NFL likes marketable players, but only to a degree. Andrew Brandt
The initial pronouncement (later rescinded) by Chad Ochocinco that he would wear the jersey number of fallen teammate Chris Henry despite strict instructions from the league not to do so is the latest example of the “me vs. we” push and pull that exists in the NFL between players and management on a weekly basis.
The NFL has become the most successful sports venture in history, in large part because it’s built around a league-first mentality of all for one and one for all. The league’s mantra is that the power of the shield (the NFL logo) is paramount and supersedes the brand of any other team, and certainly any other player. Indeed, the strength of the league is derived from the collective spirit of teams sharing the most revenues of any major sports league (ironically, some of that collective spirit is in debate among certain owners in revenue-sharing discussions).
However, the “league above team above players” mentality tends to get a bit messy with characters such as the Bengals’ Ochocinco. He and many others like him are brands unto themselves, trying to market themselves in unique and interesting ways that don’t necessarily mesh with that of the league office. Whether it involves clever/silly/harebrained antics after scoring a touchdown, running his own news and information network, racing a horse or the more sentimental wearing of a deceased friend’s jersey, Chad is often more about Chad than he is about the Bengals or the NFL.
The irony, however, is that while Chad is building his own brand, he is also marketing the brand of the Bengals and the league. Players like Ocho and Terrell Owens are like accidents on the side of the road: We don’t want to look, but we can’t help ourselves. While we may rail about their self-serving and attention-seeking behavior – which I have often done – we want to see that behavior. How many of us feel disappointed when we see a highlight of one of these players scoring a touchdown that’s not followed by an entertaining dance or celebration?
This is the contradiction of “look-at-me” players like Ochocinco and many others. While team and league officials shake their heads at his antics, they – in their private moments – are happy that these players are on their rosters, bringing attention and the interest of casual fans to their product. Certainly, when Bengals officials socialize with their friends, do you think the subject is about blocking schemes? It’s probably often about Chad and either “Did you see what he did?” or “What do you think he’ll do next?”
An area that will continue to be at the forefront of player individuality vs. the collective good of the league is Twitter. The NFL instituted a Twitter policy prior to the season, but it’s directed at competitive issues such as tweeting before, during and immediately after games. The league – perhaps on the advice of counsel -- does not legislate how a player expresses himself to his legions of followers. We will probably continue to see players’ individual remarks/comments/observations bump up against the league’s interest in muting some expression.
As a league and a collective business, the NFL wants players to care more about the name of the team than the name (or number) on the back of the jersey. The NFL has been successful having uniformity in everything, especially in uniforms, fining for shoe color to sock length to untucked jerseys (Denver’s Brandon Marshall will likely also face a fine for wearing Henry’s number and jersey during warm-ups). However, the league wants some individuality as well as individuals marketing the league, especially individuals like Ochocinco, or for last week, Quince (15 for Chris Henry’s number).
The other interested party in this is the NFL Players Association. It took an unworkable yet popular stance with Ochocino, publicly offering to pay any fine from the league. Although it turned out to be unnecessary, it was about more than Ochocinco.
The union used Ocho’s idea to take a little dig at the league and support their well-known constituent in a sympathetic cause -- but also to take a dig at an adversary that’s stonewalling them in bargaining and taking an unpopular stance with the Henry situation.
The union may have wanted to think that one through, however. It does not want to create a slippery slope in trying to help Ochocinco. There were two other players who died earlier this year in a boating tragedy, Corey Smith of the Detroit Lions and Marquis Cooper of the Oakland Raiders. What if a player or players from those teams wanted to do something similar without the consent of the team or league? Would the union pay those fines? What will its position be on similar tragedies in the future? What if a teammate wants to honor a popular teammate who was released for what the union believes to be unjust reasons? The NFLPA may have good intentions here, but it certainly has to be careful.
The Ochocinco episode is the most recent example of the tense and tenuous relationship between the players and the NFL, which wants them to be marketable commodities yet not too individualistic in their expression. Ochocinco is fun to watch, but he upsets the natural order of sameness the league desires.
