In 2018, I began using a football metaphor to describe ESG to industry professionals, financial groups and random people who would ask any follow up questions regarding the trendy acronym ESG.
First off, ESG stands for “Environmental, Social and Governance” and it is a new scoring system to indicate a company’s value in the marketplace based on criteria developed by a group of appointed individuals. Personally, I think it is the latest way to seduce the willing and or confused into believing they can be a CEO or Chairman of the Board without having any of the risks or realities of running a business. More on the government acting like a business in a moment.
Second, the ESG football metaphor was something along the lines of “ESG is on the one yard line, with 99 yards to go, in the first quarter and the refs have yet to bring the ball out on to the field. But the game has begun because companies are already being impacted in the marketplace.”
So what can the NFL Draft teach us about ESG?
In short, The NFL Draft is about selling hope for your team’s future, thus yours. The movie industry sells hope with 9-12 months of teaser trailers for their big blockbuster Summer movie, many churches offer hope as a way to connect (or collect) and President Obama used ‘Hope’ as a way to sell ‘Change’. More on that in a moment too.
I should also mention that I am a member of Gen X so I am bred to be suspicious of anything that tells me how to feel or uses sycophantic behaviors. Like whatever man, he’s a total sell out dude. They used to be about the music… or the sport or the company’s mission statement was before ascending to the next level.
I now say “used to”, because over the past year, many Ideological Iconoclasts, Yes-Suite Executives and Start Up Feaux-trepreneurs have accelerated the ESG Movement to a place where the discussion has so much noise that it is no longer about whether we need to have ESG or not, rather, what are the details within the New World’s ESG Easy Button, One-Size-Fits-All money management amazeballs acronym.
In the world of sports, the NFL draft is the greatest speculative session of all and Las Vegas has more gambling options of specific craziness than the SuperBowl. Companies devote millions to the NFL Draft to launch new fashion via draft picks, sports equipment innovations and time allowances for their employees to speculate who will be drafted where.
That’s right, there are companies who pay people to sit at a desk and surf the Internet just to digitally copy experts and their boots-on-the-ground work. How many authors of mock drafts actually spoke to a coach, player or team owner? My guess is less than ten. If I was in Vegas I would bet on the UNDER of five without hesitation.
But who cares? It’s just sports and it’s not your money. Or is it?
Well actually I do care. And so do many others. Since the majority of businesses are being subsidized by the public-private-partnership of government-chosen-banks and their country club network, the number of small businesses being “pushed into the cracks” is increasing at a pace faster than ESG is developing roots.
I can honestly say, without a shadow of doubt, the acronym ESG has produced more barstool shouting, keyboard clucking and social shaming from so many who are unwilling to take the risk as a business owner or investment partner than anything I can remember in my 30-plus years in the media. Rather it’s produced a litany of reactive passion, some legit and some manufactured, from people supporting the platitudes of the “living” an ESG lifestyle on social media, while others working in the trenches have to correct misinformation being shouted by the back-seat-business-bystander subsidized by the government, economic development groups and inner circle banker buddies.
Or backseat coach… I think they call those folk Monday Morning Quarterbacks.
The ESG noise has taken over the marketplace via regulators and government in the same way Sports Shouting Experts took over the NFL. Allow me to explain.
The NFL has arguably impacted American culture more than any other form of entertainment. The NFL has become the leader on Sundays whereas the church used to be so dominate businesses with Blue Laws couldn’t be open on Sunday. Digging a bit deeper into working weekends, the 10 Commandments even had a day of rest set aside on the Sabbath. Just sayin’.
The NFL has rewritten medical science in positive, negative and questionable ways. Especially in the general concussion area. The NFL has even shown it can change the conversation in the political and social arena, just ask Colin Kapernick and what his original message and intention was for kneeling during the national anthem. It has nothing to do with what the mainstream media, NFL spoke people and appointed barstool shouting experts have said. Click here if you want to find out the original intention behind Kap’s protest.
Those three examples were not intended to trigger any new arguments or distract you from the thesis of this ESG University Classroom Column, no, they were examples of relevance and supporting context for my thesis on how the NFL can teach us about ESG.
If you choose to continue on this existential adventure, you will understand why teenager Greta Thunberg is now considered a leader in Climate Science and why Ryan Leaf, JaMarcus Russell and Tony Mandarich were top picks in the NFL Draft.
This past weekend the NFL Draft took place in Las Vegas. Not too sure how many people on vacation in Sin City went to church, but if they had, perhaps they may have heard
Proverbs 16:18 says, “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.”
