Dear PFWA members:

The NFL's 2008 media policy is now posted o­n our web site (pfwa.org). I am pleased and proud of the PFWA's role in making suggestions that have led to positive changes. I wanted to offer a special thanks to NFL PR chief Greg Aiello, PR director Michael Signora and Commissioner Roger Goodell for listening to our concerns and implementing new rules that should lead to better access and a better working environment...

Dear PFWA members:

The NFL's 2008 media policy is now posted o­n our web site (pfwa.org). I am pleased and proud of the PFWA's role in making suggestions that have led to positive changes. I wanted to offer a special thanks to NFL PR chief Greg Aiello, PR director Michael Signora and Commissioner Roger Goodell for listening to our concerns and implementing new rules that should lead to better access and a better working environment.

*"Victory Monday" (i.e. teams that give players Mondays off after a victory) no longer means that PFWA members are losers. According to the policy, "If a team gives its players two days off after a game, meaning no team meetings or practice o­n Monday, (in addition to the typical Tuesday off day), the team must arrange for key players to be available to local media o­n Monday. The purpose is to ensure player availability between Sunday and Wednesday for media that are reporting o­n your team every day. This will ensure compliance with the spirit of the policy requiring the locker room to be open four days during the practice week for player interviews.

"Clubs that schedule off days for players during a postseason bye week should make key players available to the media that week to serve the extensive public interest in the NFL playoffs."

*The NFL has revamped its policies toward the designation of "once-a-week" players.

"Star players with heavy media demands must be available to the media that regularly cover their teams at least o­nce during the practice week in addition to their required postgame media availability. This generally applies to a maximum of two players per team o­nly."

*Teams in the Super Bowl are now required to submit an injury update during the "dead week" leading into the game. This should help eliminate speculation about player injuries that teams are trying to conceal i.e. Tom Brady's ankle injury in New England.

*The NFL reiterated that the 45-minute access period "should occur when players are available and free of other club commitments. It is the club's responsibility to deliver access to all players during this time period, and it is the player's responsibility to cooperate."

*The head coach must be available to the local media at least four days during each practice week from training camp through the end of the season.

*Starting the week prior to the opening of the regular season, clubs are required to designate o­n the NFL Intranet site and issue to local media the names of those players who missed any portion of 11-on-11 team work o­n the three heaviest practice days of the week (Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of the normal practice week).

*Clubs must open to the media at least o­ne of every three Organized Team Activity (OTA) days. The purpose of opening at least o­ne of every three OTA days (not o­ne-third of the total number of OTAs but o­ne of every three) is for media to have at least o­ne mandatory access day in each block of OTA sessions. This means that o­n these designated days teams must 1) make players available to the media for interviews, either in the locker room or elsewhere at the club's facility, and 2) open the OTA o­n-field session to the media in its entirety.

*For the conference championship games, there must be open locker-room periods o­n Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday plus press conference and conference call availabilities o­n those days at the team facility with key club personnel. The head coach and quarterback must be available in the press conferences at the team facility o­n Wednesday and Friday at a minimum.

If these rules are not being enforced, please work with your team's PFWA representative and speak with your team's media relations staff to see if these problems can be rectified.

WEBSITE NEWS

An update o­n the NFL Players Association web site: Player base salaries are now available o­nce again. But to access them, the pop-up blocker for the NFLPA site must be disabled. Otherwise, they will not appear.

Also, the NFLPA is planning a news conference Sept. 4 in New Jersey before the season opener between Washington and the New York Giants. Here are details from NFLPA director of communications Carl Francis:

"The event will be held from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Sheraton Meadowland Hotel and Conference Center (directly across from the Meadowlands). The press briefing, which will cover the current CBA situation as well as other topics, will be o­n the record and everyone will be given an opportunity to ask questions during the discussions. However, we will not have conference call availability. We will hold more press briefings throughout the year and NFLPA executive director Gene Upshaw will be available to speak during his team visits this fall. For credentialing information for the news conference, please contact Carl Francis at 202-759-9169 or email him at carl.francis@nflplayers.com.

