Presented at the ISAC conference in March 2014; presented at the SIUE Graduate Student Colloquium in April 2014

1. Allison R. Levin
Seminar in
Public Relations
Fall 2013
SAVING FACE:
USING PUBLIC
RELATIONS TO MITIGATE
THE DAMAGES OF THE
2011 NFL LOCKOUT

2. This paper examines what public relations
strategies are most effective in dealing with
the 2011 National Football League lockout
that lasted 18 weeks and delayed the start of
the season
The NFL lockout in this study came at a time
that has been referred to as a
transformational period of labor relations in
professional sports
INTRODUCTION

3. An economic model, called the tournament
model, predicts that there is always a winner
and loser in all payment negotiations
It is important to realize that the issue in
these labor negotiations is not about whether
the players are overpaid (although the general
public may feel that is the case), it is about
how to get the best product on the field by
making sure the best employees are exerting
the most effort since their effort is the
product (Silverman & Seidel, 2011; Laezer &
Oyer, 2009, Vande Berg & Trujillo, 1989)
INTRODUCTION

4.  Passmore, Pellock & Wang (1996) found that
Americans typically spend, rather than save
more than 95% of their after-tax income and
income originally budgeted for game
attendance will be diverted to other uses if
the team is not playing
 Thus, this topic is important to consider
because if the fans find a substitute sport to
support during the lockout, there is a real
danger they will no longer identify as a fan of
football
LITERATURE REVIEW

5. The best paradigm to use when researching this
branch of public relations is the rhetorical
paradigm
 The rhetorical perspective “sees meaning and
communication as that which makes it possible for
people and groups to agree to shared meanings,
interpretations, goals” (Taylor 1983, p.83)
 Further Benoit, W. & Smythe (2009), explain, only through
the rhetorical approach can researchers consider both the
message and “also the audience, and factors that
predispose listeners (a) to have the ability and motivation
to think about message content and (b) to generate
favorable or unfavorable thoughts about the message”
(p.106)
LITERATURE REVIEW

6. Image restoration discourse focuses on message
options or on what the parties involved can say or
not say in the face of a crisis
In terms of this paper, the crisis is defined as a
lockout of the players
Benoit (1997) provides 4 tactics that a party can
use in the image repair process
Despite literature on the image repair discourse
model, it has only been applied in the sports
context when an individual athlete runs afoul of
the law (Brazeal, 2008; Walsh & McAllister-
Spooner, 2011)
LITERATURE REVIEW- IMAGE REPAIR

7. The literature suggests that sports are
different from a traditional business
organization
The assets of sports are unique because, the only
product is the sport it puts on the field and that is
one and the same as its employees, the athletes
(Pederson, Miloch & Laucella, 2007)
As a result, image restoration in sports is
more urgent in the case of a work stoppage
LITERATURE REVIEW- NATURE OF
SPORTS

8. Ashish (2008) stated, “when their
team/athlete wins, the fans tend to believe
it’s their success too, bask in reflected glory
(“we won”) and with defeats, they mourn
equally (“we lost”)” (para 5)
 It is this extreme devotion and identification
to a product or organization that is missing
from traditional organizational work
stoppages and adds to the need to project a
positive image to the fans quickly and
effectively
LITERATURE REVIEW- FANATICISM

9. Agreements are more difficult to reach in
sports because they “have a monopoly in the
product market for their professional sports
(that is, there are no other "sellers" of
equivalent professional sports services) and a
monopsony in the labor market for their
professional athletes (that is, there are no
other "buyers" of the sports-skills possessed
by these professional athletes)” (Feldman,
2002, p. 847)
LITERATURE REVIEW- ECONOMICS

10. As Harmon & Lee (2010) explain sports get an
enormous amount of daily media coverage
“As sport has become a global commodity and
the “image value” of athletes has skyrocketed,
athlete image management has become an
important part of sports public relations”
(Brazeal, 2008, p.146)
Beat writers for each team are assigned to
follow one team for the entire year (in season
and off season) and publish updates daily
LITERATURE REVIEW- PR AND MEDIA

11. The method of investigation used is a textual
analysis focusing on dramatistic criticism
interpretative research approach
Using a qualitative method such as
dramatistic criticism, is the most effective
method, because the goal of the interpretative
scholar is “to explore the web of meaning that
constitutes human existence” (Griffin, 2003,
p. 14)
METHODOLOGY AND METHODS

