OFFICIAL FAVRE SEXT SCANDAL ROCKS SPORTS WORLD

[Fritz]

Always remember to wrap your probe!

[vince]

The NFL's best move is to delay this away without a conclusion and hope the public's interest wanes. If they suspend Favre, they debase the image of their cash cow and justify a harassment case against him. If they don't act, they might open themselves of to liability, assuming there's a harassmet case here. I'm no lawyer, so I have no idea whether the fact that Sterger probably wasn't overly intimidated by the pics seriously undermines any legal case of harrassment. It very well may.

Sterger's team wants to make sure they don't get away with delaying this into oblivion, which the NFL is currently succeeding at...

[Scott Campbell]

The 5-7 Favre that leads the league in INT's and with a passer ranking of 29th is no longer the cash cow he used to be. IMO

[vince]

Brett Favre is the biggest name in football - probably in the history of football from a marketing standpoint. He transcends the game from a marketing perspective and brings reach into new and global markets unlike anyone else. He's an American icon on par with Jordan and Woods. His play this year doesn't change that a bunch IMO. A sexual harassment judgement hurts it though. The NFL would love to exonerate him with their judgment here, but it doesn't look to me like they'll be able to.

[Scott Campbell]

He's an American icon on par with Jordan and Woods.

American icons have an incredibly short shelf life. IMO

Sponsor tells Tiger Woods he better win some golf tournaments

Electronic Arts Inc has no immediate plans to drop Tiger Woods as the pitchman for its golf video games, but the world’s former top golfer needs to get some wins under his belt, the video game publisher’s top executive said on Monday.

[Pugger]

Farve may at one time been an icon but most football fans except Favre fans and queen fans are sick to death of him and hearing about him.

[cheesner]

Brett Favre is the biggest name in football - probably in the history of football from a marketing standpoint. He transcends the game from a marketing perspective and brings reach into new and global markets unlike anyone else. He's an American icon on par with Jordan and Woods. His play this year doesn't change that a bunch IMO. A sexual harassment judgement hurts it though. The NFL would love to exonerate him with their judgment here, but it doesn't look to me like they'll be able to.

Not even close, Peyton Manning holds that title. It is starting to wane, but a year or two ago, that dude was on every other commercial it seemed.

[swede]

Brett Favre is the biggest name in football...

Roethlisberger

[vince]

http://www.harrisinteractive.com/NewsRoom/HarrisPolls/tabid/447/ctl/ReadCustom%20Default/mid/1508/ArticleId/441/Default.aspx

No idea how to make this a table, but you can see it as a table by clicking through the link.

"Who is Your Favorite Sports Star?"

• 2003
  2004
  2005
  2006
  2007
  2008
  2009
  2010
  
  Tiger Woods
  2
  2
  3
  1
  1
  1
  1
  =1
  
  Kobe Bryant
  7
  6
  *
  7
  9
  4
  4
  =1
  
  Derek Jeter
  *
  10
  5
  4
  2
  7
  5
  3
  
  Brett Favre
  3
  3
  4
  3
  4
  3
  9
  4
  
  Peyton Manning
  *
  7
  2
  *
  8
  =8
  7
  5
  
  LeBron James
  *
  *
  *
  8
  5
  *
  3
  6
  
  Michael Jordan
  1
  1
  1
  2
  3
  2
  2
  7
  
  Tom Brady
  *
  *
  7
  *
  10
  =8
  *
  8
  
  Drew Brees
  *
  *
  *
  *
  *
  *
  *
  9
  
  Dale Earnhardt Jr.
  *
  5
  8
  5
  6
  6
  8
  10

Over the last 15 years, Brett Favre has been the most popular NFL player there is. He's been the most popular athlete behind only Jordan and Woods. In 2010, he's the most popular NFL player yet again.

[vince]

Favre is the single most popular athlete in America among Gen Xers - perhaps the most valuable marketing demographic of them all.

[steve823]

Sample size is barely over 2,000. And "These are only theoretical because no published polls come close to this ideal."

[vince]

Steve, no offense, but take a statistics course and come back. Harris Interactive is one of the most highly respected market research firms in existence. Of course the results are "theoretical." They didn't survey every American. A random sampling of 2,000+ individuals brings a very high degree of confidence in projecting the results to the population in question with very small margin of error.

[Cheesehead Craig]

Well, he certainly is the "sextiest" football player

[Little Whiskey]

I would have thought manning would have ranked higher. the fact that he isn't even rated in 2006 is shocking! he goes from his highest ranking of 2 in 2005 to out of the top then in 2007? wow.

[pbmax]

The favorite player rankings do not translate to dollars directly. People are not buying Favre merchandise like Manning (before this year), Brady or Vick this year. He had an uptick when he changed teams and had new jerseys to sell, but that bump is over. His value as an icon is undeniable. But the dollar values he translates into are specifically football related (rating, announcer mentions, etc.)

And I am no marketing maven, but I think the most attractive demographic is younger than Gen X. While Gen X have money to spend, they have well established patterns and loyalties. Most ad work attempts to sway the undecided or new toward a new brand. But its complicated, and I could be drawing on the wrong lesson. TV numbers for golf were never fantastic unless Palmer/Nicklaus/Woods were playing, but they never had trouble attracting Cadillac/Lincoln/Lexus/Infiniti to advertise because the audience had money. But most sponsors want young people watching the ads.