Other notes from the weekend:
Guess who threw the winning pass in the Raiders-Broncos game Sunday? Maybe he read the column...
Wonder if the next contract breakdown of someone who appears to be vastly overpaid should be the one done less than two months ago for Chicago’s Jay Cutler…
Is there any more inane commercial than the Bud Light infomercial with the condiment shooter? Please have some respect for us as viewers…
Follow me on Twitter: adbrandt
For a look at the crowded AFC wild-card race, check out this article from Bleacher Report.
Not sure I would put Ocho in the same category as Terrell Owens. Owens is a boor, Ocho is entertaining. At least that's how I view them; MPC50. Married, Professional, Caucasian, 50 yr. old.
I'm not even going to pretend to understand how you can legitimately compare TO to Chad. TO is a locker room menace who clearly is a ME first player. Ocho does not do that. TO has torn every single team's locker room apart that he's been a part of. I can't recall Chad ever doing that. His motivation for his antics are completely different than TO. They are not selfish at all. His goal is entertainment for the people watching. Whether that meshes with the No Fun League's policies is a different debate, but spinning that into a selfish act, especially when it involves wearing another person's jersey (something a so called "self-serving" person clearly would not do if you argue he's marketing his name/brand) is ridiculous.
Good article. I think the league has been a little too quick to fine players for minor issues, but they have the balance close to being about right for on-field issues. I don't understand the TD celebration policy. Jumping in the stands is acceptable but celebrating with a teammate is not? I do wish they would ban excessive celebrations for routine plays. I am sick of seeing guys run 10 yards down the field waving their arms when they make a routine tackle on first down while trailing by three TDs.
You are also correct that the Bud Lite condiment shooter commercial is among the worst to have ever been aired. I would love to see Shawne Merriman or Richie Incognito body slam that annoying little jerk.
Nick-
Did not mean to equate the honoring of a deceased teammate with it being self-serving. I do believe, however, that many of Ocho's antics -- not involving Chris Henry -- are strategic and brand-building, even in the face of league discipline. TO often does the same, although I do believe Ocho is a better teammate than TO. It is interesting how there has been a change in perception of Ocho over the past year or so, as he was clearly viewed as an attention-seeking diva in prior years.
I agree with Chad..the league treats certain players different, there is NO consistancy. Look at the Favre Fiasco,,I'am retired, no I'am not ,release me, I hate the team you traded me too so I'am going to retire again, release me please, I'am unretired cuz now I get to be where I want. What a joke..first the NFL looks the other way on tampering charges not once but twice, then they pretty much allow the guy to cry and whine to obtain his own form of free agency. Chad, if your name was Favre, you could pretty much wear any jersey YOU want. As long as it benefits YOU.
Chad Ochocinco went to his knees after scoring a TD...that's illegal in the NFL. Why wasn't a penalty flag thrown?
The Niners' Josh Morgan received a penalty for pretending to take a picture of Vernon Davis earlier this year.
A player(I can't remember which) took to one knee to thank God after scoring a TD...that was called.
So why wasn't this instance penalized? Was it because the refs didn't want to be ripped to pieces by the media? Did the NFL tell them to change the rules if this happened? Look, I don't have a problem with what Ochocinco did, I have a problem with how hypocritical the league is, more specifically, how hypocritical Goodell is...but that's another story.
Matt, I don't know if that's true. Greg Jennings and Donald Driver do it after every single touchdown this year. It never gets called. One time they threw the flag (I think against the Bucs) but then they redacted it and said there was no penalty.
"It is interesting how there has been a change in perception of Ocho over the past year or so, as he was clearly viewed as an attention-seeking diva in prior years." - Andrew Brandt
Twitter. Ocho has used social networking to circumvent the lazy superficial media coverage. Kudos to him.
It's nice to want to honour a teammate and friend but everyone else on the team was happy to have his number on their helmet and will honour their friend in whatever other ways they choose. I don't think Chad's a bad person nor does he really have any bad intentions, but whether inadvertent or not, his desire to wear the jersey was clearly going to draw attention to himself. I just think he's a highly insecure person, similar to TO, who feels the need to always tell everyone how great he is or how sad he is instead of just letting his actions do the talking. Also, praying in the endzone is not illegal, and not that it should be but it does seem like an odd time to feel the need to pray.
