There has been a push lately by media and the medical field to alter the game of football. CTE is an issue that no one wants to hear about especially in regard to high school athletes. Friday Night Football is such a deeply important sport to American culture that the idea of football disappearing is unconscionable. As young athletes have long been professionalized by brands and parents through specialization, the problems associated with American football have to be encountered head on. High School coaches can’t tackle the issue as the analysis of athletes and the issues they encounter playing America’s pastime is far too expensive to take on. The other issue is that the sport changes lives via college scholarships and professional opportunities.
The one sector where a lot of the responsibility is falling is on the billion dollar brands providing footwear and apparel. As difficult as the last paragraph was to read, the following sentences should give you hope that at least one brand is looking at the marketing opportunities as a means of providing the funding and support to the research needed to improve American Football. Well they aren’t… I’m writing this hoping that they will read and highlight the helmets they will be providing for their sponsored high school teams as well as the gear they will be wearing and how it will enhance the safety aspect of football.
Friday Night Stripes is a venture that shifts viewership of high school athletics to social media. adidas has partnered with Twitter to air a series of games this season. How does this help with researching athletes when the reality is that adidas is simply building its brand?
While the source link gives you information on how adidas is leading the digital sports movement by creating this series, the writer overlooked the connective aspect of promoting high school athletes one year before the start of the Pac Pro League, also sponsored by adidas.
adidas Subverts Nike and Under Armour in Sponsoring the Pac Pro Football League
The Pac Pro League will implement rules in its league that are going to be carried over into the NFL. The League will operate as a minor league system for athletes who are interested in making football their profession. They will still be able to attend college, but they will be able to be paid for their participation in the Pac Pro. The research and new rules for the Pac Pro are intended to create a safer game. While the Friday Night Stripes series doesn’t speak about how the gear and games shown will be operated it only seems logical that adidas will have an opportunity to focus on the gear that will be used and they have a chance to really shape the sport at the grassroots level.
Someone in the room with the adidas Football group should be spending the next few weeks prior to the start establishing how they are going to look into the safety aspects and not only the digital marketing potential of the league. There is real opportunity to accomplish something significant while also promoting the brand. Use the source link to read more.