With another successful Arena Bowl on tap (featuring two good markets in Philly and the Bay Area), expansion possibly to Europe, improved ratings on TV and more market by market coverage, the AFL should have had a love fest this weekend in New Orleans for a sold out Arena Bowl.David Baker said as much on Mike and Mike this past Friday morning. He was well messaged, hit all his points and for even the causal fan the outlook of the AFL from it's top man seemed bright.Baker surprisingly resigned from his post, throwing the league into immediate uncertainty and clouding what would have been a bright weekend. A.is consistent with a solid PR team, the AFL handled the crisis in stage one ver.well. Baker immediately spoke to the biggest voice (AP's Barry Wilner.?which got the AFL message out as positively as possible in an unusual situation. Throughout the weekend all interviews from players to coaches to broadcasters, have spoken about nothing but the positives and the future of the AFL and Baker's legacy and have deftly avoided questions of the timing of the announcement and what else could have gone into it. Ironically the timing has probably played in the AFL's favor…late on a summer Friday after a series of pressers where there was no indictation of an issue. The board also acted correctly in naming associate comish Ed Policy into a governance role and giving Baker the ability to leave his post after Sunday's game. Now where the speculation and rumors go from here is anyone's guess. However in keeping all interested parties on message, getting the correct message out to the fans and the media and keeping everything focused on the athletes and the teams and minimizing distraction, the AFL scored big points in the news cycle.
Some other good weekend reads…with NFL camps getting started, a host of solid lead-in features on new athetes and faces will be popping up…one of the best to start was in last Sunday's Washington Post by Les Carpenter on new Redskins coach Jim Zorn…great access, great insight into a new face in the DC area…another great read which followed up on the expanded use of digital space earlier in the week was in Friday's Wall Street Journal, which detailed the NFL and NBC's live streaming plans for the upcoming season, complete with unique angles…on the “love of sports” line, check out Sunday's New York Daily News and Gary Myers’ piece on seeing sports through the eyes of young people, and Friday's New York Post piece by Kevin Kernan on his trip to Cooperstown for the Hall of Fame induction…also on the Arena Bowl page, the AFL continued to do a great job of telling the stories of those in the game…one good one was in Friday's Philadelphia Inquirer, with Kevin Tatum telling the long road of the Soul's Larry Brackins and his quest to use the AFL as a springboard back to the NFL…goos slice of life pitch.
