Author Names:
Christopher R. Martin and Bettina Fabos
Activity Objective:
Students will work in small groups to develop a PR plan to address one of the major PR difficulties facing the NFL today.
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Public Relations for America’s Most Popular Television Sport
Each football season, the NFL consistently delivers the largest television audiences on a weekly basis. Once a year, the NFL generates American television’s largest audience of the year with the Super Bowl.
Yet television ratings are slipping for the NFL, and although NFL ratings declines are part of the overall trend in broadcast and cable television viewership, the NFL also has several public relations problems that could be eroding their audience in the short and long term. The three major public relations difficulties are 1) the NFL’s problem of domestic violence and sexual assault, 2) the research revelations about the danger of concussions and the high rate of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) for players, and 3) the divide in NFL fan responses to some players sitting down or taking a knee during the national anthem, in solidarity with Black Lives Matter (made into an even bigger conflict when President Trump blasted the players for doing so).1 On top of these problems, the relationship between the league and players (another important PR relationship) is not good.2