Marketing is a big part of the sports equation. As savvy consumers of the product, I think most of us are aware of that fact. Much as we might like to believe the image we see in commercials and on ESPN, most of it is carefully-fabricated nonsense meant to sell us an image and to mask certain unpleasant realities.
The thing about it that makes me curious is how some players manage to cultivate a positive image where other players can't seem to shake a negative one. Take WR Marvin Harrison, for instance. For most of this decade, the media tried to push this image of him as a humble wide receiver working within a system and in harmony with his quarterback. I seem to remember him frequently being used as a foil to the Randy Moss' and Terrell Owens' of the world.
In a recent article on Harrison's inability to find work, however, several unnamed sources within the Colts' organization comment that the real reason the Colts decided not to hang on to the 37-year-old receiver was not just that he lost a step, but that he was a self-obsessed diva. When I read something like that, my mind immediately goes back to past instances where the guy was accused of wrongdoing, but it was written off because he was considered one of the "good guys." In the 2005 Pro Bowl, he was accused of choking a kid for asking for his autograph. Or the time a Jets ball boy accidentally "got into his personal space" and was rewarded with a hand to his throat. They didn't seem plausible then, but that was when he had the Colts PR department on his side.
Did those incidents happen for sure? I can't say with any certainty, because to my knowledge nothing ever came of them in court. Just like nothing ever came to court in the mysterious shooting that occurred outside of one of his businesses in April of 2008 and that ballistics tests indicated involved one of his firearms. All of that I was willing to write off, because I had bought into this marketing image of Harrison being a man of character.
It's enough to make you really think back and reevaluate your perception of other players. Take Randy Moss for instance. His whole career he's been cast as the bad boy, almost exclusively because he seems to enjoy smoking marijuana. It was a pot arrest that led to him violating his probation and getting booted from Florida State back in his college days. It was pot that got him in trouble at a traffic stop in Minneapolis. Hell, it was probably pot that led to his years of lazily dogging it Oakland.
So why is Moss still often seen as a troublemaker? Because he pretended to moon Packers fans during a playoff game? No, it's because he was never marketed properly. Marvin Harrison was a career Colt and they were able to do for him what Tom Cruise's handlers did for him for so many years -- hide the crazy. Now that he's been cut free to do as he pleases, we can finally appreciate him for the crazy asshole he is. And maybe, just maybe, the next time ESPN tells us a guy is "team player," we'll take it with a grain of salt.
Follow Chris Chester on Twitter: http://twitter.com/chrisbchester
The thing about it that makes me curious is how some players manage to cultivate a positive image where other players can't seem to shake a negative one. Take WR Marvin Harrison, for instance. For most of this decade, the media tried to push this image of him as a humble wide receiver working within a system and in harmony with his quarterback. I seem to remember him frequently being used as a foil to the Randy Moss' and Terrell Owens' of the world.
In a recent article on Harrison's inability to find work, however, several unnamed sources within the Colts' organization comment that the real reason the Colts decided not to hang on to the 37-year-old receiver was not just that he lost a step, but that he was a self-obsessed diva. When I read something like that, my mind immediately goes back to past instances where the guy was accused of wrongdoing, but it was written off because he was considered one of the "good guys." In the 2005 Pro Bowl, he was accused of choking a kid for asking for his autograph. Or the time a Jets ball boy accidentally "got into his personal space" and was rewarded with a hand to his throat. They didn't seem plausible then, but that was when he had the Colts PR department on his side.
Did those incidents happen for sure? I can't say with any certainty, because to my knowledge nothing ever came of them in court. Just like nothing ever came to court in the mysterious shooting that occurred outside of one of his businesses in April of 2008 and that ballistics tests indicated involved one of his firearms. All of that I was willing to write off, because I had bought into this marketing image of Harrison being a man of character.
It's enough to make you really think back and reevaluate your perception of other players. Take Randy Moss for instance. His whole career he's been cast as the bad boy, almost exclusively because he seems to enjoy smoking marijuana. It was a pot arrest that led to him violating his probation and getting booted from Florida State back in his college days. It was pot that got him in trouble at a traffic stop in Minneapolis. Hell, it was probably pot that led to his years of lazily dogging it Oakland.
So why is Moss still often seen as a troublemaker? Because he pretended to moon Packers fans during a playoff game? No, it's because he was never marketed properly. Marvin Harrison was a career Colt and they were able to do for him what Tom Cruise's handlers did for him for so many years -- hide the crazy. Now that he's been cut free to do as he pleases, we can finally appreciate him for the crazy asshole he is. And maybe, just maybe, the next time ESPN tells us a guy is "team player," we'll take it with a grain of salt.
Follow Chris Chester on Twitter: http://twitter.com/chrisbchester