Sports

The Washington Redskins have had a tough year. They sit in last place in the NFL's competitive NFC East division, despite a high payroll and expectations. Fans are aggravated and have begun calling for the head of team owner Daniel Snyder.

Who does Synder turn to, to protect his image? Karl Swanson, his public-relations "henchman," of course. Swanson is the subject of a Washington Post profile piece today. He uses both verbal and physical tactics:

When journalists have sought comment from the Redskins owner in public, the linebacker-size Swanson has often gotten in front of the media mob, shielding his boss from questions.

Swanson is Snyder's proxy because Snyder rarely speaks for himself. The team owner says he doesn't grant interviews during the regular season, and rarely does so at other times.

Swanson has experience as a reporter, having worked at the Associated Press. His tough love approach has lead to turnover within the organization, as the team has had "seven directors of communications during Snyder's 11-year ownership, a rate that exceeds the turnover in the head coaching job," reports the Post.

[image: Swanson, right, with owner Dan Snyder, left, and Vinny Cerrato, a Redskins VP]

The New York Yankees celebrated their 27th World Series today with a parade through downtown Manhattan's "Canyon of Heroes." Rubenstein Associates, the team's PR agency of record, issued the following statement to media on behalf of team owner George Steinbrenner, sent by agency president Howard Rubenstein.

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The NCAA football championship is decided by human voting and a computer ranking system, not a playoff. There are debates as to how the system should work, and if some conferences are given preferences over others.

Some major colleges and universities have gone so far as employing PR campaigns to make the case that they should be ranked higher in the system, thus enabling them to earn massive payouts if chosen to be one of six teams that participate in the Bowl Championship Series or BCS.

"The Western Athletic Conference has a PR firm boosting No. 7 Boise State's bid. The Mountain West spent much of the offseason on Capitol Hill working to change the system," reports USA Today.

UPDATE: The firm representing the WAC is Boise-based Scott Peyron & Associates.

Anyone in consumer PR will tell you getting a store mentioned in the paper, or shown on the evening news is as tough as hitting a C.C. Sabathia change-up.

The reps at Dan Klores Communications (DKC) juiced up the Turnpike Series angle between the Yankees and Phillies to score for their client Modell's. DKC put together a team of man-on-the-street sources with a Quinnipiac poll in the bullpen. The result was a Newark Star-Ledger feature.

DKC brought their game to Hamilton Township, New Jersey, known as the town that divides its loyalties between the two teams equally. Though the original pitch told of equal mounds of official MLB gear at Modell's, the channel 9 segment below reports Yankees gear outselling Phillies gear four to one. Do the fans know the outcome? Four to one = Yankees in five games.

DKC also scored hits on the local CBS, NBC and Fox affiliates in New York, with no errors.

According to an email obtained by a suburban Philadelphia newspaper, efforts to help victimized dogs are misdirected and more about branding the Philadelphia Eagles.

Tom Hickey of DogPAC wrote to Pamela Browner Crawley, VP of public affairs and government relations for the Eagles and stated, "most concerning to me is most of the activities appear to center on ensuring that the Eagles brand is the primary driver in each activity."

Hickey has been in discussions with Eagles management since the team signed convicted dog fighter Michael Vick in August.

The Eagles are sending veterinary vans around the city to promote and conduct spay/neuter procedures, and hand out trading cards depicting Eagles stars with their dogs. Hickey's email explained that critics of the campaign fail to see how the services will help abused dogs, and points out that dog fighters wouldn't use such a service since the goal is to breed and fight the animals.

The article reminds us of the auspices in which Vick was signed six weeks ago, delivered at a presser by team owner Jeffrey Lurie:

[the criterion] "will be 100 percent, is he able to create social change in this horrendous arena of animal cruelty? Whether he is successful with us on the field, sure I hope he is. But his legend and whether we are giving him a second chance will be successful if he can diminish the level of animal cruelty. That's it."

Related: Michael Vick Signs with the Eagles
Vick's Image Rehab Kicks Off with 60 Minutes

[Official pet jersey, via Eagles online store]

The Philadelphia Eagles joined Michael Vick in a march towards redemption by signing the convicted superstar to a two-year deal yesterday.

This is ahead of the 60 Minutes mea culpa to air this Sunday with James Brown, who said Vick came off as resolute and steadfast.

The press conference is scheduled for 11 AM at Eagles headquarters.

Of course PETA went full tilt in their statement this morning, which included the R word. It was read in full on MSNBC's Morning Joe:

PETA and millions of decent football fans around the world are disappointed that the Philadelphia Eagles have chosen to sign a man who hanged dogs from trees, electrocuted them with jumper cables, held them underwater until they drowned in his swimming pool, and even threw his own family dogs into the fighting pit to be torn to shreds while he laughed. What sort of message does this send to young fans who care about animals and don't want to see them be harmed?

PETA certainly hopes that Vick has learned his lesson and feels truly remorseful for his crimes—but since he's given no public indication that that's the case, only time will tell. At this point, all Eagles fans can do is cross their fingers and hope that they won't ever have to explain to their sons and daughters what a "rape rack" is and why their favorite player was using one, as Falcons fans once had to.

