To Be Productive (aka 2bProductive Blog): NFL Makes BIG Business Blunder

For a business to succeed, it must have customers. If a business is fortunate enough to have repeat customers, they try their best to understand how to keep them coming back.

What, Where, and When was the NFL business blunder? Sports is a business! So why did NFL team owners (leaders), coaches (managers) and players (employees) agree with each other to make such a blunder of their business? Obviously they were not thinking about fan (customer) response to their actions over the weekend in various stadiums across the country. Did they not realize that fans are their customers, not blind followers. Their customers (aka American citizens) felt insulted over the weekend and have been showing their anger in true protest by: burning team products and tickets on social media, canceling football packages via cable, boycotting both games and sponsors.

How does the NFL get back their customers? Good customer service says to apologize and emphasize. Instead, the NFL keeps piling on excuses for their behavior. This is a bad move for an organization already showing profit loss. Apologizing will not get all their fans back this season (business quarter), but it might result in a few since some may be quick to forgive - especially if an incentive to return is given. If the NFL wants a better profitable season next year, then they need to start with a general apology to the whole USA and then teams need to give a targeted apology with refunds on game tickets where insult occurred to fans.

Why is it important for their business for NFL and teams to apologize? Like any business, they have competition for their customers' attention and money. For the game pf football, may fans prefer their college team over professional teams, and of course there are the high school games as well. Another obvious competition is other types of sports. For example, the main competition team sports are those that were created in the USA: Baseball and Basketball, Other competition team sports with a USA beginning include: Lacrosse, Roller Derby, and Volleyball. American football is an adaptation on the English game of Soccer, as is Rugby. Other team-based sports competitors might include: Bowling (origin Egypt), Hockey (origin Canada), Polo (origin Persia). Then there are also smaller competitions from: Archery, Badminton, Billiards, Boating (all types), Boxing, Climbing, Cycling, Darts, Fishing, Frisbee, Golf, Gymnastics, Handball, Horse-riding, Horseshoes, Jumping, Kites, Knife-throwing, Paintball, Pickle-ball, Racing (boats, cars, motorcycles,and other motor-types.), Rodeo, Running, Shooting, Skateboarding, Skating, Skiing, Skydiving, Snowboarding, Swimming, Tennis, Tug-of-war, Weight-lifting, Wrestling, and even more. Chess, dancing, gambling, and knitting are competitive events now too!

Who gave excuses for NFL actions? According to reporters, the first kneeling incident was last year and was suppose to be a protest. Typically protests are obvious because of signs or clothing containing words about the reason for protest. Doing this on an NFL field might result in fines, so the protester could lose money. Instead last year's player got a free interview to explain his kneeling and later in interview said he would stand this year for anthem. Some say the mass NFL protests by some team members were suppose to be a sign of solidarity for the person causing the 1st incident, others say there is more to it than that. Whose idea was this so-called political protest now known as a bad business move, even though anthem standing is in NFL operation manual? Whose idea was this political protest that is now known as a bad business move? A few sportscasters have tried to defend the NFL actions by saying it was not flag or patriotism related. Oops again... Telling your viewers (network's customers) they are wrong might result in lost ratings rather then keeping open a time slot for sports. If sportscasters are worrying about filling time slot with enough sports, without NFL, they might want to check WHY paragraph above for alternatives.

LESSON TO LEARN: Admit a bad idea, apologize, then get on with your real business! Sports is supposed to be fun escape/entertainment from what is going on in the world, it is not for politics or protest.