The New York Yankees are not having a great week from a public relations perspective. They already have alienated their fanbase by banning fans from printing tickets to games, thus forcing them to likely have to pay more for the electronic tickets of the Yankees official partner, Ticketmaster, as opposed to cheap tickets that can be found on sites like StubHub.
Now, the Yanks’ latest stunt is angering a whole new set of people — Carolina Panthers fans.
According to ESPN’s Andrew Marchand, the Yankees are using Cam Newton and Russell Wilson as examples of how to act and not to act during their media training day. As an example of acting the “right way,” New York is showing their players Seahawks’ quarterback Russell Wilson after his defeat in Super Bowl XLIX. As for the “wrong way,” they are using — surprise, surprise — Cam Newton after Super Bowl 50.
People (mostly sportswriters) were mad at Newton because he blew off the media after losing the biggest game of his life, so now the Yankees want their pitchers and catchers to know to definitely not do that after a tough loss this upcoming season.
On one hand, this is probably a smart move. The Yankees are likely the most talked about team among the often vicious New York media, and you could be sure if a Yankees player had an outburst, the sports talk shows, and back pages would eat him alive. On the other hand, if the Yankees blow it in Game 7 of the World Series, something tells me they aren’t really going to be thinking about their spring training media day, and realize it’s actually completely understandable to be upset at the result of the game and want to be anywhere in the world other than talking to reporters.
Now, if Yankee players start dabbing every time they hit a home run? Then maybe they can start talking to their players about Cam Newton.
(Via Andrew Marchand)
