Posted by John Vrooman on Friday, September 19, 2014 in National Football League.

Interview with Sports Illustrated. 

So far, we’ve seen NFL sponsors say they are watching the situation with the league and its handling of the Ray Rice incident but no company has disassociated itself. What does that say about the value sponsors place on their connection to the NFL?

In the sports business world the NFL is usually considered untouchable and the demand for sponsorship rights deals is highly inelastic with respect to scandal and gross misconduct. Sponsors feel fortunate to just hang with the League. The Ray Rice affair is the tip of an ice-berg that can possibly sink the titanic NFL. Ray Rice obviously has a spousal abuse problem, and according to most women’s groups (NOW) the NFL has a violence against women problem. The iceberg in this particular case is the cold indifference in the manner that the League (and Commissioner Roger Goodell) has handled the Ray Rice dilemma for the League and its blindly faithful sponsors.

What do you think would have to come to light, if anything, during/from the NFL’s outsourced investigation that would prompt sponsors to pull away from the league?

Unfortunately he outsourced investigation appears to be a sham even though it is headed by two of its most respected old-guard owners and the former head of the FBI with multiple cross-associations throughout the League. But if it can be shown that the League and any of its executives or owners knowingly covered up or had previous knowledge of the second video that actually shows Rice’s left hook (implicit knowledge of the punch was not sufficient to concern the League) then the sponsors will abandon ship, and when the ship begins to take on water other sponsors will bail out.

One thought I had was that if an investigation turned up several instances where the league covered up or ignored evidence of violence against women by players, that might be a tipping point of sorts that led sponsors to walk away. Would that do it?

I guess we were thinking about the same toleration threshold.  The NFL shield seems to be unassailable with respect to scandal but this somehow seems different. Violence against women permeates the very fabric of our society in many covert ways, but when the evidence is overtly in our face and the most powerful sports League in the world seems to protect its shield more than the rights or even simple safety of women, then this is where we draw the line. Not only are women 44 percent of the NFL fan base but they are our mothers, wives, girlfriends, sisters and daughters. Ray Rice clearly has a violence problem and the League has a violence problem that is now compounded by its ultimate credibility problem.

Short of something like that, sponsors will go where the audience is. The companies will be watching the ratings and monitoring the reaction of fans and that will ultimately drive any move they make. True? Somewhat true?

The sponsors will be gauging the fantasy inflated ratings which have long ago stopped reflecting the quality of the game, because ultimately the only boycott that works is a fan-based movement. But this case is again somehow different because the mistrust has extended to Roger Goodell and ultimately the strangely silent NFL owners, who Goodell is sworn to protect.  In the recent case of the LA Clippers the sponsors pre-emptively and independently dropped Donald Sterling like a bad habit even before the fans could mobilize their disgust . The real threat to the NBA was also the threat of collective action by the players. Justice was swift and decisive in the Clippers case, but in this case the governance and credibility of the entire League could be under indictment. Violence against women problem is not new to the League, but this unique in-our-face case is just the beginning of a deeper accountability. Commissioner Goodell is only the messenger who carries a deeper message of the hubris and unassailable arrogance that hides behind the NFL shield that he is sworn to protect.

The NFL is notorious tough negotiator with its partners. It knows how valuable a product it has. Does this incident create any leverage for partners, even it if it is only a short window of time, to demand something in exchange for sticking with the league through this?

The League and its sponsors are an uniquely elite gentlemen’s club and the Super Bowl has become a year-end gala for all insiders to celebrate. All of its inside sponsors enjoy the simple association with the most powerful League in the world.

But violence against women cannot be tolerated anywhere, any time at any level, and the attempts of the most powerful League to hide from that simple guiding ethic could irreversibly tarnish that seemingly impenetrable shield. Soon we will be barraged with feel-good sponsor ads touting a deeper respect for women and celebrating their clever acumen as NFL fans, but the NFL shield is now transparent and the powerful League and its owners have lost something more important in this episode that they may not ever recover. We have all been diminished in the process.

V