The National Football League and Social Media Marketing
In the 21st century, social media became an important medium of communication and marketing for elite sports leagues and organizations. Most of the research on social media and sport marketing, however, has been written from the point of view of capital and therefore concerned with how social media can be used to increase capital accumulation. Critical analysis of social media is missing from this emergent literature. To gauge how the National Football league (NFL) and its affiliates manage their public image and relations, we studied the twitter feed of the NFL, the coverage, and content provided via web and television by ESPN, and FOX Sports. Controversy creates clicks, and the NFL has experienced no more controversial issue than the protests led by Colin Kaepernick during the 2016 Pre-Season. But, the protests are troubling for the NFL since it uses the marshal spectacle of the anthem to brand itself as patriotic and militaristic. In our attempts to compile data surrounding the event, however, a backlog search of the NFL, Colin Kaepernick, The San Francisco 49ers, and President Donald Trump reveals their twitter pages have been sanitized of any remarks or mention of the protests.