What Is And What Should Never Be...

Since I've been neglecting my blog lately and everyone else seems to be passing me while I chug in the slow bloggers lane, I thought to myself "Maybe it's time for a new blog entry." And so, below is the latest edition of The Bird's Eye View.

Enjoy!

As a followup to my last entry, I did watch the Mike Danton interview with Nick Kypreos and like Kypreos, came away with a different impression of Danton as a person. Whatever therapy or other help he received while incarcerated seems to have helped. Speaking of prison, Danton said during the interview "Prison was my salvation. It saved my life." He also admitted he was "a loose cannon, like a chicken running around with my head cut off". If he knew that then, then why didn't he get the help he knew he needed?! He could've avoided jail altogether!

What's more interesting to me is not what Danton said but the fact that Frost stayed in the proverbial weeds. Maybe Frost figured that Danton would say his side of the story and he wouldn't have to speak. Danton described his relationship with Frost as a "father son as opposed to a player agent relationship." That statement creeped me out. I agree with the people who say a player agent relationship shouldn't be any more than that.

Now, Danton is talking about making a National Hockey League (NHL) comeback and Kypreos believes that Danton will get back in citing John Kordic as an example. In case you don't know, John Kordic was a hockey player who took drugs while in the NHL and died of an overdose in 1992. Kordic is the player shown in the following picture.

Long story short, if I was an NHL GM, I wouldn't touch Danton with a ten foot pole.

That's my rant for this week so on to my PR related stuff...

While I was at my parent's place this past weekend, I watched an ESPN film about the USFL. For those of you who don't watch football, the USFL stood for the United States Football League. The league was set up to compete directly with the National Footbal League (NFL). Players like Herschel Walker, Reggie White, Doug Flutie, Jim Kelly and Steve Young all got their starts in the USFL before going on to play in the NFL.

The PR angle was that the USFL thought it could be bigger and better than the NFL. The owners felt their only option was to sue the NFL for putting an inferior product on the field and ripping fans off.

Even before the lawsuits started flying, there had been bickering among USFL upper management and not only that, all the marketing that had been done among the 12 teams had put them $160 million in debt. While the USFL did win its lawsuit, the rewards for winning were in a word, scarce. They received $1 in damages. Yes, that's right. $1. With compounded interest, each team received $3.76. In the end, the courts ruled that the USFL was worth a measly $45.12 (12 USFL teams x $3.76).

Why did it happen? From where I stand, it happened for two reasons:

1. The owners got "too big for their britches" as they say in the South. They expanded too fast. After a few seasons of having six USFL teams, they tried to expand to 12 teams as mentioned previously. USFL teams didn't have a chance to establish their influence on fans of the orginial six USFL franchises. A page should've been taken out of the NHL's book. After being a six team league since 1917, the NHL didn't do its first expansion until 1967.

2. The games were played in the wrong season. Donald Trump came in as a USFL owner and felt that having the USFL play in the fall would be beneficial. What he didn't realize and still didn't admit to during the interview I watched was that he was in direct competition with the NFL. An upstart, thrown together brand that hadn't been around that long versus an established brand like the NFL. Who wins this battle royale? The answer should be obvious.

The USFL had been playing ball in the spring before being switched over. The USFL had more games too. The teams played 18 times which gave football fans more chances to see their favourite USFL players while the NFL only scheduled 14 games. The USFL had great brand potential that went untapped.

Before ending this entry I'm going to challenge you, the reader. The following song I've posted was featured in a commerical during Super Bowl 34. If you can identify which brand was advertised, the first person to write a comment on my blog with the correct answer could win a prize.

In Today's News...

I was reading the Toronto Star this morning, and as usual, all the rage is the H1N1 flu virus. Over the last few days, there have been reports of the Calgary Flames, Toronto Maple Leafs and the Toronto Raptors all skipping the lineup to get vaccinated. As the old expression goes, where's there smoke there's fire and I have a feeling this one will be burning for a few days. The Star also reports that board members from SEVEN hospitals skipped the line to get the H1N1 flu shot.

From what I've learned in my PR classes, you never want to say the wrong thing that will draw the public's wrath and make them question what you're doing. Unfortunately, one doctor decided to try the proverbial stick-my-foot-in-my-mouth-and-see-what-happens trick. Mount Sinai's chief microbiologist, Dr. Ron Low, when asked why he skipped the line said "It seemed like the right thing to do." Excuse me? It seemed like the right thing to do? Why not just say no comment? He's apologized since but I think he should either be fired or face some serious punishment from the Ontario Medical Association (OMA). We also talked in class about how doctors are treated like gods by seniors. Even though it's wrong, some doctors try to take advantage of that status. These are the same people seniors and the rest of us put our trust in to keep us alive.

On a side note, maybe the sports teams I mentioned earlier also felt they were above the public and had the right to get ahead of everybody else.

Another thing that is making me cringe from a PR perspective is an exclusive interview that Sportsnet Hockeycentral reporter Nick Kypreos will be doing with recently paroled felon Mike Danton (formerly known as Mike Jefferson). He's the guy who played in the NHL for the St. Louis Blues and was arrested in St. Louis a few years go for trying to have David Frost killed. What gets me is not the fact that the interview is taking place but the date of the interview. Rogers Sportsnet, in all its mighty wisdom, decided to air the interview on November 11. Rememberance Day. This is the day we're supposed to honour our veterans and all the people who sacrified their lives so we could live in a free society, not hear why a convicted felon wanted to kill his former agent and "father figure."

While I hate the date they chose to run the interview, I'm looking forward to hearing what Mike Danton has to say. I'm also interested in how David Frost will respond once the interview is aired (if he does decide to respond). I can't wait to hear the public's reaction once Mike Danton rears his ugly head again. I wonder what dirt will be kicked up this time around.

In my usual fashion, I'm going to end this blog entry with a video. I've heard many remixes of this song but this one is by far the best. Also, watch the guy who dances in the video. This is proof that people with disabilities can do anything the rest of us can do.

Til next time...