By Deanna Ferrari
At WordWrite, we see a lesson in transparent, authentic storytelling with our hometown football team, the Pittsburgh Steelers. How the Santonio Holmes and Ben Roethlisberger cases play out for the NFL can provide the rest of us with lessons on what it means to be open and authentic in sharing our own stories (good or bad) in the public eye.
Holmes, a wide receiver and Super Bowl XLIII MVP, has been traded to the New York Jets for a fifth round pick in the upcoming draft, and will be suspended for four games for violating the NFL’s substance abuse policy. Quarterback Roethlisberger has avoided charges after he was accused of sexual assault – the second time Roethlisberger has been in the news for such an allegation. Now Roethleisberger’s fate rests with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and the Steelers.
With these two incidents, the Steelers and the NFL have an opportunity to tell a story on player accountability – on and off the field. It’s nothing new for a sports star to get in trouble with the law, or to be accused, and it’s also nothing new for a team or league to do something — or nothing — about it.
Too many people make the mistaken assumption that public relations is all about what you say. That’s only part of the story. Perhaps the most important part of your story is what you do — walking the walk. How will the NFL and Steelers do in walking the walk? We will be able to tell pretty quickly, just as we have been able to do with so many players in recent years, including Holmes.
That’s because, with social media, there is something new for us to measure the walking of the walk. Social media gives fans a chance to show their appreciation or frustration about their favorite players and teams. And unfortunately for too many players, social media gives them a chance to tell their story openly. Holmes chose to take a poor route on his Twitter account, telling one fan to kill himself. He later took the tweet down, but it is still saved out there on the Internet, for all to see. It’s one of those curious conundrums of the Internet: Instantaneous yet permanent. Surely Holmes wanted to remove that tweet after he sent it; too late, it’s now out there forever.
It could have been different. With his Twitter account, Holmes could have expressed his apologies immediately after the March 7 incident in which he was accused of throwing a drink in a woman’s face. He could have said he wanted to get help. Or, he simply could have been transparent and authentic. Instead, he tweeted inappropriate subject matter, including what many immediately interpreted as a drug reference.
With Roethlisberger, we will see what the NFL and Steelers do. As a PR pro, my recommendation would be to suspend Roethlisberger for a few games for violating the league’s personal-conduct policy in the Georgia incident. That would be a great demonstration that the NFL policy is just as real for Super Bowl quarterbacks as it is for anyone else.
Perhaps Roethlisberger should go to a few classes on alcohol abuse and visit schools to talk about the dangers of drinking. Perhaps TV cameras should follow him as he visits and interview him. That would be a walking of the walk.
I don’t believe Roethlisberger has a Twitter account, but if the fans believe that Big Ben is living an authentic story that says he’s sorry for putting himself in these kinds of situations, then tweets about him and to him could turn from negative to positive. If fans see him taking steps to improve his actions, chances are they will allow him to go back to what he does best: playing football.
Whatever the outcome in both cases, this is a great opportunity for transparency and the telling and living of an authentic story within the NFL. The combination of two player incidents in a short period of time makes news. When the team involved is a Super Bowl dynasty run by a family famous for little tolerance of bad behavior, it’s even more of a news item. There’s room here for an authentic and compelling story. Will the NFL and Steelers deliver?
Whatever happens with Holmes and Roethlisberger will set a tone for the 2010 NFL season and a new decade.
As a PR professional, I take these episodes as lessons for our own work with clients at WordWrite. If something does go wrong, we know that if we take the appropriate steps with them after an incident happens, we can turn the tone around immediately. All it takes is preparation and transparency.
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Deanna Ferrari is an account executive for WordWrite Communications