12. Further, the use of textual analysis allows the
scholar to describe and interpret the
characteristics of the messages to further aid
in understanding the messages that are sent
and received (Griffin, 2003, p. 27)
Thus by using dramatistic criticism as a form
of textual analysis, I can investigate the
symbolic interactionism between all the
various parties affected by the lockout (Frey,
Botan, & Kreps, 1999)
METHODOLOGY AND METHODS

13. In order to have a base measurement of the
prestige, the annual report published by the
NFL on NFL.com from 2006-2013 will be to
provide an objective standard of where the
league was economically in the years prior to
and following the lockout
The percentage change for each category will
be determined and compared to the consumer
price index (CPI) provided online at the Bureau
of Labor Statistics every year
METHODOLOGY AND METHODS

14.  Next articles published in Sports Illustrated, The Sporting
News, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal
that mention the lockout were evaluated for the three
months prior to the crisis until three months after the
crisis ended
 The articles were read to observe the strategies,
language and images both sides of the work stoppage
employ
 determine the intended purpose or goal of the message
 the context in which the message was released
 the scene that the message sets
 how the message was received by the fans
METHODOLOGY AND METHODS

15. The research material for this study included
63 articles from January 2011 to October
2011
 Through my textual analysis process two
recurring themes emerged:
(1) the owners as the cause of the stoppage
(2) the players as promoting fairness.
RESULTS

16. One of the first things that came out in the media
was that the players were perfectly fine with the
current collective bargaining agreement (C.B.A.)
and would have been happy renewing the deal or
making minor changes to reflect the times
Immediately the conflict was set up as the
owners being the reason the lockout was going to
happen, as Leitch (2011) noted the owners were
trying to overhaul a deal they agreed to five years
ago, not because they were not making money
but because they wanted to be making more
RESULTS- THE OWNERS

17. As the media was painting the owners as the root
cause of the lockout, the language used by the
owners did not help the fans regain confidence in
the sport
A prime example of poor choice of language
comes from the owner of the Dallas Cowboys,
Jerry Jones, who spoke at meeting, with both
players and owners, about one month prior to the
lockout- as reported by Trotter (2011) in Sports
Illustrated
RESULTS- THE OWNERS

18.  He tried to lighten the mood by talking of his upbringing
and the business acumen that led to his purchase of the
Cowboys 22 years ago. The tenor changed when he began
discussing how two years of negotiations had failed to
bring the sides closer. What he said next, with arched
eyebrows, helped steer the situation past the point of no
return. "I don't think we've got your attention," Jones said
to the players, several of whom recounted the incident to
SI. "You clearly don't understand what we're saying, and
we're not hearing what you're saying. So I guess we're
going to have to show you to get your attention." Jones
tapped his fists together for emphasis-the players
interpreted it as a sign that a lockout was coming-then
stood and walked toward the door. (para 1)
RESULTS- THE OWNERS

19. The refusal to negotiate in a give-and-take
method was seen in the owners’ flat out
refusal to turn over their financial records
(Trotter, 2011).
 The players were not opposed to making
concessions if the owners were struggling for
money, but they wanted proof through the sharing
of financial records.
Reports in the papers indicated that the 2010
season had been the most profitable in NFL
history
RESULTS- THE OWNERS

20. The players focused on two major items during
their restoration process.
That it is only fair that they understand what they are
giving up in the negotiations
That they take the brunt of the damage in football
and it is only fair for them to be compensated in the
short-run for the long-run impact football has on their
bodies
RESULTS- THE PLAYERS

21. Players quickly addressed the salary issue
as Leitch (2011) reported in a New York
Times article
RESULTS- THE PLAYERS

22.  Players, on the other hand, have a limited window for
financial opportunity, make their biggest paydays at an age in
which they are least capable of being mature enough to
handle it and are blithely tossed aside when owners decide
they are no longer worth keeping. There is this strange idea in
the public mindset that players are fortunate to make money
for playing a kid's game, while owners have somehow really
earned their money. This is the opposite of true. To keep their
jobs, players must constantly perform at the highest level, in
front of the entire world, with intricate statistical measures in
place to quantify just how well they're doing. Owners, on the
other hand, answer to no one but one another, have their jobs
for life and more often than not have made their money not by
working their way up but by inheriting it or selling stock at the
right time (para 6)
RESULTS- THE PLAYERS

23.  As Belson (2011) explained, the players consistently
reminded the fans that they didn’t start the fight,
they were happy with what they had, and they just
want proof of why the owner’s needed the
concessions
 This message was relatable to fans who would also
want to know why they were getting a pay cut when
the company they worked for just made record
profits McDonell (2011)
RESULTS- THE PLAYERS

24.  By coming out as the hero’s of the lockout, the
players were able to maintain the fanaticism of the
their fans
 Support for the players increased as seen through total
NFL revenue
 the only figure that includes merchandise sales which under
the new collective bargaining agreement are shared with the
players.
 On the other hand total attendance and average
attendance which go directly to the owners either
decreased or increased at a slower than normal rate
RESULTS- BOUNCE BACK

25. RESULTS- BOUNCE BACK
Despite the fact that the numbers appear to rebound fairly well following the 2011
strike year, when compared to the national growth evidenced by the CPI, the percent
increases in Paid Attendance and Average Attendance tell a different story for the
owners.

