Yes, there have been soccer scandals. But whether it's out in the open or under wraps spare Nevada there will always be cheaters. And there may have been in the NFL(KEn Stabler?).

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The NFL lives and dies to sell beer and giant pickup trucks to the "20- and 30- something year old American males who need to over-compensate for something in their lives" set, my man. If women and babies come along to watch, all the better.

By this thinking, its a wonder why the NFL hasn't become the WWE by now.

The NFL brand is polished and revered. The have taken a position as the most professional and disciplined professional league out there. The NFL has become the most popular professional sport in our country through this positioning, and they want to expand that to the world. This is an ambitious goal. It took them a long time to build a stronger brand than MLB, but they did accomplish it. Now that they are in the top seat, they sure as heck aren't going to relinquish it by pandering to the audience segment that will be there no matter what.

Selling beer and pickup trucks is the job of Coors and Chevy. It just so happens that marketers for those companies understand the cross-section between their audiences and the NFL audience. The NFL's aspiration is to augment their audience beyond the beer drinking, truck driving Americans. In order to do so, they have to run their organization like a business and not like a frat house.

The reality is this, the NFL is trying to build new marketshare... they want the women and babies, but more importantly they want expansion. That means the product needs to appeal to the sensibilities of people beyond message boards like this one. The NFL brand needs to be ardently policed, as it is for all of the great consumer brands.

Name calling, profanity, yes it happens amongst the consumers of the NFL brand - but it should not be happening amongst the employees. If you walked into a Starbucks and were greeted by a scene in which an employee and manager were cussing at another employee, how would you react? Now extrapolate that to this situation, in which we have 2 teams of 50+ 6 figure employees of the NFL, cussing and spitting back and forth across the aisle like the frigging Hatfield and McCoy's. Is it entertaining? Yes. However as a branding professional, I find it appalling because I understand the work that goes into building a brand. It takes 10x longer to build a brand, than it does to tear it down when your brand ambassadors don't toe the line.

Anyway, that is why I am not humored by all this nonsense. I look at the business/brand development side of it and it makes me furious.

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By this thinking, its a wonder why the NFL hasn't become the WWE by now.

The NFL brand is polished and revered. The have taken a position as the most professional and disciplined professional league out there. The NFL has become the most popular professional sport in our country through this positioning, and they want to expand that to the world. This is an ambitious goal. It took them a long time to build a stronger brand than MLB, but they did accomplish it. Now that they are in the top seat, they sure as heck aren't going to relinquish it by pandering to the audience segment that will be there no matter what.

Selling beer and pickup trucks is the job of Coors and Chevy. It just so happens that marketers for those companies understand the cross-section between their audiences and the NFL audience. The NFL's aspiration is to augment their audience beyond the beer drinking, truck driving Americans. In order to do so, they have to run their organization like a business and not like a frat house.

The reality is this, the NFL is trying to build new marketshare... they want the women and babies, but more importantly they want expansion. That means the product needs to appeal to the sensibilities of people beyond message boards like this one. The NFL brand needs to be ardently policed, as it is for all of the great consumer brands.

Name calling, profanity, yes it happens amongst the consumers of the NFL brand - but it should not be happening amongst the employees. If you walked into a Starbucks and were greeted by a scene in which an employee and manager were cussing at another employee, how would you react? Now extrapolate that to this situation, in which we have 2 teams of 50+ 6 figure employees of the NFL, cussing and spitting back and forth across the aisle like the frigging Hatfield and McCoy's. Is it entertaining? Yes. However as a branding professional, I find it appalling because I understand the work that goes into building a brand. It takes 10x longer to build a brand, than it does to tear it down when your brand ambassadors don't toe the line.

Anyway, that is why I am not humored by all this nonsense. I look at the business/brand development side of it and it makes me furious.

I know you're in the marketing industry, so I will defer to this well-argued post. Nice.

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If you walked into a Starbucks and were greeted by a scene in which an employee and manager were cussing at another employee, how would you react?

If you walked into a Starbucks and were greeted by a scene in which one employee violently tackled another employee, how would you react?