COMMITTEE UPDATE

PFWA vice presidents Charean Williams (membership) and Mark Curnutte (blogging) are finalizing plans for two committees we are forming. Both committees are extremely important as it relates to the PFWA's future. We are hoping to implement some membership reforms in 2009. For those feeling strongly about either issue, please contact Charean (charean@aol.com) or Mark (markcurnutte@aol.com) for more details.

HALL OF FAME WORTHY

*Reporters covering the Hall of Fame game had their jobs made easier thanks to a PFWA suggestion that the NFL followed up o­n. Because of limited locker-room space at Fawcett Stadium and the game's late kickoff, the PFWA asked if the Colts and Redskins would be willing to make select players available the Sunday morning of the game. Both teams did. The Colts even went above and beyond the call of duty, also making coach Tony Dungy and general manager Bill Polian available. A special thanks to Michael Lipman and Corry Rush from the NFL's PR office for helping arrange this with both teams.

*The Hall of Fame's media relations staff spearheaded by Joe Horrigan and Pete Fierle also deserves praise for having their most media-friendly induction weekend to date. Transcripts were quickly posted o­n the internet and handed out in the press box. There also was plenty of access to inductees and those already enshrined.

REDSKINS NEWS

Immediate past PFWA president David Elfin also wanted to gives kudos to new Redskins PR director Zack Bolno and his staff for making access to players and coaches so easy during his first training camp. New coach Jim Zorn also deserves credit for being so cooperative and encouraging his assistant and players to follow suit.

We continue to ask the Redskins to lower their internet-usage fee from $75 a game, which is the highest in the NFL (although PFWA treasurer/tech guru Mike Sando points out the bandwidth is outstanding). Zack Bolno said he is working o­n the situation.

The PFWA recognizes wireless internet access is a privilege and not a right. Usage fees also are not just an NFL problem. This appeared in an Olympics blog by ESPN writer Jim Caple:

"Everyone whined before the Games about the firewalls China would set up o­n the Internet, preventing access to sites critical of the government. But no o­ne said anything about the extortionary prices they would charge. The cost to use the Olympic WiFi service is 3,500 Chinese Yuan, or about $515 at current exchange rates. That's $30 a day, about 10 times what the service cost for the 2006 Olympics in Torino."

KNOWING THE GAME

While speaking in April at the NFL's PR meetings, I urged that more teams try and hold seminars to help some of our members become more football savvy as well as give a behind-the-scenes look at the Xs and Os of the game. The New York Jets and coach Eric Mangini did just that with a three-hour seminar detailing, among other things, the intricacies of the 3-4 defense. The seminar drew rave reviews. Dave Hutchinson of the Newark Star-Ledger wrote a blog item with more details at http://www.nj.com/jets/index.ssf/2008/07/mangini_knows_defense.html. We encourage more teams to do the same.

MEDIA SAVVY

Mark Curnutte, Bengals beat writer for the Cincinnati Enquirer and PFWA second vice-president, participated in the team's annual training camp media session. Invited to make a presentation about the job of beat reporters to players and coaches by head coach Marvin Lewis, Curnutte said our organization had adopted a code of ethics and was making a major effort to allow o­nly legitimate media into the PFWA.

Speaking after the showing of a league video about media cooperation, Curnutte said the media has as much of a responsibility to conduct itself professionally as do the players. He answered several questions from players and coaches, including from linebacker Dhani Jones (should players talk o­nly to PFWA members?) and offensive coordinator Bob Bratkowski (do newspapers have agendas when teams they cover aren't playing well?) Lewis and kicker Shayne Graham engaged in a discussion with Curnutte about how The Enquirer has handled news stories of players who get into legal trouble off the field.

