Does the Risk of Signing Bad Behavior Players Reap More Benefits?

For the longest time, professional athletes haven’t just been recognized for what they do on the field, but are scrutinized for the lives they are leading off the field. With the sponsorship investments in key players reaching far into the millions, is there a smart way to handle the off-field misconduct of players?

Sports news seems to revolve around the negativity surrounding the personal lives of some of sports’ biggest players like Michael Vick, Tiger Woods, and recently, the Pittsburgh Steelers’ Ben Roethlisberger and Santonio Holmes. With a franchise that has won six Super Bowl titles, it was a widely criticized move the Steelers made when trading Holmes to the New York Jets for a fifth-round draft pick. The organization was looking to make an example out of Holmes, and some think Steelers’ owner Dan Rooney was hoping to send a message to Roethlisberger, who was at the time facing possible sexual misconduct charges for the second time in 12 months.

On the upside to this trade, the Steelers have rid themselves of Holmes, a player who has a pattern of drawing negative legal attention that is damaging to the team and the franchise. Along with Holmes’ assault charge, marijuana possession charge, and domestic violence charges, the Steelers also lost Holmes coming off a great season with 79 catches for 1,248 yards and five touchdowns. Although being in the public eye the Steelers’ franchise felt the urge to the do the right thing, some would argue why at such a low price? Perhaps the angry outcry from fans that are offended by the recent actions of both Holmes and Roethlisberger has put enough pressure on the organization to make a change.

 In “Affinity and Affiliation: The Dual-Carriage Way to Team Identification,” which is being published in the June 2010 issue of Sport Marketing Quarterly, authors Mark Pritchard, Jeffrey Stinson, and Elizabeth Patton talk about the impact fan base can have on a team: “A parallel vein of research in sports has stemmed primarily from the belief that highly identified dedicated fans directly impact the economic success of teams and leagues.”

 In a news segment by Pittsburgh’s KDKA News that aired April 23, the station received mixed reactions from adult fans who have children looking up to Big Ben. In reference to whether or not these parents would allow their children to continue to wear Roethlisberger’s No. 7 Steelers jersey, “Definitely not, not until Ben makes some better choices and shows that he is going to be a better role model and a better hero,” said parent Taryn Briggs. Another parent, Shelly Gold said, “He has a lot of making up to do to the city of Pittsburgh. It’s been embarrassing.”

Pritchard et al. make a strong point about the representation of purchasing and wearing a jersey that carries negative connotations. “When sport teams portray strength, teamwork, success or other desirable qualities, fans attracted to these attributes often attach themselves psychologically and identify with those teams. Consumers who become attached to products for symbolic reasons use this purchase behavior as a vehicle for self-representation.”

Aside from the loss of respect from fans, Roethlisberger was suspended by the NFL for the first six games of the season, resulting in forfeiting an estimated $2.8 million of his $102 million total deal. The Steelers’ organization will also be fined a maximum of $200,000 by the NFL for acquiring a second suspension from a second player in a 12-month time span. After news broke of trading Holmes, many felt Roethlisberger was lucky to be given a second chance with the Steelers’ organization and are confident he will take the necessary steps to rebuilding his career.

The Jets, who signed Holmes for the upcoming season, understand the risk involved with investing in a young player who has a history of legal problems. Aside from his pending legal issues and league policy suspending him for the first four games of the season, the only risk Jets general manager Mike Tannenbaum feels they have taken is hoping Holmes won’t continue down the same path.

 “To go back down the same road, make the same mistakes, won’t be accepted,” Holmes said during a conference call with reporters.

The Jets ended their previous season with a 9-7-0 record and are looking to improve their organization with the addition of Holmes to talented players like Mark Sanchez, LaDainian Tomlinson, and Shonn Greene.

With the help of fan feedback, and league suspensions and fines, each of these teams handled the misconduct of their players from a business sense, weighing whether Roethlisberger and Holmes would potentially be more of a loss or gain for their organization. Only time, and the players’ future actions, will determine whether or not each organization made the right move.

Author Talks about Benefits of Team Sports

For someone who never played organized sports in his life, Mo Rocca wanted to know what he was missing out on. For those answers, the CBS Sunday Morning correspondent turned to Dr. Amy Baltzell.