Not sure if this was said in March or not to coincide with the Ides, but either way, there are many spiritual teachings, cliches and wise sayings involving leaders and communities using enough bravado language that would bring someone to a place that would be so arrogant, he or she will make an EPIC Mistake or have a Fatal Fail.
Unfortunately for America, right now there aren’t many leaders interest in facts, connecting context or empathizing with people who are working in the reality of life.
Next time you are with a sport fanatic, or heck even a fan, listen to their language. Especially during the draft. The polarization construction of the sentences and aggressive tones create a very one-sided conversation or two-way shout-fest.
Like the NFL Draft, ESG is really about the future. It is really about a formula or computer algorithm being played out perfectly so they can put a gold star on your report. Maybe even with a note saying “Good Job” with a smiley face. Maybe ESG it about getting Al Gore’s narrative into a Rhythm in order to create an Algorithm.
In the world of ESG, what makes a climate change model more factual than a fortune teller or Magic 8-Ball? There has never been a climate change model that has worked. Not one formula has been able to accurately predict the climate over a couple years into the future, let alone 30 or 50 years. Yet I am expected to hand over my checkbook and freedoms to a group of appointed leaders who are above their own laws?
But in the world of barstool shouting and government subsidies, let the ESG Fortune Telling begin. Only this ESG University Classroom Column will tell the ESG Story through the NFL draft.
Every year before the NFL Draft millions if not billions of dollars are pumped into speculation by people who have never played one snap of football or has ever talked to an NFL coach. Rather organizations are paying bloggers, podcasters and employees to speculate and pontificate.
ESG Ratings are just like the NFL Mock Drafts. One legit expert creates one post, shares it online and 1000 other digital copycats or reverse engineer “experts” copy the real expert’s work and pass if off as their own expertise. Only better, because theirs have colorful, exaggerated language surrounding someone else time, labor and emotion. Remember the person signing their check isn’t interested in facts or right or wrong, only creating noise through Zooming, clicking and clacking.
It’s kinda of the nexus of social media’s Telephone Game we did as a kid to demonstrate rumors intersecting with the Research Reporting on the computer like they taught us in high school and college – only it’s opinions, speculation and sensationalism being amplified and enabled.
In the NFL Draft, one easy way to judge the judgers is to look back at their Draft Grades the day after. That’s right, in order to keep the illusion of their importance up, they have to judge their words and predictions against the reality of the coaches, scouts and players picks.
In short, a person who has never spoken to a coach, GM or owner is paid to judge the experts before the NFL Draft. Then after the draft, without speaking to anyone still, they have the balls to judge them further by issuing a letter grade to the organization. Like they are the teacher and New England Patriot‘s head coach Bill Belichick is the student.
In 2010, these experts gave the then-Oakland Raiders an A+ with their draft. Nearly a quarter of the year, if not more, was devoted to the bravado leadership of that draft and the aggressive language sports can usher in.
Oakland: Owner Al Davis lit a bonfire under JaMarcus Russell with the acquisition of Redskins QB Jason Campbell for a 2012 fourth-round pick. Campbell is a deep-ball thrower that Davis has always loved. Russell is due over $9 million this season and I can see the Raiders asking him to take a $7 million pay reduction; if they release him, who would take him? Davis finally went against his size and speed measurements and simply took a quality football player in MLB Rolando McClain, the defensive leader of Alabama‘s national championship team. Lamarr Houston was a high school running back who ballooned into a very good defensive tackle at Texas. He should be a great one-gap penetrator. Finally, the Raiders took Maryland OT Bruce Campbell, the athletic phenom, who simply needs to listen to head coach Tom Cable to learn how to play a little tougher and stronger. Campbell had a low second-round grade, so it was a great selection. Clemson WR Jacoby Ford has 4.28 speed and should be a playmaker. To get Ford, Davis traded starting MLB Kirk Morrison to the Jaguars, opening up the position for McClain. Grade: A+
The reality behind that 2010 draft was a lot of hype without a lot of production. Their first round draft pick Rolando McClain, ended up having mental health issues leaving the game early, and promising young players Lamarr Houston and Jared Veldheer didn’t result to much either. In fact, looking back at their draft now, they probably did the worst out of all 32 teams and got the only A+ grade. Yet for a good amount of time, a groupthink of appointed leaders in their professional field told the rest of the world the Oakland Raiders schooled everyone in the NFL Draft.
Incidentally the Minnesota Vikings scored one of the lowest overall draft grades with a C+ and drafted Everson Griffen who turned into a 4x pro bowler (with diagnosed mental health issue of bipolar disorder) and the Carolina Panthers got an A for their drafting of QB Jimmy Clausen from Notre Dame, a prestigious private university with a major television contract and alumni network. Just sayin’.
