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Activists' pressure on NFL
may affect its TV coverage
NEW YORK | Anyone at the National Football League, or in the offices of their TV partners, not familiar with the kind of heat the Humane Society of the United States is capable of bringing should flash back to December 2004.
hsus.org
That's when Wayne Pacelle, president/CEO of the Humane Society, targeted HBO Sports, calling for the network to fire Roy Jones Jr., an analyst on the network's "World Championship Boxing" telecasts, if he did not give up his heavy involvement in cockfighting.
HBO Sports boss Ross Greenburg, an animal-rights supporter, was confronted with a troubling, complicated dilemma. HBO Sports was not responsible for Jones being a participant in a barbaric practice at the time illegal in 48 states and Jones was not breaking the law.
Normally, broadcasters are under an inordinate amount of scrutiny from viewers. Things get much hotter like in the Jones cockfighting situation when activist groups, relentless in their pursuit of a cause, get involved.
Just ask Don Imus.
Jones was terminated, a year after the Humane Society contacted HBO Sports, for what the network said was an unrelated matter.
This brings us to Michael Vick, who was indicted on dogfighting charges on Tuesday. It would appear the quarterback is just a problem for Falcons owner Arthur Blank and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. Here's who is also in a fix: the NFL's national broadcast partners Fox, ESPN, CBS, NBC and the NFL Network.
For if any network suit believes activist groups that want Vick suspended are not going to put major pressure on them too, they are delusional. Vick is not an employee of the networks. Yet these outlets televise NFL games, including ones Vick plays in. This gives them target status. On its Web site, the Humane Society is now urging its members (of which there are more than eight million) to implore the NFL to act and suspend Vick.
If Goodell does not suspend Vick, it would not be surprising as it did with HBO and Jones if the Humane Society, and other concerned citizens, put pressure on the NFL's high-profile TV partners.
It would be hard for animal-rights activists to affect broadcast coverage. Fox, NBC, ESPN, CBS and NFLN have contracts with the NFL that must be honored. The network suits can stand or hide behind them. No one should expect them to refuse to televise a Falcons game.
There is another way to negatively affect the NFL's TV partners and force them to pressure Goodell into suspending Vick: activists could certainly make life uncomfortable for the broadcasters, and their advertisers, by urging a boycott of products sold by any company advertising on an NFL game.
This would immediately generate more terrible publicity for the NFL. It could also have severe financial implications. If NFL advertisers start believing the public perceives them as being in bed with a league that allows one of its marquee stars, involved in dogfighting, to keep playing without sanction, these major corporations could start pulling their money out of NFL telecasts.
Another issue for these networks is how they handle the Vick story. Traditionally, NFL TV rights-holders have been very cautious covering players' off-field behavior when it had little or no impact on the game they are broadcasting.
These Vick allegations rise to a level far above the deviant behavior routinely exhibited by some NFL players. The warped mentality described in the Vick indictment is off the charts. This is not your standard drug/alcohol/nightclub fracas kind of thing. Those stories usually have a short shelf life. The Vick story won't. It's about a player who may have a dark side beyond description and comprehension.
The pregame and halftime shows will be hard-pressed to give the story short shrift. But never underestimate the ability of these programs to sweep negative NFL stories under the artificial carpet.
By Larry Stewart, Los Angeles Times"
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