Baltzell, author of the upcoming book Living in the Sweet Spot: Preparing for Performance in Sport and Life, is a professor at Boston University who specializes in positive psychology.  As an athlete, she was a member of the U.S. Olympic rowing team, so she speaks from experience.

In the segment, Rocca’s goal is to be able to play a game of pick-up basketball. First, he seeks input from Baltzell about the benefits of participating in a team sport. Then he solicits instruction on how to play the game of basketball from the Iona men’s basketball team. The segment, which is rather humorous in a self-deprecating sort of way, ends with Rocca’s first attempt at playing pick-up hoops on the playgrounds of New York’s Chinatown.

Below is video of the segment.

Are Nike Shoes Leading to Injuries?

Is a new line of Nike basketball shoes to blame for what seems to be an abundance of injuries? Perhaps there is just more media attention given to the injuries, but it seems that this season, more than others, there have been more foot and knee injuries to key players in college basketball.

Two Final Four teams were limited due to foot injuries, and both teams failed to advance to the national championship game. Michigan State’s Kalin Lucas, a first-team All-Big Ten selection, suffered an Achilles’ tendon injury during the NCAA Tournament that sidelined him for the remainder of the season. Spartan guard Chris Allen played sparingly after suffering a sprained arch in his right foot earlier in the NCAA Tournament. The Spartans, playing without Lucas, were defeated by two points by Butler in the national semifinals.

West Virginia had to finish its tournament run without its point guard after Truck Bryant broke a bone in his foot during practice. Then in the second half of their loss to Duke, the Mountaineers saw All-American Da’Sean Butler go down with an ACL tear and MCL sprain to his left knee after he planted while dribbling toward the baseline.

Duke was also the beneficiary of a less-than-healthy squad in the Sweet 16, when it beat Purdue minus its top player, Robbie Hummel. The Boilermakers were widely regarded as a Final Four contender before Hummel tore the ACL in his right knee in the last month of the season after planting on a drive similar to the way Butler was injured. The Boilermakers also played the first half of the season without starting point guard Lewis Jackson, who had surgery after sustaining cartilage damage in his foot, and freshman Sandi Marcius missed the entire season because of a broken bone in his foot.

The list of key players sustaining injuries to their feet or knees could go on and on. But the one thing the above-mentioned players have in common is that they were all at Nike-sponsored basketball programs and had the option of wearing a new lightweight line of Nike basketball shoes—the Nike Hyperize or Hyperdunk.

And the connection between the shoes and injuries hasn’t just been Internet message board speculation by fans frustrated to see top players from their favorite teams sidelined. Detroit Pistons strength and conditioning coach Arnie Kander reportedly tried to ban the Pistons from wearing the Nike Hyperize shoe earlier this season after he saw an unusual number of ankle injuries to his players. Kander has been with the Pistons for 18 years.

“I’m not going to name the brand of shoe it was, but it has been banned from our locker room and the guys aren’t allowed to wear it,” Kander was quoted as saying. “These shoes had taken most of the support out of the sides and it was a lighter shoe. Most basketball shoes weigh between 1.4 and 1.7 pounds. These shoes were weighing 0.8 pounds, which was way too light as far as side support. Since we’ve banned the shoe, knock on wood, we haven’t had any ankle sprains.”

Randy Meador, West Virginia University’s coordinator of athletic training services, said Mountaineer players have four different options of Nike shoes they can wear. He said he has not seen an increase of foot injuries this season, citing Bryant as the only player to sustain a foot injury. “We really did not notice a problem with shoes this year,” Meador said.

Michigan State coach Tom Izzo and his players take a similar stance, although Allen still switched to an older, heavier Nike shoe after his injury in order to provide more support.

After Allen and then Lucas went down with injuries, Michigan State director of sports medicine Jeff Kovan told the Detroit Free Press he would look into any possible correlation between the injuries and the Nike Hyperdunk shoes that the Spartans wear.

“Is there a problem with that shoe?” Kovan asked. “Well, obviously Arnie Kander has had a lot of problems, and I respect [his] decision. For us, we haven’t really seen a lot of problems. We’ve had sprains we’ve had every year. Therefore, yeah, we’re going to look at that, because if we don’t look at it, we’re not doing a service to the kids to make sure we’re protecting them.”