Thanks so much for checking out the blog and leaving a comment. Good to hear from you and please tell Jared I said hi.

I agree, this blog tackles sports pr issues, but they’re really lessons that anyone can use in business, education or really life in general. I think the Eagles situation in particular would have unfolded quite differently if they had included a PR person in the decision.

I hope all is well.
Brian

Just started reading your blog – great start! Some of the issues you are discussing should be not only an interest to all sports fans, but anyone that has a job! As an educator(I work with your Mom & my son Jared graduated with you in ’97!) this is relevant to the classroom & my job with technology in the school district!

Keep up the good work!

Thanks for checking out the blog. I agree that what Leone posted on Facebook is most likely against company policy, and definitely not a smart thing for an employee to do. But even if 1,000 others saw his post, or even 5,000 others, the fact remains that the Eagles, by firing the guy, ensured that millions saw it. The Eagles made it national news. So, from a PR perspective, I think they made a mistake.

Jeff brings up a great point, that this easily could have been handled behind closed doors with a slap on the wrist. The original story says that Leone deleted the comment on his own, even before the Eagles brought this to his attention.

Unless they have some kind of policy about this thing already in place, it is not only bad PR, but inappropriate to fire the guy. This is certainly something that is resolved pretty quickly, behind closed doors.

My company has policies in place about personal blogging. They are fine with people blogging, but they don’t want people blogging directly about our industry (Health Care Informatics). I am sure it still happens, but it is easily dealt with without firing people.

One final note, they could have been looking for reasons to cut staff, and this guy just walked into a buzz saw. Happened to a guy at my friend’s company. They needed to lay people off, and this guy had just been in asking his bosses for recommendations for other jobs, for which he was interviewing. Guess who got laid off.

It’s simple to me. This man called the team he’s supposed to support “retarded”. That is not supportive at all, and could easily be grounds for firing him if it’s part of company policy.

And just because only 200 of his friends saw his status, who’s to say that 100′s or 1,000 of others wouldn’t have? It’s easy to see how his status could have been re-posted/tweeted and spread to thousands.

The part about using the economic times as a reason not to fire him is a bunch of bull. It’s like blackmailing an employer. “Don’t fire me now, or I’ll go public that you’re firing employees during this hard economic time.” If an employee is not working as they should or not following policy, a company should be able to fire them without repercussion.

The Eagles absolutely made a mountain out of a molehill.

It’s easy to judge & hindsight is 20/20, but all the Eagles had to do was call Mr. Leone, ask him to remove the comment, & set up a time to discuss the comment with him to communicate that such a comment would not be tolerated.

Then they could have taken the opportunity to create some sort of policy for employee use of social media so that future organizational action in the future would be expected & backed up.

@SternalPR commented on Twitter: It’s really another example of a company trying to control, rather than participate, in the conversation.

Organizations (not just sports) need to realize that social media is a reality and that they must have policies in place to handle & participate (not control) what people say on SM sites. I currently live near Philadelpia, and I know Mr. Leone was not the only Eagles fan let down by the Dawkins news.

@tomokeefe1