From Fox Sports Review by Luke Drayer in SRM 334 (section 2) Now in his 17th season with the Baltimore Ravens, Ray Lewis has finally decided to call it quits. After announcing his retirement on January 2, Lewis told his teammates that this would be his “last ride” as the team’s captain and leader. Regardless of when the season ended, Lewis said he would be hanging up the cleats. However, after beating the Denver Broncos and New England Patriots in post-season play, the Ravens have now found themselves competing in New Orleans for the Super Bowl. Even with one game left in his playing career, Lewis is adamant that he isn’t thinking about his retirement, but instead about taking on the San Francisco 49ers and winning the Super Bowl. Lewis has had a Hall of Fame career, but his impact on the Raven’s over the years has gone beyond his play. Ray is known amongst players and fans of the NFL as being one of the best motivational and inspirational leaders in all of sports. He has a certain presence about him that makes his teammates rally around him and want to play with the same passion that he has. Regardless of whether or not the Ravens take home the Super Bowl trophy, Lewis will be regarded as one of the best, if not the best, defensive players to ever play the game of football. I feel that this article relates to this class because ever since announcing his retirement, there has been nonstop talk on twitter and news networks like SportsCenter about what his legacy will be and whether he will be able to walk away from the game with a Super Bowl trophy or not. It has been a huge story for the past month and I feel it has actually played a part in the Ravens post–season run. I think the Ravens feel they have something to play for, almost like they owe it to Ray to have him leave the game with a Super Bowl win. While I like both teams, I am personally rooting for the Ravens as I think it would be awesome to see Ray Lewis go out with a bang.
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Review by Kolbie Owens in SRM 334 (section 2)
Ray Lewis is a linebacker on the Baltimore Ravens. Lewis has been referring to this postseason run as the “Last Ride” because he is going to retire after this Super Bowl game. Ray Lewis is very wise in his game playing because of his long 17-year career in the NFL. In this article he states how his focus is not on his retirement, it is on this game. He is doing this for him and his team NOT just himself and wants to stay as focused as possible.
Ray Lewis is in the media for many things. One is his age, he is 37 years old and arguable the best defensive player in the NFL. Two, he is a motivational speaker as well as a successful leader. Lewis gives pep talks to his team as well as colleges. He is an inspirational speaker and is known for that because of how motivational he is. This leads to the next thing the media loves about Ray Lewis, he pregame dance. This is very familiar to Ravens fans as well as other football fans.
The dance, his age, and his motivational speeches are all good media on Ray Lewis, now here is the bad. In 2000 he was accused of a murder of his two friends. This caused a lot of drama and press on Lewis. In the end he was not found guilty for the murder, however he was guilty for obstruction of justice. Currently he has a performance enhancing drug allegation with Deer-antler velvet spray, which causes a more recent bad image for him.
This is relevant to this class because it shows how much the media represents the image of an athlete, and Ray Lewis has had many incidents that reflect good and bad behavior. He is under the spotlight for everything he does good and bad and for Lewis that seems to not have any bad effect on him because he is still an extremely talented athlete.
As women now account for 45 percent of the NFL’s fan base, according to league officials, marketers are aiming to develop a long lasting and lucrative connection by targeting them. The NFL had never licensed women’s apparel until only two years ago. The attraction of the female fan skyrocketed immediately after. Campaigns such as the “It’s My Team” campaign featured women from former Secretary of State, Condaleezza Rice, Serena Williams, and sportscaster Melissa Stark. Clothing brands jumped on this ship almost instantaneously with brands such as, Nike, 5th and Ocean, and Little Earth. Now all of a sudden NFL women’s apparel is fashionable on any day of the week.
From a marketing perspective, this is an extremely powerful move that could have its failures or its very high success. Affinity clubs for women have sprung up across the league to engage the female in an even more interactive way. First it was just using merchandise such as nail polish the color of “her” favorite team to jewelry and sunglasses. Now in these Women affinity clubs, incentives are given; VIP events are set up along with viewing parties and free merchandise.
While there are many positives to this marketing scheme, it also has its negatives. It can be considered a risk to allot such a large amount of money towards a marketing program that may fail. However, after reading this article I believe that the marketing research was done very effectively and with their focus groups, they found the right target markets to start these Women Affinity Clubs. Right now there are only seven cities that offer this and they are: Baltimore, Denver, Houston, Indianapolis, San Diego, San Francisco, and Washington. Each team has their own name for their female fans to give them a sense of identity within that fan base.