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Name calling, profanity, yes it happens amongst the consumers of the NFL brand - but it should not be happening amongst the employees. If you walked into a Starbucks and were greeted by a scene in which an employee and manager were cussing at another employee, how would you react? Now extrapolate that to this situation, in which we have 2 teams of 50+ 6 figure employees of the NFL, cussing and spitting back and forth across the aisle like the frigging Hatfield and McCoy's. Is it entertaining? Yes. However as a branding professional, I find it appalling because I understand the work that goes into building a brand. It takes 10x longer to build a brand, than it does to tear it down when your brand ambassadors don't toe the line.

,

I think that's a poor example. The employees are not on different teams, they are on the same team. I think a good example would be NASCAR. You have several teams and then individual drivers within those teams all competing with each other. There's always trash talking going on and quite frankly provides good entertainment in an otherwise pretty boring sport.

The one thing you mention but then kind of disregard is the entertainment value. If you start tinkering with the product and start taking away the entertainment value, then you will lose a lot of people and money.

I look at Baseball as an example. For years it was the mnost popular sport. Now labor strife did damage the game (which the NFL is heading for)but more than anything football became more popular because it was more entertaining. Start messing with that entertainment, and baseball may become the most popular sport again.

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Saw this coming a mile away... and frankly, it doesn't bother me that Goodell doesn't want his six-figure employees and ambassador's of the NFL brand calling each other assholes.

They can talk trash, and still maintain a level of dignity in doing so. Ideally, the NFL is a "family" brand, not a "20- and 30- something year old American males who need to over-compensate for something in their lives" brand.

If, and that's a big if, the NFL were really a family brand, why does it cost so much to bring a family of four to 1 game? The NFL is pure greed. That's it. The "family" moniker was left behind years ago. I know, as a parent of two, that bringing my 2 and 4 year old to a NFL game is simply out of the question. That's not based on money alone, but on the raucous crowds that fill the billion dollar stadiums.

Anyone believing that the NFL is family oriented, probably does not have a "family" of their own to have to pay for at a game.

$500 to go to a single game. That is ridiculous. Screw Goodell, it's all about perception with him. He could care less that the average American family can't afford to enjoy the games. He's only worried about investors and advertisers. It is a business after all. An entertainment business at that. It just stinks that the powers that be don't get what actually is entertaining.

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,

I think that's a poor example. The employees are not on different teams, they are on the same team. I think a good example would be NASCAR. You have several teams and then individual drivers within those teams all competing with each other. There's always trash talking going on and quite frankly provides good entertainment in an otherwise pretty boring sport.

The one thing you mention but then kind of disregard is the entertainment value. If you start tinkering with the product and start taking away the entertainment value, then you will lose a lot of people and money.

I look at Baseball as an example. For years it was the mnost popular sport. Now labor strife did damage the game (which the NFL is heading for)but more than anything football became more popular because it was more entertaining. Start messing with that entertainment, and baseball may become the most popular sport again.

I think the reality is, the NFL understands that the 20/30 year old men aren't going to go away as an audience demographic no matter what they do to keep the league respectable, and that is really what this is all about... keeping the NFL regarded as the professional league that is NOT Nascar or WWE. With more tightly managed guidelines for behavior, the NFL sets the standard. This is the position they want to be in. Are they really losing that much in the spectrum of "entertainment" by asking players not to call one-another assholes? Or making it clear that if Bart Scott goes out of his way to injure Welker, they are going to consider the comments he made this week? No, they really aren't losing that much entertainment, because the reality is this... guys like us that yap about this stuff online during the week and consider it entertainment are a minor sub-section of the greater 20/30 year old demographic. Most people consider NFL entertainment what happens after 1 PM on Sundays, not all this other junk.

I would wager that the NFL could care less if they lose the bloodlust viewers knowing full well they can replace those viewers ten-fold with the kids that are just being weened on the game now, whose parents are less likely to prohibit them from watching the game because the players aren't allowed to walk and talk like scum bags in an alley behind a bar.

Long-term branding is very much about managing and shaping a continuum of consumers over a period of time. NFL marketing professionals are not worried about you and I as consumers of this product, they already knows they have us. We aren't going to stop watching because the NFL said "stop the trash talk." NFL marketers are looking at 20 years from now, when today's 10 years olds are 30... the only way to win the hearts and minds of a 10 year old is by ensuring parents will not inhibit the relationship between them and your product.

