The NFL and its Social Responsbility

This year has probably provided the greatest test for the NFL. The 2014-2015 season started off on a rocky position by issuing stern yet agreed upon suspensions for players who failed to pass drug tests and one very weak suspension for a domestic assault case. The one assault case, with Ray Rice, soon grew to 5 other assault cases and one public case of child abuse from another star player, Adrian Peterson. These quickly put the NFL on the defensive. I believe that while the NFL has good intentions, it is not a proactive socially responsible organization.

On the NFL's Values Page they provide their Mission and Values statement:
To present the National Football League and its teams at a level that attracts the broadest audience and makes NFL football the best sports entertainment in the world.
To achieve our mission, we will constantly challenge ourselves to improve and be guided by these values:Integrity, Performance and Teamwork, Tradition and Innovation, Diversity, and Learning.

Each value has several subcategories and provides more details but these 5 statements in particular struck me:

1. We are ethical in all of our dealings with fans, clubs, business partners, and each other.
2. We follow through on our words with action. We are honest and direct.
3. We set the highest standards and challenge ourselves to keep improving.
4. We are accountable for our results and consistently measure our progress.
5. We make smart and informed business decisions.

The last bullet really spoke to me: we make smart and informed business decisions. The NFL knows they are a very public company, perhaps one of the most public companies in America. Once the groundswell started with the Ray Rice scandal they knew they needed to react. Lucky for the NFL, they had created a way to listen to the heart of their fans. They have over 11 million Facebook fans, 8 million twitter followers, the NFL.com community pages, and the input from similar channels for the 32 teams. With a single tweet, the NFL can gauge and measure reactions to their ethical stands. For instance, when the NFL tweeted about continuing Adrian Peterson's suspension this season, it generated over 10,000 retweets, and 1,500 comments within the first 12 hours. Using their partnerships with twitter, the NFL can quickly identify trends and the most emotional responses from across the globe.

While they have the mechanisms to listen to the groundswell, they are not proactive enough to lead be the leader on all ethical dealings as they highlight in their missions and values. If the NFL wanted to be the social leader, they would need to not only monitor their fans but the reaction of the general public. In my opinion, this is asking too much for a sports organization.