NFL PR is Unique

With less than a month left until the draft, combine buzz is filling up the pages of ESPN.com and sports news across the country. Why do we not hear the same buzz about baseball when draft time comes around? The answer is simple – the NFL is unique. Players are typically drafted after their third or fourth college season and can make their way into a pro starting lineup shortly after fall training camp.

Because the results of the NFL draft can directly impact the success of a pro team’s season, fans like to be informed. This demand for draft information has resulted in televised combines, entire magazines dedicated to draft candidates profiles and continuous coverage though the months of February, March and April about the combines. Furthermore, ESPN will devote April 26^th nearly entirely to the NFL draft, giving football draft coverage unlike any other sport.

At Oregon, our local papers are filled with updated about Jonathan Stewart and Geoff Schwartz – two of the University of Oregon’s top draft picks. Both Steward and Schwartz are used to the media attention because Oregon sports reporters have little else to fill headlines with in the fall other than Duck football. Both players have had air time during the combines, getting them ready for the national attention that will start to really come in on April 26-27.

With the national attention comes a need for PR. Potential draftees are already being contacted by pro teams and information has been gathered about them accordingly. Fortunately for the pro teams, both Stewart and Schwartz have excellent track records with the media and generally great guys to work with. This, however, is not always the case and quite often media relations people from professional teams get bombarded with attention on draft weekend.

In order to prepare for their new class of draftees, NFL PR people arm themselves with information about draftees and any media attention that information may bring. Because NFL draftees can have an impact early in their career, it makes the job of an NFL PR person unique to any other sport.

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