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Belichick's exit plan and a JJ Watt trade: NFL subplots to watch in 2021

Will Aaron Rodgers depart Green Bay after an MVP-caliber season? Will Bill Belichick leave New England before it turns ugly? There’s no shortage of meaty NFL plotlines in 2021The NFL’s general attitude towards 2020 can be summed up succinctly: What pandemic?Whereas other leagues ground to a halt, considered voiding their seasons, entered into complex bubbles or faced existential crises, the NFL thundered along, with the kind of bravado that is afforded only to the biggest and baddest and most-watched on the block.Some precautions were taken. Preseason was out. Mask mandates were in. But the bottom line was this: No matter the lineup, no matter the ridiculousness of the spectacle, no matter the health consequences, football will be played. And, in general, it was a success. Covid has the potential to embarrass the league in Week 17, the final week of the season, and we still do not know the extent of the health consequences, but for the most part the league got its wish: The season will be completed on time. As the calendar flips from 2020 to 2021, here are some subplots to keep an eye on. Aaron Rodgers’ futureAs of now, Rodgers likely has his name etched on the MVP trophy. Voters love a narrative, and the Rodgers Revenge Tour is a better narrative than ‘isn’t Patrick Mahomes droningly excellent?’ It’s the Michael Jordan syndrome. (Voters actually gave Karl Malone an MVP award during Jordan’s prime. That’s a real thing that happened.)But it’s not that long ago that the Packers selected Jordan Love in the first round of the draft, that Rodgers’ future was up in the air, that the team had obviously selected his replacement, that it was just a matter of when not if Rodgers would leave.Rodgers has been terrific this season. His game has evolved. The improvisational off-script, jazz artist is still there, but he’s married that with the on-script rhythm that defined his early years as a starter. It’s a deadly combination.The power to decide his future now sits with Rodgers. He’s performing at an MVP level and could guide the Packers to another Super Bowl title. Green Bay will want to keep the 38-year-old around until he truly starts to decline. But will Rodgers take matters into his own hands this offseason? How upset was he really by the love selection? With possible quarterback openings in such hot spots as New England, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, could Rodgers look to push his way out of title town as the final act of this year’s tour? A franchise saleThe NFL as a whole has done a decent job of inoculating itself from the financial losses that have hit the majority of sports leagues during the pandemic. Rather than push games or add weeks, the NFL stripped back its preseason and steam-rolled ahead whenever there was a sign of a health scare. We are playing football! Who’s ready to play? Who’s watching? We’ll play them on Monday nights and Tuesday nights and Wednesday afternoons and Saturday mornings, the quality of the games or the health of the players be damned.That was a lucrative strategy for the league, as much as any league is making money in the Covid age. But the league is still made up of old-school owners who made the bulk of their money in an old-school manner. While several owners have stomached the financial hit to their sporting institution, plenty have taken significant losses in their non-sporting ventures.You only have to look over to the NBA to see how even the tech-savvy, self-dubbed ‘smart’ sport owners have been hit by the pandemic: Tilman Fertitta, the NBA’s latest owner, who paid a record $2.2bn for the Houston Rockets franchise in 2017, makes his money in casinos and restaurants. His operation has been reduced to 4% during the pandemic and he has been forced to take his company public, as well as accepting an operating loan from the league.There are similar issues in the NFL’s upper chamber. Some owners are feeling the financial costs much more than others, particularly those whose wealth is based on owning an NFL franchise. (The NFL remains the sports league with the most ‘legacy’ ownership families.)Nobody will be shedding a tear for the fattest of fat cats, but NFL franchises are notoriously hard to prize away from owners because they print money. The pandemic has changed that. The year 2021 could usher in a band of new owners as those current owners who’ve been most severely impacted by the pandemic try to recover funds. Will there be any Cam Newton takers?Newton’s one-year plan in New England was clear: Get himself to the smartest, most creative and consistent organization in the sport; show that he still had plenty of juice left, that he just needed a break; and then sign a mega-deal this coming offseason, be it re-upping with New England or elsewhere.But for as much as Bill Belichick has tried to sell the