The National Football League Symposium: First and the Next Ten ended with panelists Mike Tirico, Newhouse class of ’88 and current ESPN announcer; Rich Cimini, ’85 and writer with ESPNNewYork.com; John Wildhack, ’80, executive vice president of program acquisitions and strategy with ESPN and Troy Vincent, vice president of player engagement with the NFL, discussing a range of topics from fantasy football and social media influences to player safety.
Before delving into those topics, however, another Syracuse alumnus shared some time with the audience filling the Joyce Hergenhan Auditorium. As Tirico introduced him through a broadcast phone-call, the reception that greeted Donovan McNabb [7]surely reminded him of his playing days at SU.
Tirico’s and McNabb’s conversation stayed fairly light, as they spoke of McNabb’s mother joining him in Campbell’s Soup advertisements earlier in his career. But McNabb did offer insight into the mindset of a highly publicized athlete, stating the objective to build himself and his image into a brand. He also offered an optimistic forecast of the future of SU Athletics, lauding the school’s history of great athletes while setting forth his expectations for Syracuse to become a more dominant athletic program across all sports, including football, within the next ten years.
Following McNabb’s call, the panel’s discussion turned to player safety, and former NFL defensive back Troy Vincent spoke with conviction in support of the emerging league policies to increase player protections. Broadcast Journalism graduate student Adam Rozwadowski found Vincent’s perspective compelling, saying after the event, “It’s amazing to hear from a former player how the game has changed. To hear Troy Vincent say that he used to coach players to ‘put a player to sleep’ when hitting them, to now advocating for more safety, just shows the dilemma between the competitive side and the need to protect players.”
The conversation then shifted to fantasy football and social media. Cimini and Tirico noted how social media, especially Twitter, has altered expectations and dramatically increased the pressures of timely reporting. But while fantasy football has had very real influences on marketing strategies of the NFL and the content of ESPN and other outlets, Cimini noted that, as a professional and journalist, he “roots for just one thing: the best story.” Agreeing, Tirico said he has learned to remove his emotional ties to games and realized that “win or lose, the sun comes up.”
“Though it does come up orange,” he added.
(Photo courtesy of Stock XCHNG)