"Players like Ocho and Terrell Owens are like accidents on the side of the road: We don’t want to look, but we can’t help ourselves."
Can't you come up with something better than this considering how Chris Henry died?
I agree wtih the others - - Chad and TO are very different. Although TO has handled a very difficult situation this year with class.
Nick--
Wow, I didn't know that. I've seen it flagged twice and it hurt the Niners when it happened to them(Penalized on the kickoff).
If they're doing it after every single play then I'd really like to hear what the definition of the rule is.
Nick,
Mike Periera, the NFL's head of officials, has said that the rule is you cannot touch the ground in a touchdown celebration with any part of your body (other than your feet), with the lone exception being a "religious celebration" -- bending on one knee, or even both knees, I suppose.
It was incorrectly flagged in one game for sure (Periera went over it in his Official Review segment on NFL Network), but the officials picked up the flag and did not penalize the act.
It's a really weird rule in my opinion, because you're allowed to touch the ground in a non-touchdown celebration (e.g. after making a first down or intercepting a pass), but I think they wanted to make the rule as stringent as possible so they could have a reason to penalize almost any touchdown celebration. T.O. was penalized early this year for assuming a sprinter's stance after a touchdown -- they flagged it because he touched the ground with his hand.
Chad acts a little rash at times in my opinion. Consider this. Earlier this year when flying to one of his away games he tweeted for someone/anyone to pick him up at the airport and take him to the mall. Any celebrity in his right mind would never do something as wreckless as this, with all the crime and unbalanced people in the world. Its horrible that this tragedy happened to Henry, but if something like this happened to Chad, I would have not been too shocked. Announcing he will be going to a restaurant for dinner, come on down, its on me, is a great gesture to his fans, but that seems pretty risky. Movies like "The Fan" or the real life attack on Monica Seles seem to be either unknown to Chad or don't faze him. He is riding high, doing whatever he wants it seems and couldn't care what the consequences are (for infractions, he gladly pays the fines). He needs to get his head screwed on straight and think more before he acts on and off the field. He needs to look at the football players now who are retired and broke, because while he is now per himself "rich", he won't stay that way unless he plans for the years when he can't catch a ball anymore.
Very good article.
Thanks
Cutler is no different than any other player who gets an extension before they have earned it.
Get him the right coach and a line in front of him and he will rebound. If Cutler is a bust then everybody was fooled (except maybe Josh McDaniels).
Cutler has the arem and the short term memory (in regards to INT's) as well as some inconsistencies.
Andrew and everyone else in here; why won't anyone say anything about the 800-lb gorilla that's present in the article which is since the league was segregated old white guys have never know quite how to handle or react with demostrative jubilant young black men.
Very good article.
Thanks
Twitter has changed my personal perception of Ocho, which is really quite an accomplishment. I was a "lumper", putting Ocho antics in much the same category as "Team Obliterator". Maybe T.O. ought to consult Ocho on maximizing his tweets.
No, I am not a twitter fan, have no interest in Twitter, find it somewhat ridiculous, etc. (One of those aforementioned old white guys).
I know folks online that follow Ocho and his tweets religiously. He has done some very neat things for his fans via that medium (the cynic in me duly notes that his generosity through Twitter is some incredibly well-spent money)...
He made a believer out of me... I like him now, and that took some doing. I'm one of those team/league-first kind of people...
which I find no support for in teams' actual hiring practices. Owners have such a huge financial incentive to hire the best available that the Rooney Rule is at best silly PC nonsense. At worse it is a slap in the face of qualified minority candidates, who are marginalized as "Rule" candidates when they do get interviews.
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Dec 21, 2009
11:41 AM
I think you're a little off base here. No surprise based on your past jobs. But twisting remembering a fallen teammate into a selfish thing is a tenuous link, at best. You probably should've rethought this whole article for a moment when a player wasn't grieving the loss of a friend and a teammate. Seems insensitive and cold...the same problem that the league you're supporting has.