From the category archives:

Sports

Why I’m Not an NFL Owner

by Daria Steigman on January 5, 2012

Green Bay Packers, Business, Sports, and Reading the Fine PrintYou might have read that the Green Bay Packers are selling ownership shares. Which means that, for $250, you can own a share of the franchise. You can’t sell you share (or shares) and it won’t increase in value–but it makes you an owner of the NFL-Super-Bowl-winning franchise that was once coached by Vince Lombardi.

It would look really cool on my LinkedIn profile. But I’m not going to be an NFL owner.

$250 is real money. It maybe buys my next smartphone. It definitely buys lots of pints of beer at the ballpark this spring. But that’s not the problem.

The fine print is.

Ownership has its privileges. And its price.

Page 5 of the Common Stock Offering Document has a clause entitled NFL Rules that reads, in part:

The NFL Rules prohibit conduct by shareholders of NFL member clubs that is detrimental to the NFL, including, among other things… publicly criticizing any NFL member club or its management, employees, or coaches or any football official employed by the NFL.

Which means that, as an owner, I could be fined by the commissioner and/or required to sell my stock back to the organization–for $0.025 per share. (Come to think about it, that’s better than zero. But I digress.) Which means I couldn’t opine about whether Dan Snyder is the worst sports franchise owner since Marge Schott. And I couldn’t tweet that even a 2-year-old has more discipline than the Oakland Raiders. Not to mention that “what’s up with [insert name of player here]” would be off limits.

There’s a point here. And it’s not about American football.

It’s about reading the fine print.

Fining fan-owners of the only public NFL team would be a public relations nightmare. It’s not going to happen (unless someone really provokes it, or behaves in “conduct unbecoming” that defies public mores). But the business reality is that buying into this deal requires limits on your free speech. Not illegal limits–it’s not a 1st amendment issue. But limits nonetheless.

Business is about choices and trade-offs. Before you make your next deal, make sure you understand both.

Photo by Jeramey Jannene (Flickr).

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On Scholars, Athletes, and Leaders

by Daria Steigman on November 22, 2011

Leadership, Accountability, and the Yale Quarterback; Independent Thinking; Steigman Communciations

“Rhodes Scholars are chosen not only for their outstanding scholarly achievements, but for their character, commitment to others and to the common good, and for their potential for leadership in whatever domains their careers may lead.”

Patrick Witt played a football game on Saturday. By that ordinary action, the Yale quarterback seems to have demonstrated the character, commitment, and leadership that the Rhodes Trust has valued for over 100 years.

But Witt, a Rhodes Scholarship finalist, won’t be a Rhodes Scholar. Because the Rhodes Trust scheduled his interview to coincide with his game, he had to choose.

He chose his team.

After an enormous scandal brought on by a failure of leadership in college sports, it’s refreshing to see someone who understands what it means to be a leader.

What do you think? Should Witt have taken the interview? Does it make a difference knowing that Harvard crushed Yale?

Photo by Jayel Aheram (Flickr).

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4 Leadership Lessons from the Penn State Scandal

by Daria Steigman on November 14, 2011

It’s impossible to ignore what happened at Penn State. Which is ironic since Penn State officials, impossibly, chose to ignore what was happening.

This was a massive failure on many levels.

Here are four leadership lessons:

1. Leadership is about making tough decisions. The president of the university didn’t. Joe Paterno didn’t. But the Board of Trustees did, taking quick action once the scandal broke to start to clean house and appoint a special committee to investigate how things went so wrong.

2. Dissent should be encouraged. I don’t know this, but it certainly appears that no one involved with the Penn State football program made a move without consulting Paterno first. Because otherwise I can’t for the life of me understand why a 28-year-old’s first thought after witnessing an assault wouldn’t be to call 9-1-1. You can’t be a good leader if you don’t let people act independently–and disagree with you.

3. Bubbles are bad for business. Tracee Hamilton wrote a terrific column for the Washington Post in which she said in part:

If [Paterno] really loved Penn State as much as he professed, he’d have fallen on his own sword a lot sooner, rather than letting the situation on campus reach a boiling point while trying to engineer his own retirement… If he wanted to save his school and his program and even his friend from the firestorm engulfing them all now, all he had to do was pick up the phone and dial 9-1-1. Three digits.

Paterno was the definition of a ”big man on campus.” The problem with bubbles is that you only talk to friends (see #2) and see what you want to see. And you think you can control everything.

4. The letter of the law is not enough. You can’t lead by technicality. The argument that (indicted and/or fired) Penn State officials have tried to make is that they did what they were legally obligated to do. That might save Joe Paterno from criminal liability, but it certainly doesn’t save him from moral accountability.

What leadership lessons learned would you add?

Photo by Russell James Smith (Flickr).

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Out of Practice

by Daria Steigman on November 7, 2011

Business, Networking, Boston Red Sox, Jon Lester, Independent ThinkingBoston Red Sox pitcher Jon Lester suggested that his team’s historic late-season collapse had nothing to do with the fact that he and his teammates were drinking on the job. His rationale: they were doing the same thing in April and May–and the team was winning.

Sure. And if I substituted laziness for running laps, the fact that I’d be sucking air after a couple of months would be coincidental too.

You have to practice. And practice isn’t just for athletes. 

  • If you get out of the practice of blogging, you stop looking for inspiration.
  • If you get out of the practice of networking, your pipeline dries up.
  • If you get out of the practice of business development, it’s harder to make that first call.
  • If you get out of the practice of budgeting, it’s easy to go into debt.
  • If you get out of the practice of planning, it’s easy to miss market signals.

If you get out of the practice of doing, what falls down in your business?

Photo by Newtown grafitti (Flickr).

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What’s Wrong With Being Second?

by Daria Steigman on July 26, 2011

Business, Google, Carl Lewis, Michael Phelps, Paula Radcliffe, Independent Thinking, Steigman CommunicationsWhat’s wrong with being second?

Americans (and probably others too) are obsessed with winning. As though being second, third, or fourth were unacceptable.

Two sports reporters were debating recently whether the USA women’s soccer team was a failure because it lost the World Cup final. Never mind that lots of teams would probably have been very happy to have played in the quarterfinals, let alone in the semis or the final.

  • Is Google a failure because Ask got into the search market first?
  • Is Avis a failure because Hertz is #1?
  • Is your business a failure if you’re not listed in the Dow Jones?
  • Should you shut down your blog because you don’t have 50+ comments per post or rank on the AdAge Power 150?

Of course not.

In sports, you have PRs.

You pesonal record is about being your best, not competing against Paula Radcliffe, Carl Lewis, or Michael Phelps.

Business is no different. You need to be #1 in your business—not against someone else’s yardstick.

Are you setting the right goals?

Photo by Pink Moose (Flickr).

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