Patriots-Cam Newton experience to the media and fans this season as a success, it hasn’t worked. The Patriots’ offensive staff has been creative and mailable, working around Newton’s idiosyncrasies and lack of accuracy. But all too often when Newton has dropped back and attempted to play with some kind of rhythm, it’s looked like he’s trying to throw a medicine ballNewton’s health is the question here. He no longer has the same kind of zip on his fastball, and his throwing accuracy that was so-so even during the best of times has now completely fallen off a cliff.Perhaps the Patriots talk themselves into Newton for another season as a bridge to whatever the team’s quarterback future looks like. Perhaps they tell themselves he looked OK prior to his Covid diagnosis. Perhaps Belichick believes Newton, even with his flaws, will be fine once the Patriots are able to bring back the chunks of their roster that missed this season due to COVID. But that seems unlikely. It seems like Newton, the great pioneer, the paradigm-shifter, is ultimately shot. And if Belichick isn’t willing to indulge another season, will any other team? And if not, what does Newton do? Retire? Sit out another year and hope to heal? It’s hard to imagine Newton doing the rounds as a one-year hired gun on a ready-to-tank, rebuilding team. Is this it for Bill Belichick?It doesn’t feel like Belichick is slowing down. But, at some point, Belichick is going to walk away from the Patriots’ job. Belichick tried rolling things back for one more push this season, band-aiding together a roster that was missing the core of its defense due to Covid defections and which lacked a quarterback given Tom Brady’s move to Florida.Is Belichick, at his advanced age, post-Covid, ready and willing after a par year to start another rebuild? He has no quarterback, and the backbone of the roster that delivered the last Super Bowl is starting to creak – a majority have already or are expected to exit this offseason. Plus: Belichick’s staff is expected to be picked apart again during the offseason, both on the coaching side and in the Patriots front office. Is it possible he opts to walk away before things get ugly? The Justin Fields surgeThe Jaguars have locked up the number one pick in the upcoming draft. The selection is expected to be Trevor Lawrence, Clemson’s once-in-a-lifetime-type quarterback prospect. But as always in a draft cycle, expect there to be a run on Justin Fields, the Ohio State quarterback who would be the sure-fire top selection in a traditional year.And if former Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer winds up as the head honcho in Jacksonville, look out. The chatter will increase. Leaks will flow. Trade offers will arrive.Lawrence should be the top pick, but there is a chance that Jacksonville switch spots with the Jets (for a significant haul). A JJ Watt tradeJJ Watt and the Houston Texans are synonymous with one another. But if Houston is looking to generate some kind of assets to be able to improve its roster this offseason, moving Watt is one of the only ways.The Texans have little to no draft capital and have one of the worst cap sheets in the league. They also have a jumbled roster that is the walking embodiment of the fractured front office that oversaw its construction over the past five seasons. Yet there, in the middle of it all, is Deshaun Watson, one of the most gifted quarterbacks in the league. Having a great quarterback fixes a lot. So for the Texans to leap back into contention, even with the roster holes and lack of flexibility in the market, could take as few as five to six smart moves. One way to open up some sort of flexibility, to increase the margin of error when trying to make such moves, would be to move on from Watt while he still holds value.It would be a difficult move financially and culturally, but it would also be a savvy one. And it would allow Watt to get a shot with a different organization, where he may get a shot over the next 24 months to advance beyond the divisional round. New TV dealsAs noted in the Guardian’s 2021 bold predictions piece, the NFL’s current round of TV rights deals are set to expire in 2022. As sports continue to be the sole place that networks can bank on to produce a large, live audience, and as the NFL continues to reign supreme as the biggest provider of live content (eight of 2020s 10 most-watched single telecasts were football games or post games) the bidding is expected to be intense and expensive.The league could look to re-up with its traditional broadcast partners. Or it could hand a more favorable deal to ESPN/Disney, with the possibility of Disney snagging itself a coveted Super Bowl and moving its broadcasts to ABC. Or it could offer larger packages to a streaming client, like Amazon Prime, in the hopes of getting ahead of the live sports streaming curve or to try to make up for some of the revenue the league and its owners lost in 2020.