The media is supposed to be the eyes and ears for the public in this busy busy world. They were once called the 4th state because they thought for themselves and had thousands of individuals known as subscribers who invested in their original content, rather than a handful of corporations and special interest groups buying advertising to control the narrative.
The reason Netflix doesn’t have commercials is because they have subscribers. The reason television has commercials is because the tax payers help build the infrastructure for the large corporations in charge of the content and it’s distribution. Back in the old days, newspapers didn’t even have advertisers because it might influence the editorial, which was the eyes and ears for their subscribers, who in essence were their advertisers.
Many of today’s professional writers, columnists and publishers primarily work for their state government and special interest groups via their media company’s Sales, Government Affairs and Public Relations departments so facts do not matter. It’s more about the sizzle, spin and set up.
Fast forward to today and the NFL Draft, look at what some of the “experts” are not only saying but what they devoted their professional time to.
CBS News and their “experts” published a Mock Draft and Ryan Wilson predicted that EDGE Jermaine Johnson II would be selected 4th overall by NY Jets and QB Malik Willis would be selected 8th overall by Atlanta Falcons.
The reality is that Johnson was drafted 26th overall and Willis was selected in the 3rd Round with pick 86. Willis wasn’t even the first quarterback selected in the draft, he was the third. And he wasn’t even drafted by Atlanta, no they passed on Willis multiple times and drafted a completely different QB named Desmond Ridder from the University of Cincinnati.
There was a time when anyone working in the media would have been fired or demoted with presenting information to the public that was that far off. Real expert analysis rarely comes packaged in ostentatious or aggressive language. No, usually the facts speak for themselves and depending on the receiver, a reaction follows.
The top climate scientists in the world spend decades working on theories and models to understand the science behind climate change, only to be usurped by a teenage girl as the authority and leader in that realm. Look it up, Greta was the headlining face from the United Nations Climate Action Summit a couple years back.
Seriously speaking here. What does Greta Thunberg know about climate science? Why are media outlets enabling her authoritative message like its the Bucs vs. Rams playoff game. Why are appointed leaders from around the world enabling her information as fact? Why do Sports Shouters rely on telling you how to feel, rather than present the facts and allow you the chance to feel?
This is the type of Fake News, Click Bait and Barstool Shouting that is dominating the news today. Pick your subject. Climate Change, Energy Development, Police Reform or any other facet of our life that impacts most of us today.
Right now our lives are being quasi-controlled by a group of elected officials directing more time and money to speculation about a dismal future they say we are creating so they can fix it today with their backroom deals made yesterday.
One of the biggest issues in the media world right now is the government funding their choice of news ideology, economic development groups and industry leaders in the New World through nefarious ways. This is the literal creation and definition of propaganda. Just sayin’.
You ever hear of analytics? Check out these off-the-cuff, in-the-ballpark analytics. If you take a look at the actual games themselves, the NFL teams play about 51 hours of football per season. What’s two days in Vegas time with an over/under of plus three hours.
That leaves 360-plus days to barstool shout and shame at anyone who doesn’t agree with your speculation about Hope.
Because speculation is never wrong. Maybe the Packers did try to screw over Aaron Rogers or the Broncos will win it all this year. Plus anyone who mentioned a Rams vs. Bengals Super Bowl last year at this time wouldn’t be taken serious by the “experts”, nope, that prediction would have been “hopeful” and laughable fun. Of course those same experts who shamed the Super Bowl Soothsayers would be told during Super Bowl Week by those same so-called-experts why “they knew” the Rams vs. Bengals would happen or that “no one saw it coming”.
Anticipation is a powerful motivator. The monetizing of hope used to be considered unethical and low brow, however now it’s a quid pro quo business model. I think they used to call this “there’s a sucker born every second”. Someone must have done the math to figure out how much they can profit off suckers.
And who isn’t a sucker for the NFL schedule? The NFL even has promotional ads with a major sponsor for the release of their 2022-2023 Schedule. Can a 60-minute Match Up Special be far behind? Unless things change, I am sure someone will find someone to pay people to sensationally speculate on important topics they are extremely underqualified to speak on.
Wait… when’s the Vikes Packers game this year?
Class dismissed til next week.
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ESG University Classroom Column is written by Jason Spiess and no way reflects the mission or position of his other media companies. ESG University is an educational paper with classic newspaper op/ed elements sprinkled in. Because of this, we must categorize the column as Opinion and Editorial and run this disclaimer.
