And this is the main problem. The players do not want to spend time making relations in the community and contributing to help build the fanbase outside of the games.
Here is a GREAT example.
I was at an event this past Monday here in Atlanta. At this event there were Falcon players, they were paid to come and sign autographs and take pictures with kids and their families, (
http://www.c10inc.com/events/event.php?s=2017-11-13-atlanta-falcons-executive-family-sports-night). The event was called "Family Night with the Falcons". There were probably150 kids there with their jerseys on excited to get autographs and pictures with the players. The parents of these kids were Dir and above personal from the top companies in Atlanta....the people who can afford to consistently attend games, buy jerseys, season tickets etc.
The deal was that they come for an hour and sign autographs and take pictures.
At my table was Robert Alford, starting cornerback for the Falcons. He is the guy who had a pick 6 in the super bowl last year.
He sits down at 7pm, begins signing and taking pictures. At 8pm there were maybe 15 kids left....maybe 15, could have been 7 or 8. Per the contract, he is only scheduled to be there from 7 - 8pm. So it's 8pm and there are 15 kids in front of him....he stands up, walks right past all the kids and their parents, out to the lobby, out the door, into the parking lot, got into his car and drove away. We all sat there and watched it. He was out the door and in his car in less than a minute.
We were all amazed he did it, he looked like a total prick. I had to apologize to the kids and parents for him and explain that he was only contracted for an hour of his time, and that there was nothing I could do. Those kids do not like him now, and the parents were saying the same.
There were 5 or 6 other athletes who also started mingling out a little after 8. They finished signing autographs as they walked out the door. The only guy who stayed and gave every kid who asked an autograph was Takk Kinley. I don't think any of the others left as rudely as Robert though. I'm pretty sure the other guys were nice and said sorry, my time is up, but thank you, and continued to sign as they walked toward the door.
Takk stayed an extra 20 minutes to get all the pictures and autographs signed, that's it, 20 minutes. The MC gave him a special thanks on the Mike as he walked out and all the kids clapped for him and cheered. Takk did the right thing.
So my point...the players have to help build the brand, give good customer service, do the outreach in the communities etc. Not be guys who say the world is unfair while they make millions, get paid more in one hour signing autographs than 99% of the country gets paid in a week, maybe a month, all while kneeling during our anthem and so forth.
This type of message and culture has to be owned by the league. The teams need to make great rosters and win games, the league needs to be holding players responsible for building the brand outside of Sunday. To do that, they need to be on good terms with the players association and preaching the gospel.
IMO, Goodell is a reactive guy who would make a better attorney than CEO. He can tell the story after it happens brilliantly. What he can't do is see the bad that is about to unfold (proactive) and create a good culture.....good CEO's can do that. They get in front of these things. Goodell is always in court, focusing his time on how to discipline and punish players, and not make them better citizens etc.
The second issue is Fantasy Football. It's too easy to draft players and get stats etc. They need to dumb it down and force people to watch the games. I can get analytics on every player and stack rank them with the click of the button..me and every guy in the league. There used to be an art to creating a good rooster...not so much any more.
