Crisis Management Monday: Alex Rodriguez

What did A-Rod do wrong? Can he bounce back? 

One of the top baseball players in the MLB and one of the highest paid athletes nearly of all time, Alex Rodriguez (“A-Rod”) gets himself in a situation regarding banned substances. When he “allegedly tested positive” for these banned substances was suspended from the MLB and the Yankees, he emphatically sought out to prove he was not guilty. He then sued the MLB, the Yankees, and the Players Union. He hired a team of lawyers and went bonkers to prove his innocence and clear his name. But wait he forgot he wasn’t just in a legal dispute he was in a criss that dealt with him as a brand as well. This could possibly deter the rest of his career as a professional baseball player. Then just recently A-Rod cops out and withdraws all of his legal suits against the MLB and the players union. His lawyers and his spokesman said “this was best for A-Rod and he is working on building his image back up.” Yet no comment from A Rod.

A-Rod’s first problem was he hired a team of lawyers who did not know how to handle a crisis in regarding to protecting his brand. They were hired to save him from being sued and suspend. In these situations A-Rod must know this is crisis managment. The objective is to manage the crisis both legally and brand wise. This was evident with the statement they released. A-Rod is a brand. A huge one at that. A-Rod and his team of high price litigators forgot that the public’s perception is reality and in the public’s mind as of now…he is guilty. A-Rod should be making these statements. If he really wants to improve his image he needed to make the statement of withdrawing the lawsuits not his lawyers. That was a huge crisis management blunder. Instead they are going to advise him to do a one hour special with 60 minutes on what all went down and his new found self. The public WILL NOT BUY IT!! Another mistake A-Rod made was he withdrew the lawsuits without stating why. Just a couple of months ago he was avid on clearing his name. Now he withdraws the lawsuits as if he knows he cant win. Now not only were the suits withdrawn the MLB suspend him for the whole year next season… the punishment of a guilty plea. As a brand A-Rod looses all credibility. This is when his team needs to go in serious crisis management/brand building mode.

A-Rod first needs to get on the offensive quickly. He needs to come out ASAP and make a statement on why he withdrew his lawsuits. His lawyers don’t need to do that. He does. He needs to show character right now because now he is looking a little flaky. Secondly he needs to discuss the steps he will take regarding his suspension. Being that he will be suspended for a year he needs to get with the MLB and the players union and discuss publicly what he can do to help players and the league guard against banned substances. In other words A-Rod needs to become the teacher rather than the student in a sense. And thirdly he DOES NOT need to do a one hour special about this debacle. It will seem to planned, staged and inauthentic. He should continue to release statements on his social media accounts and through other media outlets about “making it right”, and while showing ways he can regain the trust back from the public, who support and help create the A-Rod brand. A one hour interview wont do that. Now the lawsuits seem to be on the back burner if not completely out of the cards, A-Rod’s main focus needs to be brand building.