Hello everyone.
If you know me in person, you know that I love football. I love all kinds of football but I especially love NFL football. Within the last month Ben Roethlisberger, quarter back for the Pittsburgh Steelers, has had it rough. He was sued by a 20 year old college girl for sexual harassment in a Georgia bar’s bathroom. The bar was near the campus of the Georgia College and State University in Milledgeville, Georgia.
As you can imagine this is a PR nightmare. Cleaning up a reputation is a hard job especially when it deals with a sexual assault charge. The charges were dropped from the Steeler’s quarterback. He is now trying to be productive and gain his fans back. He wants his fans to be proud of him again. After leading his team to the national championship game several times, Roethlisberger has always been a fan favorite. He has always had the image of a good all-American boy. This reputation recovery process may take a while but will most likely be successful. People used to have a place in their hearts for Roethlisberger and will probably make room once more.
His punishment has not been announced yet, but there are rumors of suspension, fines, and possible rehab. He will receive disciplinary actions from the NFL and his own team.
His PR professional is trying his or her best with this situation. The day following the dropping of the charges, Roethlisberger was sporting a new hair cut and a new suit. He is usually know for showing uo to games in a tshirt and blue jeans. Now that he has people to impress, his PR professional is probably stepping in an giving suggestion to him on how to win back the hearts of the Steelers fans.
Good Luck to Roethlisberger and his PR person!
Hey! I heard about this and it hit home for me because I went to Georgia College and State University my freshman year of college. This is such a surprise to me because it is such a small town. It really does not get much action at all. I was completly surprised to find that the charges were drop. I guess that is a great thing for him, but it just seems very ironic. I do not think this is the first time a situation like this has come up fro Rosethlisberger either. Hopefully he will stay away from GCSU! This was a great topic for PR connections! Keep up the great work!
Hey Jessica! Being that I am generally surrounded by mostly guys, I am usually watching ESPN more than the average female. SO, I heard about Big Ben’s “situation” a while ago, and it made me very upset. The Steelers are my favorite NFL team (although I much prefer college football) and Ben is from my mom’s alma mater (Miami of OH). I guess I just don’t understand so many of these professional athletes and why they think they can do these things. They are suppose to be role models, whether they want to be or not. They have codes of conduct they are expected to abide by and I’m sure they are not that hard to do. If he were in any other profession, he would be fired for doing something like that. I saw his “apology” on TV the other day and it did not seem sincere at all. There was no remorse in his face, and he read straight from the script that, most likely, his publicist typed up for him. You’re right…he or she has a lot of work to do.
Thanks for the post!
The NFL does such smart PR- he’s lucky to be a member of an organization that knows how to handles these situations. So many athletes have gotten in trouble for similar allegations and somehow have made it back into good standings with fans. The truth of the matter is that sometimes it doesn’t matter what your character is, but how good you are at playing football. Ben’s an asset to the Steelers, and it pretty sad that the whole team is going to have to go 6 games without their star quarterback.
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This scandal with Roethlisberger as been the talk of the town, especially at Georgia Southern because the incident happened at a college only two hours away, Georgia College and State University. I feel that a lot of celebrities are having to regain their reputation these days, because will all the new technology that we have in today’s society, it is easier to find out the truth by just getting onto their account and revealing to the world their private lives. Although, this is a much more of serious matter than just cheating on your wife because it deals with sexual harassment, the best thing that Roethlisberger should do is come come clean to any accusations because the truth will be found out sooner or later. I don’t believe his fans will portray him if they know that all of the accusations are false and know the true “all-american” boy. All of the tiny details that the PR professionals are doing will help him in the long run, just like the new haircut and suit.
-Sarah Gricius
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This type of situation is not uncommon in the entertainment/sports industry. Many times, athletes think that because they are famous and have a lot of money, they can get away with alot of illegal activity. The problem is that people are now learning to speak up and stand up to these athletes. So what is a PR professional to do when a victim names your athlete as the person who sexually assaulted them? You have a redefine their image- Make the public see the remorseful side of your athlete. The problem with this is that these situations are what give PR people a bad reputation- we have to spin a clients image to cater to the acceptance of the public. Whether the client has truly changed is a dynamic that no one will ever truly know, which is a tad deceptive.
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I blogged about this same topic as well! I too am a huge football fan and know more than probably the average girl about the NFL haha. When I talked about this in my blog I was pretty frustrated with the fact that this has happened more than once now and the lesson just doesn’t seem to be learned here. I am the kind of person that doesn’t separate the athlete from the person and I do feel like they should try and uphold a positive and descent image to their fans and people that look up to them. His actions whether he was charged with anything or not are just not okay. He put himself in these sketchy situations and he is reaping the penalties and I think that is just fine!
-Lauren Stevens
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