NEW ORLEANS — Many fans thought the National Football League would say something about what happened in NFC championship game, and what they were doing about it Sunday night.
Two days later, though, there's nothing.
Generally speaking in the public relations word, when you’ve done something wrong — and clearly, the NFL’s referees messed the Saints/Rams title game up with a crucial missed call — silence is not what’s advised.
“It’s a case by case basis, but I don’t see that there is a benefit right now for being quite. I think you want to put this to bed and you want to address it,” said Larry Lovell, the vice president and Director of Public Relations for Peter Mayer, a New Orleans marketing agency.
On Monday, Saints owner Gayle Benson released a statement in effect questioning the integrity of the league.
Lovell said in a negative public relation situation like this one, the longer you wait to respond, generally, the worse it gets.
“In almost every case, the longer you wait, the more you let people change the story and frame it for you. And in this case, it’s a negative one. So you want to address these issues head on, typically as quickly as you can, so you can put it to bed,” Lovell said.
There’s essentially nothing the NFL can say or do to make Saints fans feel better about what happened.
They could fire the officials involved and they could open up all judgement calls to reply so this doesn’t happen again.
At least an apology, or an admission that they were wrong would be a start, and that hasn’t happened yet.