Part of Baseball's demise was due to the sense of betrayal felt by the fans. I can guarantee you that "level of entertainment" wasn't the primary cause. Between the labor strike, the broken records with asteriks, the perjury in front of the grand jury... Major League Baseball committed the cardinal sin of branding. They broke their brand promise.

That promise was Baseball is America's game. The underlying meaning of this was that Baseball represented everything good, honest, hard-working and great about our country. Lying to the grand jury is NOT the American dream. This is where baseball lost the hearts and minds of the public. While this was taking shape, the NFL stepped in and refined their brand message and became the "the league that stands behind this shield, and this shield stands for discipline, pride, and just about everything baseball lied to you about" and the combination of that positioning and the emergence of fantasy football as a viable "sports entertainment industry" pushed the NFL out in front. The NFL understands that in order to stay out in front, they have to continue to set the standard for professionalism and integrity for sports in the public eye.

Personally I think the NFL has done a tremendous job in their positioning in recent years. I just don't agree with you that they will "lose" consumers/audience because they are tinkering with the product. I think by Goodell saying enough is enough, settle it on the field... he is actually reminding us all of what the product is... a game.

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If, and that's a big if, the NFL were really a family brand, why does it cost so much to bring a family of four to 1 game? The NFL is pure greed. That's it. The "family" moniker was left behind years ago. I know, as a parent of two, that bringing my 2 and 4 year old to a NFL game is simply out of the question. That's not based on money alone, but on the raucous crowds that fill the billion dollar stadiums.

Anyone believing that the NFL is family oriented, probably does not have a "family" of their own to have to pay for at a game.

$500 to go to a single game. That is ridiculous. Screw Goodell, it's all about perception with him. He could care less that the average American family can't afford to enjoy the games. He's only worried about investors and advertisers. It is a business after all. An entertainment business at that. It just stinks that the powers that be don't get what actually is entertaining.

Brand is all about perception, hence my explanation that I feel he is doing the right thing.

While I don't disagree about the cost of the game, the reality is... you and I might not be what the NFL considers the audience for game attendance. We might fit more into the "buys a replica jersey and watches from home with their kids" audience.

And that is the reality here... The NFL understands its landscape of consumers, very well. Lets say that there are 10 consumer profiles for the NFL brand.

1 of those profiles finds all this childish nonsense entertaining.

9 do not.

NO business man worth his salt is going to risk losing 9/10's of their consumer landscape, for the "entertainment" of 1/10.

I believe everyone's take on this, here on the message board, is largely shape by the fact that we are the 1/10 that admittedly find entertainment in this, and guess what guys... is anyone not tuning in tomorrow because Goodell said stop cursing? No. However, there might be some non-football parents out there that decided not to let their kids watch this weekend because of the nonsense... and that is where future business is lost for the NFL.

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According to Peter King of SI.com, NFL VP Ray Anderson contacted all 8 playoff teams and told them they're on notice: Respect the game, cut down trash-talking.

As a followup, Adam Schefter of ESPN reports Anderson warned teams if any illegal acts occur during this weekend's games, past comments will be considered in evaluating discipline.\

SO they finally figured out on Saturday after all the thrash talking is already over that its not going to be tolerated. :rolleyes:

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Yeah but what about when the machines attack? I will pm you directions on how to build an EMP device in your basement if you like. The zombies will be nothing more than a distraction, the machines are behind it ALL>

My systems engineering skills more than prepares me for that day. If either apocalypse breaks out head to my house. If you make it here you will be in good shape. I have a freezer full of angus with your name on it Crush. I also have the whole clean water thing under control as well. ;).

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In lieu of the national tragedy in Arizona, i back Goodell on this. What Bart Scott said went over the line, maybe to some a borderline death threat, threatening someone's career (meaning to physically impair someone to a point they must retire)...that's a little much considering how violent the sport already is.

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In lieu of the national tragedy in Arizona, i back Goodell on this. What Bart Scott said went over the line, maybe to some a borderline death threat, threatening someone's career (meaning to physically impair someone to a point they must retire)...that's a little much considering how violent the sport already is.

Agreed.

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