NFL Lockout – Always Have a Backup Plan

By Katy Fincham

As the NFL Lockout drags on, both sides remain at a standstill and little to no progress has been made. While players, such as Tom Brady and Drew Brees continue to battle it out in the courtrooms, other NFL players are finding ways to take advantage of their “time off” and coming up with creative backup plans.

Notorious for his on and off the field antics, Cincinnati Bengal receiver, Chad Ochocinco spent a week trying out with Major League Soccer team, Sporting Kansas City. The Kansas City Star reported today that the team has named Ochocinco as an honorary member, as he “showed enough potential” to continue working with the team’s reserve squad. Ochocinco said he used the opportunity as a chance to stay in shape during the lockout, but Sporting KC benefited most by the player’s decision to revisit his childhood passion for the game. ESPN has been running a six-minute special highlighting his stay, while his tryout attracted a number of local and national media outlets, never before seen at the team’s Swope Park training facility.

Baltimore Raven Tom Zbikowsi, found that the lockout was the perfect timing to dive back into his boxing career. Now known in the boxing world as “Tommy Z,” he is currently 3-0 with two decisions by way of knockout and gaining a lot of serious attention from boxing professionals. According to The Baltimore Sun, Zibikowski has recently “teamed up with legendary trainer Emanuel Steward and acknowledged he is working toward becoming the cruiserweight champion.” After winning bouts in Las Vegas and Atlantic City, he has even mentioned his desire to bring one of his matches to the City of Baltimore.

Pittsburgh Steeler receiver, Hines Ward, is the newest contestant on Dancing with the Stars and has already proven that he has a legitimate shot at winning the entire competition. The Mirror Ball trophy will never live up to the prestige of the Lombardi Trophy, but Ward’s presence on the show is allowing him a chance to explore a unique opportunity, while remaining relevant with fans.

Going from Gridiron to Glamour, Tim Tebow has recently taken on his new role as an underwear model. The Denver Bronco quarterback will be featured in commercials beginning this week for Jockey’s Staycool products.

At the end of the day, all of the players will presumably stick with their “day jobs,” and our Sunday’s will go back to normal. But the lockout is proving to be the perfect time for players to peruse outside interests, while finding the value in marketing themselves and building beneficial business relationships. Everyone’s professional career eventually comes to an end and having a backup plan is now proving to be more vital than ever.

Katy Fincham is an Associate Account Executive at Maroon PR. Contact her at Katy@MaroonPR.com

Bill Simmons Accidently Breaks Moss News via Twitter

By Stefen Lovelace

The latest NFL news is that mercurial wide receiver Randy Moss will be traded from the New England Patriots to the Minnesota Vikings for a third round draft pick.

Every major outlet is reporting this is a done deal. News of the deal was announced late last night, when outlets were reporting that Foxsports.com had broken the story.

The story may have actually been broken by ESPN.com columnist Bill Simmons by accident. Last night Simmons tweeted “Moss vikings”. The tweet didn’t make a lot of sense, and Simmons clarified a couple of minutes later that he meant to send the tweet as a direct message, as he had heard a rumor that a Moss trade to the Vikings might be in the works. He had no intention of sending the tweet to his one million-plus followers. He deleted the tweet a few minutes later, but was too late.

Moments later, ProFootballTalk tweeted “Unintended tweet sparks rumors of Moss to Minnesota” in reference to Simmons‘ mistake. Then Foxsports.com’s Jay Glazer tweeted “Yes, vikes and pats have been working on trade that sends randy moss to vikes and r very clode (sic) but can't be done ...” Once that was tweeted, every major outlet started reporting it and credited Foxsports.com on the story. To Glazer’s credit, he later acknowledged via tweet that Simmons beat him to the story, but he had been following it all day.

Simmons has always maintained that he’s not a reporter, but rather a columnist. He hails from Boston, and part of his persona is that he writes from the perspective of a fan and just comments on what he sees. But through Simmons writing, expertise, and platform, he’s managed to make some pretty major contacts in sports. If Simmons says something about the NBA or a Boston sports team, there’s a good chance there’s some truth to it.

This is probably the first actual story Simmons has broken since working for ESPN. I’m pretty sure he never thought it would be like this though.

Stefen Lovelace is an Associate Account Executive. Contact him at stefen@maroonpr.com.

In the news for the wrong reasons… AGAIN

By Matt Saler

Once again, NFL quarterback Michael Vick is in the news for all of the wrong reasons. On June 25, Vick was at his own birthday party in Virginia Beach, Va. At some point during the evening, shortly after Vick left the venue, a shooting took place at the restaurant. Vick is denying any part of it. To date, evidence has been shown that Vick was indeed not at the venue at the time of the incident. But that being said, why is Michael Vick in the news again? Why are we even discussing this? Why on earth is Michael Vick putting himself at a place where an incident of this magnitude would occur?

These are questions that the public wants answers to… particularly his employers, his fans and the general public. Vick is still deeply entrenched in the stage of repairing his image. Why is Vick surrounding himself with these individuals? Do we ever see Peyton Manning or Donovan McNabb in situations like these? One would think that spending a year under McNabb would help Vick make “common sense” decisions about staying away from these incidents.

I want to be clear… by no means am I accusing Vick of having something to do with this incident. I am not. All evidence shows the contrary. I am simply stating that Vick needs to use significantly better judgment in whom he surrounds himself with, particularly during this delicate time.

The other day, Vick released a statement to the media regarding the event:


"On June 25, 2010, I attended a birthday party held in my honor at The Guadalajara's Restaurant in Virginia Beach, Va.," the statement read. "After I left the event, I learned that a man was shot outside the restaurant.

"I want to assure everyone that I had nothing to do with that incident. I left the restaurant prior to it occurring and did not witness what happened. Following the incident, I reported it to the Philadelphia Eagles and to representatives of Commissioner Roger Goodell of the NFL. In addition, I cooperated with and answered any and all questions from law enforcement officials investigating this matter. My statements, from the beginning, explained that I was not there at the time of the shooting and had no knowledge of the events surrounding it. I have been completely truthful and fully cooperative from the very beginning and will continue to cooperate with law enforcement and the NFL as this investigation continues."


The statement reads well and expressed his cooperation in all aspects of the investigation. But nowhere does it state that he will use better judgment in avoiding these situations in the future. One can only hope he will. His future depends on it.

Matt Saler is an Account Executive. Contact him at matt@maroonpr.com.