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May 6, 2010 Mike Giangreco The Washington Redskins fumbled the ball and regular season is still months away.
The hiccup wasn’t attributed to Clinton Portis, or newly signed tailbacks Willie Parker or Larry Johnson, but rather, the team’s public relations staff.
According to a report from The Washington Post, Lt. Denver Edick called WJLA-7, the ABC-TV affiliate in Washington, D.C. and notified them about a “feel-good” story in which he would surprise his wife Kristin, a Redskins cheerleader, with an early return from tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan.
When the ABC crew arrived to FedEx Field last Thursday, expecting to capture the moment on film, they were barred from covering the story.
To make matters worse, the Redskins tipped off their network partner WRC-TV NBC-4, who was then given the exclusive.
Think that’s bad? According to reports, a member of the Redskins staff said Kristin Edick would lose her spot on the cheerleading squad if she spoke with WJLA. The Redskins have strongly denied that however.
“The stories about what happened are pretty accurate,” said WJLA Sports Producer Alex Parker.
WJLA news director Bill Lord obviously wasn’t happy with the situation, but after receiving a letter of apology from Redskins owner Daniel Snyder, he says there’s intent for “rebuilding the relationship,” according to the Post.
Some relationships will forever be tainted though. When a spouse or significant other cheats, but the other party accepts him or her back, they make amends but things are never the same (see Tiger Woods).
“It’s a two pronged gaffe,” said John Maroon, President of Maroon PR, spent one season under Snyder as the Redskins Vice President of Communications.
“Rifts between media outlets and sports organizations are actually fairly common. But it’s one thing to deny access; it’s an entirely different situation when you take a story from a station and give it to another, you just don’t do that,” Maroon said.
This isn’t the first time the Redskins have been accused of controlling media messages. Snyder owns ESPN 980 AM in D.C. and many see that as a conflict of interest because he essentially has authority over topics and programming.
In the last year, more critical Redskins fans have turned to 980’s alternative 106.7 The Fan, which roasted Snyder, the front office and former head coach Jim Zorn last year.
In the past, Redskins blogs and message boards have likened Snyder’s controlling persona to that of Hitler; which may be going a bit far. But despite Snyder not having any part in this public relations nightmare, except the cleanup, his reputation will take another hit.
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