26. RESULTS- BOUNCE BACK

27. This study inquired whether the traditional
image repair methods indicated by Benoit
(1997) would carry over to both the player and
owner discourse during the lockout
The fact that the owners locked out the
players specifically becomes an issue during
the NFL strike as the media was able to
characterize the owners as the bad guys vs.
the players as the good guys.
DISCUSSION

28. Since the owners are not well known, fans do not
have a perceived relationship with them and
instead, due to the rhetoric of the lockout, they
are easily vilified (Sternbergh, 2011).
 The rhetoric used by the owners made it very
easy for fans and the media to classify them as
the bad guys, because the owners primarily
focused on their need to make more money and
the power they held over the players.
 The major issue with this approach was their refusal to
turn over the financial records to prove that the owners
were not making a profit as they claimed.
DISCUSSION- THE OWNERS

29. The players helped the media build up their
image as the good guys by using rhetoric that
told the fans they were willing to play under
the old agreement and that they just wanted
what was fair
The players are clearly claiming that all the
actions they took were a reasonable response
to the provocation of the owners
 Stayed focused on making it clear it is what we would do
if our company pulled the same tricks on us
DISCUSSION- THE PLAYERS

30. The players handled the most damaging issue
they faced- that they make too much money- by
making sure that the fans knew that the average
football career is five years and then the players
are tossed away by the team, with no other skills
and a minimal benefits package On the other
hand the owners keep making money off the next
group of players (Leitch, 2011)
By using this rhetoric the players were able to
minimize negative feelings associated with
somebody making that much money claiming
they could not afford to take a pay cut
DISCUSSION- THE PLAYERS

31.  The literature, especially the work by Summers and
Morgan (2008) indicated that fans are quick to
characterize players and teams as heroes or villains
and then vilify the players or teams that do not live
up to their expectations and that clearly happened in
this lockout
 Monies that went directly to the owners saw very small
growth during the 2010 season when the lockout was
becoming apparent through the 2012 season
 In fact we saw large negative changes from the 2009-
2011 seasons and a very small increase in the season
following the lockout
DISCUSSION- FANATICISM

32. The player’s were seen as the winners in the
lockout, and the media widely reported that
one of the wins they achieved was revenue
sharing on merchandise sales
Thus, the fanatic fans supported the players,
whom Summers and Morgan (2008) would
characterize as the heroes, by purchasing NFL
licensed merchandise
This is seen by the increase in total revenue while
attendance and ticket sales were on the decline
DISCUSSION- FANATICISM

33.  First, it is a case study of one work stoppage and
therefore the results are limited to the 2011 NFL lockout
 Second, it only deals with a situation where the league
locks out the players
 Third, this study looks at the most popular sport in the
United States and thus the fan involvement is high
 Fourth, the study only used secondary sources, meaning
that the words of the owners and players were filtered
through the media frame and turned into the story the
media wanted to tell
 Finally, the study is American-centric
LIMITATIONS

34.  This study clearly showed that the Benoit (1997) image
restoration strategies continue to apply in the context of
a sports lockout
 Due to fanaticism, the strategies used may even take on
more meaning than in the traditional context
 Once the owners were viewed as being the cause of the
lockout they were unable to overcome that stigma
 The players, on the other hand, used traditional image
restoration strategies and continued to keep the owners faux
pas in the media, which allowed the fans to determine them
the victors even when they made certain concessions from the
previous agreement
CONCLUSIONS

35.  The lessons learned from the 2011 NFL lockout are
important because the changing nature of bargaining
discussed in the introduction is not unique to the NFL
and the owners will continue to pursue lockouts and
other negotiation strategies to even the ground they feel
they have lost in the last twenty years
 Other leagues can learn from the mistakes made by the
league and its owners during the 2011 lockout and
attempt to focus more on image restoration strategies to
portray a positive a more positive image through the
unpopular perceptions of the lockout
 The players and union can also use this case study as a
guide of how to present a unified message that answers
and provides the fans with reasons for potentially
unpopular decisions
CONCLUSIONS