Yahoo Sports has led their section on Monday with an offseason, pre-Olympic friendly wager between the Cleveland Browns Braylon Edwards and Olympic hero Michael Phelps…with Edwards placing a bet with Phelps’ pre-Beijing that he would catch more TD's than Phelps would win gold. Such a bet, if real or contrived, has great opportunties for Edwards and the downtrodden Browns as the season progresses, and could be a local media partners dream (it is already getting nice play on Yahoo obviously) an.has some solid PR oppts. for the Browns, especially given the bad blood between the Browns and Ravens fans from the franchise shifts and the fact that th.teams will mee.twice in the regular season (with Phelps obviously being a Baltimorean). Now could an enterprising brand find a way to use both the athletes in a campaig.? Perhaps, but given the high dollar amount attached with both the NFL and Phelps these days, maybe it can be left to a local brand to adopt Edwards and push him towards a fun challenge with Phelps across the fall. Could have some nice guerilla potential as well, especially when Baltimore and Cleveland meet. Smart publicity by Edwards and the Browns, interesting next steps.
Some other good reads…great piece in the New York Times business section on Falcons owner Arthur Blank…Darren Rovell has a deeper look into the Chad Johnson, Ocho Cinco jersey issue…the LA Times has a great profile on surfer Kelly Slater…?the Bergen Record has a good piece on local cleaner Barry Barone, the guy who cleans and mends the jerseys and uniforms each week for the worl.champion New York Giants…
