Recently Ted Bishop, the president of the PGA tour, was fired due to a sexist Tweet and Facebook post directed towards Ian Poulter about comments that were made in Poutler's book about the Ryder Cup. Bishop was fired and hasn't apologized, but the question is will he?
Crisis Communication in sports isn't a new thing. Whether it's Tiger Woods trying to revamp his image after committing adultery with several women, Riley Cooper trying to explain his racist comments at a concert, or Greg Oden trying to explain why multiple nude and semi-nude photos ended up the internet crisis communication and the sporting world go together like Rasheed Wallace and technical fouls. It's eventually going to happen.
Ted Bishop hasn't apologized, yet, but why is apologizing the first thing athletes, coaches and commentators do following a crisis that gets public? It it because they feel so bad about what they have done? Doubtful. Is it because they feel a moral obligation to be good role models for little kids that grow up wanting to be just like their sporting heroes? That idea is about as comical as it is wrong. Then why do the apologizes following questionable actions flow like the waters of Lake Minatonka? Like the professor of my sports communication class explained, it's all about the brand and it's all about the money.
It's hard for me to believe that Mike Tyson was actually sorry after he bit off Evander Holyfield's ear, but he still apologized. Do I think the likes of Mark McGwire, Rafael Palmeiro, Alex Rodriguez or Ryan Braun felt remorse that they cheated baseball or were they just screwed because the truth just caught up with them. Is it even fathomable that Latrell Sprewell honestly felt bad about choking then coach P.J. Carlesimo after the two got in an argument during an NBA practice? The biggest reason for apology wasn't because Tyson reflected on his actions and said, "gee wiz I probably shouldn't have bitten off Evander's ear that was wrong." No, Tyson wanted another fight and he didn't want to miss out on endorsements possibilities. McGwire and company all wanted to be apart of the Major Leagues again, whether actively or in the Hall of Fame, that's why they said "sorry." I'm not sure about Sprewell, the man who turned down $21 million because "he couldn't feed his family on that salary," might have honestly felt bad. He was crazy enough.
In all reality if any of these people didn't face future loss of monetary or other value none of them would have apologized. Why would they? They are above the law, they won't face punishment and they know it. They just don't want to lose money. Most of the time it isn't even the people who are apologizing's apology. It's some lawyer's or PR specialist's apology that the athlete or coach just reading word for word because that's how it's done.
So what do these "apologies" buy the guilty parties? Second chances in the case of Michael Vick. A false sense of humility it the case of Tiger Woods or Kobe Bryant. An apology from another party as is the case of Wade Boggs. The apologies are intended to protect whatever the athlete, coach or commentator want to protect. The bottom line is sorrow has nothing to do with it. The better question is it worth it? In some cases, probably so. In other cases no way. So what should Ted Bishop do? If he wants another job previous experiences say to apologize. If he were Mike Leach he wouldn't apologize. Maybe Bishop, like Leach, can stand his ground and eventually make it back. No matter what happens, I'm going to tip my cap to the person who writes Bishop's apology. That will be some damn good writing.
For some info on famous apologies click here.
No comments:
Post a Comment