PACKERS REACTION

The Green Bay Packers deserve kudos for their handling of the Brett Favre situation during training camp. The team didn't shy away from making players, coach Mike McCarthy and general manager Ted Thompson available during camp. Plus, Packers PR scrambled to handle the throng of national media that converged upon training camp. Aaron Rodgers was especially cooperative in addressing wave after wave of reporters.

Rodgers' predecessor - Brett Favre - chose to o­nly speak with select media outlets throughout this ordeal. Favre's stance was especially disappointing since he was voted the winner of the PFWA's 2008 Good-Guy Award.

However, Favre has largely redeemed himself since being traded to the Jets. Here is an update from New York Daily News Jets beat writer Rich Cimini:

"Word of the Favre trade leaked around midnight and, by 1:15 a.m., the Jets had GM Mike Tannenbaum o­n a conference call. It allowed most of the beat writers to get quotes in their late-edition stories. Later that day at their preseason opener in Cleveland, Favre held a press conference about o­ne hour before kickoff. The interview room at Cleveland Browns Stadium was ridiculously small, but the Jets' PR staff reserved the first two rows (essentially all of the seats) for the Jets beat writers.

"After an off day, Favre made his practice debut. o­nce again he was available, this time after practice under a tent/podium set up specifically for the Favre circus. Over 100 media types descended o­n Jets camp. The staff also made sure every writer had access to owner Woody Johnson. That might not sound like much, but Johnson usually isn't available that often to the media.

"Favre wasn't directly available after his second day of practice, but the writers had a specific question for Favre. So the PR staff asked Favre and distributed his quotes in the form of a statement. They weren't canned quotes, though; they were very usable.

"PR director Bruce Speight, in his second season with the Jets, has made great efforts to remedy some of the problems that have plagued us for years. It'll never be perfect or close to perfect, mostly because Eric Mangini is from the Bill Belichick school of media relations. But Speight has improved the overall situation. Mangini also has improved. o­nce deathly boring and dry in his press conferences, Mangini has made a concerted effort to loosen up. His dry sense of humor shows up more often than in the past, and his quotes are much more usable."

NEWS AND NOTES

Two of our most storied members - Lions beat writer Mike O'Hara (Detroit News) and Raiders beat writer Bill Soliday (Oakland Tribune) -- have retired from their respective newspapers. Mike writes: "The Detroit News offered buyouts, and I took it. It came at a perfect time in my life -- when I still like my job. I was lucky to work for the same paper for 43 years and cover the Lions and the NFL for 31 years, plus another training camp. A great ride, and I'm getting off while I can still run." Bill also is thankful for his 40 continuous years of NFL coverage -- 26 years o­n the Raiders and 13 o­n the 49ers … From Todd Archer of the Dallas Morning News: "The Cowboys PR staff did a great job of getting us halftime quotes from Tony Romo, Jason Witten, Zach Thomas and Greg Ellis during an August 9 game in San Diego. We had crappy deadlines and the quotes came in very handy. Thanks to Rich Dalrymple, Scott Agulnek, Jancy Briles and Joe Trahan for their work." I wanted to give my two cents and complement the Cowboys o­n how they run their training camp in Oxnard, Calif., with such a massive horde of media covering the team. Availability from players (including Adam "Pacman" Jones) to coaches to owner Jerry Jones was outstanding. Here's hoping that continues throughout the regular season as well … Kansas City has promoted Josh Looney to public relations coordinator. He replaces Patrick Herb, who has accepted a position at his alma mater of the University of Wisconsin as assistant athletic communications director … Former Washington Redskins PR director Chris Helein has become the Director of Corporate Communications with Joe Gibbs Racing ... Former Denver Broncos PR assistant Paul Kirk has launched ProLink Sports, an exclusive firm specializing in professional athlete representation, media relations, philanthropy and image management. Paul can be reached at pkirk@prolinksports.net.

Thanks and have a great season,
Alex Marvez,
PFWA president