In PR, Never Give Up the Moral High Ground

I wanted to take a moment to offer up some free PR advice in light of the controversy at Grambling State University last week. For some background, you can read the Sports Illustrated article here... 

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/college-football/news/20131018/grambling-football/

The basic plot is the school's facilities needed repair, long road trips were taken on busses rather than airplanes, the Head Coach was fired in the middle of a winless season and the players decided they had had enough. They refused to show up for practice and then refused to show up for a game against Jackson State. The school was forced to forfeit what would have been Jackson's Homecoming game. After that, there were whispers of losing scholarships, negotiations between the administration and players, a press conference held by the players followed by a return to practice and the rest of the season.

Throughout all of this, public opinion has ebbed and flowed from supporting the players to questioning their actions. At this point support leans towards the players more than the school, but that support could be much higher. The flaw was the players gave up the moral high ground. (The school had a chance to claim it later, but missed that opportunity. I'll get to that in a moment.)

In the beginning, the players had legitimate gripes. A damaged floor in the weight room is an accident waiting to happen. The athletes deserved better. They had the high ground and should have used it. Public support would have been overwhelmingly on their side. Instead, the first most people saw of this issue was video played on the news of a single coach waiting in an empty gymnasium when the players refused to practice. Instantly, the issues were murky. The message was muddled.

The second visual people at home saw was a parking lot of empty busses as the team missed the deadline for the road trip to Jackson. The story then became the financial impact on Jackson State, it's alumni, and the city in Mississippi during what should have been a happy Homecoming. The moral indignation the public would have felt towards the conditions in which the school subjected a group of student athletes was lost due to a lack of clarity. The story line was no longer the facilities and administration, it was the empty gym and lonely busses.

I certainly don't blame college students for missing the nuances of public relations. But, I hope this can become a lesson on how your organization can do things better in the future. If I had been advising the players during this event, here's how I would have suggested things play out.

The first step is to take a list of grievances to the administration. It's not only the right thing to do ethically, politically it also allows you to keep the moral high ground.

If that step doesn't solve the problem, then you go public. Hold a press conference and show the reporters the damaged floors in the weight room. Describe the difficulties of playing football after sleeping all night on a bus. Explain why firing the coach was the wrong decision. Tell the media you want changes and if you don't get them spell out the actions you are prepared to take. Be specific, and then do exactly what you said you would do.

Instead of missing that practice in the empty gym, the players should have held their own practice off school grounds in full view of the media. Show that you are willing to work hard, but not under the current situation at the school.

Instead of missing the busses, the team should have gone to the game. But, at the press conference earlier in the week, they needed to explain that while the team will play as hard as they can on the field, they will refuse to score any points. Take a knee at the one yard line. Show your fans you can play hard for them while refusing to bring glory to the current administration.

The school also had a brief opportunity to grab the high ground. That parking lot full of busses wasn't exactly empty. 20 players did show up. You only need 11 to play a game. Instead of forfeiting the game and putting the school in legal and financial risk, the coaches should have taken the 20 players they had and gone to Jackson. Tell the players it's Iron Man Football and they'll all play a lot and in positions they've never played before. The message you send to the public then is you're willing to play with any student who's willing to show up and work hard. The high ground is yours.

The sad truth is there will be a financial and legal fallout from this conflict. The City of Jackson is considering legal action. The league has already fined Grambling, an institution that doesn't have extra money just laying around. And players who thought they were going to a school with a proud history and strong traditions have been left in moldy facilities. Had the story played out as I outlined above, there wouldn't have been grounds for fines or lawsuits and public pressure would have been applied on the university. When PR is done well, not only can it get results, it can also help you avoid the unintended consequences of PR done poorly.

-Stephen Parr