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‘Where’s My Money’ Spray Painted On Mitch McConnell’s Front Door After Blocking Vote On $2,000 Stimulus Checks - Forbes

How Product Placement Puts Your Brand In Front of Your Target Customers - Business 2 Community

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Have you ever noticed in the big movies how often you see major brands?

More often than not, the PC or mobile phone somebody is using is an Apple or perhaps a Samsung. All the vehicles could be Fords, or there might be several BMWs.

Your favourite influencers on social media? Chances are that they are sponsored by brands to promote their products.

This is called product placement, which is a form of advertising but attempts to persuade in a far less obvious way than traditional advertising.

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What is Product Placement?

Also known as embedded marketing, product placement is a multi-billion dollar industry.

Companies pay to have commercial content such as their brand, products or services incorporated into non-commercial content such as film, TV or other mainstream media. The idea is to use the placement whilst maintaining realism with context or plot.

The audience gets exposed a brand, product or service being consumed in its natural setting; positively influencing their perceptions and opinions of the brand. They are not meant to notice that it is advertising — that is the power of product placement.

“In its simplest form, product placement consists of an advertiser or company producing some engaging content in order to sell something.” (Falkow, 2010)

Product placements can be subtle or more obvious. Ranging from an unobtrusive appearance within the setting, or more prominent incorporation and acknowledgement of the brand as part of the plot.

The product itself does not have to be shown; it could be a logo, signage or brand name for example. More subtle product placement could avoid showing the brand itself but instead showing a distinct colour scheme or other feature synonymous with that brand.

Consumer products such as electronics (Apple products for example) or automobiles, as well as service placements (such as McDonald’s), that target ultimate household consumers are the most common placement, but business-to-business promotions are becoming more common.

The vast number of media that use product placements include films, television programs, celebrities/influencers via social media, video games, blogs, music videos, concerts, magazines, books, comics, musicals and plays, live sport, radio, the internet, and mobile phones.

Product placement on television has grown rapidly to try and combat people skipping traditional commercial breaks. According to Priceonomics, television accounts for just over 70 percent of all paid product placements, and approximately 75% of all broadcast-network shows feature some form of product placement.

Films can often use multiple brands as product placements, Superman: Man of Steel is reported to have used $160 million worth of product placements promotions with over 100 brands.

“Since Unilever’s deliberate insertion of Sunlight Soap into several early Lumière films of the late 1890s, the practice of placing branded products within films for commercial purposes has developed into a distinct promotional tool.” (De Gregorio & Sung, 2010)

A Brief History of Product Placement

Although the term product placement was only created to describe this practice as recently as the 1980s, it is not a new practice. Instead, dating back to the first appearance of brands in Lumière films in 1896.

Product placement was not always monetised — many of the product placement deals were cash-free; instead, the arrangement was often reciprocal, items were borrowed and used as props by studios and television networks, reducing the cost of production. Products could be moved as well as selling movie tickets.

Commercial product placements were integrated into the creation and marketing of mass media content as early as the 1920s. The first spurt of popularity came in the 1950s, where tobacco companies tried to glamorise smoking cigarettes in TV and film.

In the 1980s, product placements became widely used after E.T. followed a trail of Reese’s Pieces out of the woods, resulting in a reported 65% increase in profits for Hershey’s.

“In E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, the alien followed a trail of Hershey’s Reese’s Pieces to his new home. The movie was a hit, sales of Reese’s Pieces increased dramatically, and to some the product placement industry was born.” (Newell, Salmon, & Chang, 2006)

The Benefits of Product Placement

This fusion of advertising and entertainment helps brands to reach and engage with many of their target audience.

Because many people find traditional ads are annoying or irrelevant, it is estimated that two-thirds of TV viewers mute or skip ads. A major benefit of product placement is they cannot be skipped — they are embedded into the TV program, movie or other media itself.

The brand is often associated with the characters or context of the placement, so they must match to create a compatible match, which usually achieves positive evaluations.

Brands placed with attractive characters or settings can often be more appealing to the audience/consumers. This can be attributed to the ‘halo effect’, where a positive association with a show or person creates a positive association with the corresponding product or brand.

Viewers can become emotionally invested in the storyline in which a brand is presented. Because of this, the placement can encourage purchase intent.

When a placement is integrated seamlessly into a piece of media, the brand is seen in context, so it markets to consumers less directly. This means consumers’ persuasion knowledge is less likely to be triggered; this is a barrier that consumers put up to resist persuasion attempts from marketing that is too obtrusive.

Product placements can also boost brand recognition — the audience is also more likely to be able to recognise and name a brand after seeing it in product placement.

A study by Williams, Petrosky, Hernandez, & Page Jr (2011) found that just over 57 percent of TV viewers recognized a brand in placement when the brand also was advertised during the show.

