It’s one thing for the Falcons to potentially piss off an eight-figure sponsor by mentioning a competitor’s product when explaining (unconvincingly) the chain of events that resulted in an in-draft prank phone call to Shedeur Sanders. It’s another for the Colts to clumsily infringe on that same sponsor’s IP rights in producing and publishing its schedule-release video.
The embarrassing failure of a multi-billion-dollar organization to realize that it needed Microsoft’s permission to use copyrights associated with Minecraft underscores an important reality for a sports league that prides itself on having its act together: Some of the dysfunctional things that dysfunctional teams do can impact the entire operation.
As noted on Thursday by Margaret Fleming of FrontOfficeSports.com, the NFL does not require teams to submit their schedule-release videos for approval. Given the various ways in which the NFL exercises active oversight with its teams (starting with the approval of every single player contract a team executes), why wouldn’t the league want to have the ability to give a thumb’s down to each of the various teams’ videos that flood social media the instant the schedule is released?
If someone from the league office had looked at the Colts’ video, the video never would have been posted without all t’s being crossed and i’s being dotted with Microsoft. And if someone from the league office had reviewed the Patriots’ video, which features 345 Park Avenue persona non grata Dave Portnoy, there would be no lingering questions as to whether the NFL has done an about-face on its 10-year shunning of Portnoy.
It’s a fairly simple project. Someone from the legal department and someone from the P.R. department watches every video before it goes live. The investment of time and effort would go a long way toward preventing one of the 32 teams from clumsily wandering into a minefield and throwing shrapnel toward Big Shield.
The fact that the league doesn’t already require approval of the schedule-release videos is surprising. The fact that the Colts had to scrap their entire video after it was already posted puts the league at large on notice of the importance of being involved.
Which sets the stage for the league finding itself on the wrong side of a negligence claim, if/when one of these videos ends up getting the team that made it sued.
It’s one of the most basic functions of any in-house corporate legal department. Identify the potential liabilities, and neutralize every one of them.
This week, the Colts exposed a massive blind spot that could become an expensive distraction if the league sticks with the status quo. With the owners gathering next week in Minneapolis, it’s hard not to think one or more of them will ask a very pointed question about why the league doesn’t review these videos — and whether it plans to change that habit, immediately.
