Transilvania University of Brasov

Economic sciences and Business

administration
Year 3
Group 8811

The NFL crisis

Communication and public
relations
Student: Coltoiu Laura

 The NFL is by far the most successful

sports league in the United States. TV
viewership is up and fan passion runs as
high as ever. Moreover, compared to other
leagues (the NHL comes to mind)
bargaining issues were resolved
successfully leading to a landmark 10 year
agreement.

Why is the NFL in a crisis?

Its not the issue of replacement
referees, highlighted by the missed
call in the Packers-Seahawks
game.
It's an image crisis and the issue is
player safety, especially the issue of
head trauma and concussions that
are being linked to dementia and
player suicides.

The Big Problem

In June 2012, more than 2,000
former NFL players filed a lawsuit
against the NFL, the biggest sportsrelated lawsuit ever, accusing the
league of concealing information
linking football-related injuries to
long-term brain damage.

 The suit alleges that the NFL

exacerbated the health risk by
promoting the games violence
and deliberately and fraudulently
mislead players about the link
between concussions and longterm brain injuries.

Resolution vs. Show

What we have here is an example of
slow-burning crisis that even resolved
still leads to repeated flare-ups,
especially whenever another player
tragedy hits the headlines. The NFL
has responded decisively, donating
$30 million to the National Institutes of
Health for brain-related research,
changing concussion policies, and
engaging in ongoing rule changes.

 One of the most notable changes to

NFL policy was the 2013 introduction

of an independent neurologist one
who wouldn't be biased by team
influence to evaluate head injuries
and determine whether a player
needed to be pulled from the game.

 To its credit, the NFL is also funding

research into new technologies like
sensors and helmets that would detect
or thwart head injuries. But to more
rigorously target head trauma in the
meantime, experts anticipate the NFL will
need to revamp gameplay regulations yet
again, a maneuver that might also mean
less of the sensational ramming and
slamming that fans have come to expect.
"If you bring the game to a softer one,
without all the tackles, you'll help solve the
problem," Boland says. "It just might not be
what people want to see."

 That said, at this point the game maybe

will become less violent and there will be
less injuries, or accidentally there will be
casualties and the problem will highlighted
again.
This way, maintaining the popularity of the
game while making it safer will be a
challenge for years to come.

THANK YOU !