The final major benefit is that movies and TV programs can be watched many times over several years, so their value is not limited to when it is originally aired.

“Viewers are able to correctly recognize brands placed in films and consumers do not really mind seeing products placed in motion pictures.” (La Ferle & Edwards, 2006)

How Product Placement Works

Product placement is all about context. To present a product or service in a way that will produce positive feelings towards that brand and hopefully influence peoples’ buying behaviour to purchase the brand. This connects with the audience in a more natural way than advertising when consumers are marketed to directly.

Product placements can be initiated directly through the firm’s marketing team suggesting their products to a studio or producers of a TV/Movie, or it could go the other way. Some companies and agents work as an intermediary to match companies with product placement opportunities. The brands in placements should be matched as closely as possible with the projected target audience of that piece of media.

Because of this potential influence over an audience, product placement should be ethical. The placement of brands of tobacco or alcohol for example can be viewed as unacceptable by much of the audience, especially in content created for youth.

There are two main forms of product placements: visual and verbal.

A visual placement involves placing a brand into a piece of media, so it is viewed. It could be an advertising hoarding in the background of a shot, or it could be of more importance in a scene, such as a cast member eating a packet of branded potato chips.

A verbal placement refers to the brand being mentioned in dialogue. There are varying degrees of audio placement, depending on the context in which the product is mentioned, the frequency with which it is mentioned, and the emphasis placed on the product name. Purely verbal placement we are called script placement.

A plot placement that relies on placing the brand both on the screen and in the conversation provides an opportunity for both verbal and visual encoding, whereas the other situations would activate only one form of encoding.

If a brand’s product becomes part of the plot -playing a major place in the storyline of building the persona of a character, this is a plot placement. Where a brand is identified with a character, e.g. James Bond and his Aston Martin, this is high intensity. A brief mention and appearance on screen low intensity.

Based on the coding redundancy hypothesis (See Paivio 1971), “…memory increases directly with the number of alternative memory codes available for an item”. Visual and audio activate different codes, and therefore different combinations of screen and script placement vary in effectiveness and brand recall.

“Virtual product placement” has been used to insert products and/or advertisements into portions of a media stream, where the products and/or advertisements may not actually exist.” (Gajdos & Pettersson, 2011)

The Digital Age of Product Placements

Advances in digital editing technology allow producers to update existing placements or create new ones in post-production, sometimes changing items used in shows long after they were filmed.

In live sports broadcasted to viewers, an advertisement on a billboard can be created where the advertisement is different than what physically exists. It may be a different ad or there might not even be an advertisement there in the first place.

On TV and in movies, virtual product placements can be inserted after the movie has been produced. Examples of this could be an advertising sign inserted into the background of a scene advertise a brand, or a beverage a person is drinking being altered to display a specific brand.

With advances in AI, product placements can be inserted into a media stream based on information about the consumer watching it, meaning brands relevant to that individual can be used, becoming more targeted to their personal interests.

Product placement has exploded on social media in the form of influencer marketing. An influencer is a social media personality with a following, who are paid to include products in their content to boost that brand’s popularity with their following. If the following of an influencer matches the target market of a brand, then they are a good fit.

Influencer marketing can range from a small mention in a post to the topic of a piece of content. The more obvious the product placement, the more it is deemed to be considered too ‘commercial’ by the followers of that social media influencer and the less effective it is likely to be.

“The extent to which the placement is prominent, whereby more prominence seems to evoke more negative reactions.” (Ewers, 2017)

Product Placement in Retail Settings

Product placement not only applies to media — but it can also apply to physical retail shop space. Brands will pay top dollar for prime space on the retail floor and shelves. This includes large endcap (end of an aisle) displays, the area next to the register where you checkout, or having item at eye level on the shelves and limiting shelf space their competitors — known as a slotting or shelving fee.

Large brands pay good money for this premium shelving space, this makes it harder for small brands and new businesses to break into the commercial retail market.

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In summary, product placement is when a company pays to have commercial content such as their brand incorporated into a piece of media such as a film, or TV program, to expose it to the audience which is usually a good fit with their target market.

This aims to positively influence their perceptions and opinions of the brand in a less obtrusive way than traditional advertising.

This article has explored product placement, how it works and the benefits of using it as a marketing strategy.

Thank you for reading.

I hope you enjoyed the content and learnt something new.