I do agree with this article when it says, “the potential for this growth is unmistakable”. The facts are that some memberships, such as Washington and Baltimore have more than 25,000 members while others have sponsors. The Houston Texans affinity club secured State Farm as a presenting sponsor. Starting in only a few cities seems like a “test” in a sense, but I do believe these affinity clubs will grow as the marketing research continues and more awareness of this opportunity.
From Sports Business News and the New York Daily News Review by Jordan Callis in SRM 334 (section 3) The article that we chose to use for our presentation is one that covers what is quite possibly one of the most fraudulent and misleading icons of the sports industry in the last 20 years: Lance Armstrong. To summarize, the article discusses a few of the potential financial ramifications that Armstrong has brought onto not only himself, but also the entire industry in regards to how sponsors treat their athletes in the future. Howard Bloom explains that not only is Armstrong facing probable lawsuits from various businesses including SCA Promotions and The Times of London, Amaury Sport Organization is also prepared to ask for $3.6 million back from Armstrong for winnings he was paid during his seven Tour de France titles in a row. While these companies would like to think otherwise, Bloom explains that it is unlikely any parties will see much of their money back because of the legal situations, which is most likely why none of Armstrong’s former sponsors will be filing lawsuits against the now shamed cyclist.
What all of this means for the future of sponsorship agreements between companies and athletes is that the morality clause, which protects companies from athletes who conduct themselves in a way that is detrimental to the company during the life of the contract, will be an absolute necessity and will be strictly enforced. This will most likely lead to more strife between endorsers and endorses in the future. When discussing relevancy to sports media, topics like these are exactly what the major outlets such as ESPN and other affiliates thoroughly enjoy, especially in circumstances like The Times of London are facing because they get the so-called “last laugh” after the allegations they wrote against Armstrong proved to all be correct, thus adding validity and credibility to the reputation of the newspaper. Controversy is always a great seller for the media, and the sports media industry is never shy in exploiting unfortunate stories such as this one. With the amount of viewership that has accumulated throughout the coverage of the Armstrong events, it is likely that sports media will continue to seek out controversy in the future, and when athletes like Armstrong give them reason to, it seems to be a never-ending “viscous cycle,” no pun intended. --- Review by Joel Simms in SRM 334 (section 3) One of the world’s most inspiring stories of a man who had battled cancer and won seven Tour de France titles, seems to have turned from an inspirational story, to a story where a man has cheated in his whole career. Lance Armstrong had won the seven titles back to back from 1999 to 2005, which is very amazing for any athlete to accomplish in his or her career. Just a week ago, Lance Armstrong confessed on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” that he had used performance-enhancing drugs every year when he won the Tour de France titles. This was big news for the media because after years of denying the fact he used PEDs, he finally came out and told everyone that he used PEDs to win the titles. Now, a lot of people will view him differently and the media coverage of Lance Armstrong confessing he doped to win is going to broadcast everywhere.
What Lance Armstrong accomplished in his bicycling career was something I admired. I was one of the people who had believed that Lance Armstrong had never used PEDs to win the titles and that he was an inspiring figure for those who battle cancer. Since he has admitted to doping, I have put my feet in his shoes to see how hard that would be. After his confession, I thought to myself, “That must have taken a lot of courage to admit that he used drugs after all of these years.” I still believe that Lance Armstrong is a nice person and that he wants to prove to the world that he can win without cheating by competing in the top-level sport again some day. I think he deserves a second chance to prove himself although it is going to be very hard to gain his trust again from society.
This current event is important to the course because it deals with several aspects of media broadcasting. Since the interview was conducted on a famous television show, a lot of people were tuned in to watch the confession. Other networks such as ESPN and NBC were covering the event as well. With winning titles, there comes big responsibilities and people begin to look up to you as a public figure. For instance, Lance Armstrong lied for several years about not using performance-enhancing drugs, and the consequences of doing that were the loss of millions of dollars in sponsorships and the trust of the people that admired him. This relates to the course because the goal of the media was to get the answer of whether or not he used drugs and broadcast it on television to have everyone know the truth about him.
