Trouble in tattoo-land
By Wayne Robins and Mitch GelmanESPNET SportsZone
The Dennis boom is coming to an end. As well it should.
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But when Oprah's people read what they called the "obscenity-laced tome," they deemed it too wild, too weird, too much. They noted that it "crossed the line of acceptibility."
The same is true of Rodman. Now that Oprah has damned Dennis with her lack of approval, the rest of the mainstream media and corporate America can't be far behind. Dennis is simply bad for business. We're not talking about Phil Knight or any other kind of Nike in shameless ardor for the bigger buck -- for those folks, there will always be short-term room for the Rodmans of the sports world. But for execs of multifacted multinationals who are concerned about more than just today's take, the line needs to be drawn at the celebrity jock most likely to get out of line -- and that starts with Rodman.
There are others, too, who are getting the message. Last week, Kmart dropped golfer Fuzzy Zoeller, a longtime spokesman for the chain's golf wares, after his culinary commentary on Tiger Woods and the annual Masters champions dinner. Just the other day, Wilson Golf cut its ties to John Daly, whose repeated drunkenness finally wore out his $10-million relationship with his sponsor.
This isn't just a moral question for the Kmarts, Wilsons and Oprahs. It's more fundamental. It's about what makes good business ... or show business.
Take a look at what Fila has done in the past six years. The shoe company has gone from No. 14 to No. 3 in athletic shoe sales. Why? Well, let's just agree that getting behind Grant Hill -- the anti-Rodman -- has not been a bad marketing move.
Even the rebel with a racquet, Andre Agassi, has cut his hair, played for his country and taken a wife. As Andre knows, image, indeed, is everything.
Rodman has turned a skill for rebounding, a flair for extreme fashion, and one of the most erratic personalities in professional sports into a controlled, contrived and convincing money-making machine.
But Dennis has always worked his con by getting the officious officials at the NBA to underwrite his profitable leisure activity. Get suspended? No problem. Just gave Dennis more time to make a movie. To go on the talk show circuit. To curl up with some television magazine correspondent and cry about his miserable childhood. But what now?
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What's the point of being sent to your room if there's nobody around to hear your wails?
Even Roberto Alomar, who wasn't able to cash in his umpire incident by pitching Slurpies or mouthwash or chewing tobacco, realized he'd better shake and make up with John Hirshbeck before baseball season started.
If the rest of corporate America sees the success of Fila, doesn't think Fuzzy is funny and won't subsidize Rodman-esque antics in a frenzy of the cover-your-front-and-watch-your-back competition among businesses that has allowed the sports talent pool to take corporate America into the cesspool, then this infantilism could start coming to an end.
It's time for corporate America to step up and say, "If you want us to show you the money, show us some class."
If not, it's really not going to far to suggest that it could be only a matter of time until O.J. Simpson is back in the car rental business.
Wayne Robins writes regularly on entertainment issues for ESPNET SportsZone; Mitch Gelman is editor-in-chief of ESPNET SportsZone.