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Middle Tennessee Volleyball Announces 2021 Spring Schedule - GoBlueRaiders.com

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MURFREESBORO, Tenn. – The Middle Tennessee volleyball team released its schedule for the 2021 spring season, as announced by head coach Chuck Crawford on Friday.
 
"It has been more than one calendar year since we competed in a live match, and we are all very excited," said head coach Chuck Crawford. "We will reflect on 2020 and count the simple blessings in life. While we are not out of the woods, competition adds a measure of normalcy for our student-athletes."
 
"I would like to offer my sincere gratitude as I thank our administrators, team doctors and athletic trainers for the tireless work they have done to allow us the opportunity to play a game we love so much," said Crawford. "There have been many logistical hoops and hurdles they have had to jump through and climb over for all of our athletic programs this year. I am truly grateful!"
 
The Blue Raider's schedule pans across eight weeks against two non-conference opponents and six C-USA foes – Florida Atlantic, Old Dominion, Charlotte, Marshall, FIU, and WKU. Middle Tennessee kicks off the season against Lipscomb in a home contest on Jan. 22 and an away match on Jan. 24. The team will face North Alabama in a home and away contest on Jan. 29 and Jan. 31.
 
The Blue Raiders will kick off C-USA play when it travels to Florida Atlantic, Feb. 14 and Feb. 15. Middle Tennessee will then be set to welcome Old Dominion to Alumni Memorial Gymnasium for a pair of matches on Feb. 21 and Feb. 22. The Blue Raiders will continue their conference slate the following weekend traveling to face Charlotte on Feb. 28 and Mar. 1. The team will then return home to take on Marshall on Mar. 7 and Mar. 8. Middle Tennessee will then travel to FIU with two matches on Mar. 14 and Mar. 15 before concluding the season at home against rival WKU, Mar. 20-21.
 
Middle Tennessee returns six letter winners from the 2019 season, including C-USA All-Freshman honoree Kayla Henley. Henley played a significant role for the Blue Raiders last season as a freshman, as she was third on the team in kills with 202, third in blocks with 53, and fifth on the team in digs with 158. Middle Tennessee also welcomes seven newcomers, including Arkansas transfer Maylin Garrett. 
 
Follow Us
Keep up with Blue Raider Volleyball online: Middle Tennessee Blue Raider Volleyball on Facebook, @MT_Volleyball on Twitter, and @mt_volleyball on Instagram.
 

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Fare collection, front door boarding return to Arlington buses Sunday - WTOP

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Riders on the Arlington, Virginia, bus system will once again have to pay fares and enter the bus through the front door starting on Sunday.

Arlington County said that both practices were suspended by Arlington Transit (ART) last March, but fares can now be paid by either using the SmarTrip card, SmarTrip app or by exact change at the fare box, while plastic glass barriers have been installed to protect the drivers at the front of the bus.

Face masks are still required for all passengers, and fares for a one-way trip will be $2, with discounts for seniors.

ART joins other region bus systems with similar resumptions in pre-pandemic services.

Metrobus said last month that it will begin front door boarding and fare collection on Sunday too. On Monday, TheBus in Prince George’s County, Maryland will also begin its “step toward normalcy” by charging passengers and having them enter through the front of the bus.

However, Montgomery County’s RideOn bus system will continue to offer its passengers free rides and have them enter through the rear.

Like WTOP on Facebook and follow @WTOP on Twitter to engage in conversation about this article and others.

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Queens man shot at front door in NYC's only overnight shooting - New York Post

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A Queens man was shot as he answered his front door early Saturday — the only shooting overnight in the five boroughs, cops said.

The victim, 31, was taken to North Shore-LIJ Hospital in stable condition, authorities said.

The shooting occurred at 5:20 a.m. on the first floor of 98-38 212th Street, a two-family brick building in Queens Village.

The victim was in his apartment sleeping when he “hears a loud noise, goes to the door, which was forced open and he’s shot in the right shoulder,” an NYPD spokesman said, adding, “Was this a robbery or burglary gone sideways? Is this a guy he knows or doesn’t know? To be determined.”

Police said there was no description of the shooter and nothing was taken.

The gunfire comes on the heels of Friday morning’s bloodshed, where one person was killed and two others injured in a triple shooting outside a Queens hotel, marking the first homicide of 2021, cops said.

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Hudson Baker dominates middle school state tournament | Rawlinstimes - Wyoming Tribune

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