One day last season a Falcons team PR rep chided AJC colleague D. Orlando Ledbetter and I about the lack of media coverage of what the rep said were the positive things the team and its players do in the community. Why don't those feel-good stories get more coverage, the flak complained.
Well, here's why. From the AJC's George Mathis:
The fuel of cynicism is knowledge.
Until today I was under the impression sports teams honored military personnel due to patriotism or some sense of community spirit.
But then I read an article that says taxpayers shelled out $5.4 million to 14 NFL teams to honor mostly National Guard troops
The Falcons were paid more than $1 million, the highest of any NFL team.
The Falcons, in an email at 12:30 p.m., said, "From 2011 – 2014 the Atlanta Falcons were compensated (although at a cumulative figure less than stated in your blog) by the National Guard for executing rights and benefits focused on National Guard marketing, branding and recruiting initiatives."
The Falcons did not provide a correct figure paid by the National Guard.
The Falcons pointed out the annual 'Military Appreciation' game is usually sponsored by a large business partner (recently UPS) and other events, such as an annual fishing trip with military veterans (pictured) are unpaid and part of ongoing community outreach efforts.
The Braves, in an email at noon said the National Guard began a corporate sponsorship with the team in 2014 that includes stadium signage and promotion, including BravesVision and radio interviews and on-field experiences such as throwing out the first pitch. The Braves would not say what the National Guard pays the team.
The Braves listed many other events used to honor the military — including the 'Hometown Hero' segment at about 20 games per season — and said those are not paid promotions and the team is not paid by any other branch of the military.
And my friends wonder why I’m so cynical about sports.
The Falcons "honored" military personnel while actually collecting taxpayer money for showing them off. They did this at the same time the franchise stands to collect up to $600 million in public money for its new stadium.
The Braves believe their relationship with the National Guard is different than the NFL's arrangement. The Braves say that while in-game activities for veterans that include first pitch or honorary team captain are part of the National Guard sponsorship, the other elements of the military celebration during games are unrelated to that sponsorship and that they were doing such events for years before partnering with the Guard.
In any event, you can safely assume that the "community outreach" programs run by the NFL and every other sports league have a profit motive behind them (and some of them are pure B.S.). The assumption has always been the benefits of these programs for sports teams were ancillary: They generate public goodwill and foster a positive image while also decreasing scrutiny of the massive amounts of public subsidies they receive with no financial benefit to the public, dwarfing whatever money they spend on "community outreach."
Now we have direct evidence of NFL teams being paid with public money to “honor” veterans, which takes an already cynical practice a step further. Not only do the teams want the PR benefits that go along with “honoring” veterans, they accept direct payments from taxpayers in exchange for doing so.
This is, of course, obscene. The Falcons and other NFL teams are exploiting jingoistic sentiments to get their piece of the action from the military-industrial complex that enriches the few at a steep cost to others. That the Falcons did this in concert with the Department of Defense takes it beyond cynicism into fascism.
According to nj.com, a New Jersey state senator has called on NFL teams to donate the $5.4 million they received from the DOD to veteran's organizations. I suspect the Falcons and other teams will eventually do so. It's better for them to give up a sliver of their massive profits in order to mitigate this negative PR hit.
As I was writing this blog post an email from the Falcons popped into my inbox with the subject: "Blank Family of Businesses Associates Focus on Westside Neighborhood Beautification One Project at a Time." Somehow I doubt that Falcons PR person will be chiding Ledbetter and I for not covering those events.
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