NFL balances control and communication in increasing fan interaction on Web site

NFL balances control, communication

NEW YORK — The No Fun League is loosening up.

The NFL — the National Football League, that is — plans to let fans post comments all over its Web site and to reach deals to make its video more widely available.

That a business wants to use multimedia to interact more with its customers is hardly surprising in 2009. But when that business is so image-conscious that it earned the No Fun nickname, relinquishing some highly valued control is a major step.

As commissioner Roger Goodell said recently, “One of the things that’s been a foundation of our success is controlling our content.”

On a panel discussing e-commerce in late June in Philadelphia, Goodell called that balancing act “a fundamental question we’re debating internally.”

“What worries us is that they take content and sometimes those messages aren’t particularly positive,” he said. “We worry about that a little bit, the impact on the brand.”

But, he added, “I’m on the side of saying that that’s the way the world is moving.”

NFL executive Brian Rolapp likes to quote a famous line from the former CEO of Intel: “A fundamental rule in technology says that whatever can be done will be done.”

So if fans want to rip the league’s officiating, or mock its leadership, they’re going to do it somewhere in cyberspace whether or not the NFL sanctions it.

Paul Argenti, a corporate communication professor at Dartmouth’s business school, said there’s no downside to the NFL’s decision for just that reason.

“Anyone who believes they can control the terms of the debate has lost sight of what has happened the last few years,” said Argenti, the co-author of an upcoming book about using digital media in corporate communications. “Everything has changed. The rules of the game have changed dramatically.”

Argenti was surprised to hear of the league’s plans because many other organizations are wary of allowing such interaction.

“To me, I like the NFL even more than I did before,” he said of learning about the new features on the Web site — and he believes other fans will feel the same way.

The league began allowing fans to comment — but only on articles — on NFL.com early last season. That will expand dramatically this coming season, Rolapp, the league’s senior vice president in charge of media strategy, told The Associated Press.

Fans will be able to comment on specific games, teams, players. They’ll also have the ability to create individual profiles in the NFL’s own version of social networking.

Automatic filters and staff will monitor the comments to remove offensive language and hate speech.

“But if somebody says a club made a terrible draft pick, we’re not going to monitor that,” Rolapp said.

MLB.com has included fan message boards for years and added the ability to comment on articles in 2008 and to comment on videos this year. NBA.com has had message boards since before the 2006-07 season, and fans can comment on columns and blogs by the site’s reporters.

Rolapp said the NFL is comfortable watching and waiting as other organizations experiment with new technologies and it decides what approach works best for the league. Now the NFL is surpassing other leagues in the number of places fans can comment on its site.

He described the NFL’s philosophy as this: “We don’t have to be first; we have to be right.”

Rolapp said the league’s experience is that negativity is limited and fans generally do a good job policing themselves.

“Philosophically, we know fans want to do this,” he said. “We think it does more good than harm, and we think fans feel as passionately about the teams, brand and sport as we do.”

Fans can express that passion in many ways — including posting clips from games on YouTube. Different companies have taken varied approaches to their content being put on the site; the NFL wants the clips taken down.

Rolapp said the league was seeking the right deals to allow more access to its video.

“More consumption and more exposure for the sport are always good,” Rolapp said. “But you have to balance that with the economic realities of the business we’re in.”