CODE RED

Penn State. Tiger Woods. Jameis Winston. Duke Lacrosse. Ray Rice.

When you here “Penn State”, do you think about a school with a prominent athletic program? No. When you hear the name “Tiger Woods” do you think about the best golfer in the world? Probably, yes. Man of integrity? No. Jameis Winson, best quarterback in college football? Maybe. Some did not even know Duke had a Lacrosse team until their scandal. Now when the name “Ray Rice” is in the air, people talk about his court dates rather than his stats.

All of these names and programs unfortunately have been tarnished by some sort of scandal, crisis or series of bad judgement. Sports has almost always been center-stage of the media. I think it is important to realize all crisis comes down to people choosing certain behavior. Crisis does not start with programs and teams, it starts with people and their lack of ability to work with, play with and relate with other people. Prominent leagues, teams, players, and coaches seem to beg for the spotlight. Let’s admit, they are all an easy target. Money and entitlement is a recipe for a catchy news story.

Crisis in sports seem to occur daily; but its lifespan lasts so much longer. Some cases that happened years ago are still talked about, tweeted about, and shared via all social media platforms. With the pervasiveness of social media, the crisis never dies; it only gets buried in the pile of other scandal.

Social media has made crisis management more complex. There are now more avenues to be concerned with; more cracks for information to fall into without knowing. Crisis management in sports is a multi-layered issue in that every scandal is different. I cannot help but think, however; if the above names and programs handled the crisis differently, would we have such a bad connotation of these people today?