Related: Vick's Image Rehab Kicks Off with 60 Minutes

Like many other fallen stars before him, convicted dogfighter and Atlanta Falcons star Michael Vick is going with the long-form TV interview to tell his story and set the stage for a comeback.

He will appear 60 Minutes this coming Sunday, though not with one of the regular correspondents, rather the potentially sympathetic CBS Sports NFL TODAY anchor James Brown.

The segment will include Wayne Pacelle, head of the Humane Society of the U.S., and Tony Dungy, the former NFL coach who is currently helping with the comeback

A solid and sincere mia culpa could push his equity higher as a deal with a team is anticipated.

Like Roger Clemens before him, I doubt Vick's handlers would confirm the booking without the right interviewer and the right questions laid out in advance. Mike Wallace came out of retirement to interview Clemens.

I spoke to Vick's former PR person Susan Bass, of the Susan Bass Group who declined to comment. She did confirm that she worked with the former superstar about three years ago. Prior to starting her firm, Bass was the VP of communications and community relations from 2002 to 2005.

More on Vick's image rehabilitation as it happens.

Related: Michael Vick Really is Talking to Peta

Its been a long road for star baseball pitcher Roger Clemens since his poor performance at a congressional hearing on steroid use in baseball 15 months ago. Now, the Daily News reports, Clemens is onto his third PR counselor, Levick Strategic Communications SVP Gene Grabowski.

Grabowski told ESPN yesterday that he knew Clemens was not lying when he told him he never used steroids because he "looked him in the eye." The Levick SVP certainly has been busy lately, handling the Michael Phelps' bong mishap, Alex Rodriguez's steroid scandal, and KFC's "ill-fated grilled chicken launch."

Deadspin has more. Of course, there is always an ulterior motive. Clemens and his team feel the need to counter press around the release of a new book (written by four Daily News writers) titled, "American Icon: The Fall of Roger Clemens and the Rise of Steroids in America's Pastime." Ouch.

Needless to say, the Daily News writers are not impressed with the new spin. Wrote columnist Mike Lupica, "...once you get Clemens off his talking points, almost everything becomes a brain buster."

UPDATE: Levick did not handle work for Rodriguez, Phelps or KFC, but rather was called to comment on them by the press. Also, in a comment to a post on Peter Himler's blog, The Flack, Grabowski wrote, "I know, the Mike and Mike [ESPN] segment I did is somewhat controversial. But sometimes these roles are thrust upon us, as you know. I try to do whatever it takes to help my clients. In this case, it meant going to bat for him on a national sports talk show."

Michael Vick, Atlanta Falcons star and dogfighting enabler is talking to PETA about doing some spokes-work for the publicity savvy organization, 19-months after the story broke.

AdAge has what little details are available, confirms with PETA that Vick's unnamed image handlers are involved. Richard Levick of Levick Strategic Communications, and Drew Kerr of Four Corners are the PR people the trade called upon to comment on the strategy.

I agree with most of it except that PETA has PR "problems". The beauty of what they do is their ability to preach loudly to their choir while keeping themselves firmly in the media. Those they upset were not going to donate to the cause anyway. Here they have a win-win, they can tout his contrition if Vick is effective, and publicly flog him if he acts out. Public sentiment of sports fans likely ranks Vick higher than any of the drugs-takers.

Another example is PETA's recent stunt targeting school kids to get the word out about the cruelty in circuses. Gothamist asked if they went too far. It worked precisely because it went too far.

This is one stunt I'd like to perversely see go awry, just to see the outcome in the mainstream media. Like all image rehab campaigns, Vick--like A-Rod et al--needs to start by getting back to playing good ball.

Related: PETA's Newest Spokesperson: Michael Vick?

Clueless no more; PETA PSA beats Playboy spread for generating publicity

PRNewser has confirmed New York Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez is working with Richard Rubenstein, son of George Steinbrenner spokesman Howard Rubenstein, for PR services. Rodriguez admitted to using performance-enhancing drugs between 2001-03 in an interview with ESPN's Peter Gammons yesterday.

Clearly Rubenstein's phone is ringing off the hook this morning as it took us several attempts to get through. An assistant confirmed Rodriguez as a client but could not put us through to Rubenstein for comment.

Rodriguez is receiving some kudos for being up front about his steroid use to the media. However, he's nowhere near out of the fire yet. The NY Daily News' Jesse Specter has an optimistic point of view: "The saga of last year [public trials of Andy Pettitte and Roger Clemens] gave Rodriguez a public relations playbook, and he executed it perfectly."

Not everyone agrees. Writes the Times' George Vescey: "When the first quotes of his confession surfaced in midafternoon, it sounded as if Rodriguez really understood he had done something wrong. In the full interview, the more he talked, the more disassociated he sounded. He still doesn't get it."

UPDATE: When asked about the work he is doing with A-Rod, Rubenstein tells PRNewser, "I never discuss openly my strategy with clients."