Monday, April 13, 2020

Winter/Spring Musings: Same as It Never Was - NFL Marketing in the Midwest, Pt 5a of 5



lol, awwwww, his little face afterwards as he tries to figure out what just happened.  In like a lamb?  Or out like a lamb?  In like a lion?  Or out like a lion?  If you're in Kansas, it's in like a lion, out like a lion. 

How are you holding up?  Hopefully not like our little lamb in the vid above, lol.  Hang in there!  We're all in this together, right?  Let's finish the 5-part Winter/Spring Musings (Spring/Summer?).  Some old and some new.

•  Sports Marketer Jacquelyn (Davis) Dahl


Above was the Chiefs' QB1 supposedly enjoying some vacay time down in Mexico, posted March 13.  Even though...it already was a time when many businesses were banning travel for their employees;  and now, of course, many are shut down totally.  School facilities have closed for the remainder of the year and are teaching online.   So it was an intriguing decision to be posting a lot of pictures taken aboard a boat down in...well, the flag tells all of us where the boat is, doesn't it?  Can't miss that flag, actually.  That was quite the spoonfeed, I mean the idea someone had!

Looks like there were other friends involved and aboard that yacht; 





  







 

Because you know, thongs and bikinis.  Patrick had some buds also on board, but you had to dig a little harder to find that picture.   This was a bit of a far cry from last year's off-season public relations (the St. Louis Blues Stanley Cup game), and vacay bonding trips.  Remember those?



The Big Slick fundraiser weekend:




















 

 

 


 

 

Teammates bonding on the beach in Turks and Caicos Islands:


 


 

More bonding:


 

Teammate's wedding hanging out:


 


 

 

The 2019-2020 Super Bowl LIV victory this past February crowned what had been only the second full season of Patrick Mahomes' professonal career, and personified how he had climbed the ladder of success like a jackrabbit. The victory a clear indication of how he had elevated the play of all those around him since becoming the Kansas City Chiefs starting quarterback in 2018, and winning the NFL Most Valuable Player Award that same season.  

Although remarkable achievements in many ways, this post is not intended to focus on Mahomes' career, or how he bonds and inspires his teammates. Rather the primary goal is to point out Narnia's observations of the far-too-recognizable and unfortunate, oncoming signs of a marketer/publicist bringing over-the-top Hollywood stunting and fakery into the sports world.  But then, talent agency WME/IMG/Endeavor has been setting this particular table for awhile, haven't they?
Of course WME/IMG/Endeavor has been maneuvering in the sports world for sometime, acquiring UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championships),  the Professional Bull Riders Inc., and Icon Sports Management (a PGA sports agency) over the last several years.  In addition, they also own media rights and create the marketing strategies for the National Hockey League worldwide, their Winter Classic event, and the postseason NHL Awards.  
Oh, and then there is the NFL.  In 2017, the NFL signed IMG to be its licensing representative overseas to select markets in Europe and Asia.  This will include fan apparel, accessories, home decor, food items, etc.  and explains the influx of overseas games into the NFL schedule.   Then there's Endeavor's recent acquisition of On Location Experiences, a company described best in this excerpt from thestadiumbusiness.com:

provides official access for both corporate clients and fans looking for immersive experiences at marquee events including the Super Bowl, which this year takes place on February 2 at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami after 2019’s event at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Atlanta, alongside the Pro Bowl, NFL Draft, NCAA Final Four, PGA of America events, numerous college football bowl games and the tennis majors. - the stadium experience - Jan 03 2020


Here was a retweet by Endeavor's account about one of their entertainment offerings during this year's Super Bowl:



  

Interesting...WME-IMG/Endeavor is everywhere, aren't they?   But, we digress!!  Because at least for now Patrick Mahomes is NOT represented by said agency.  Not that we know of anyway because he is officially represented by sports agents Leigh Steinberg and  Chris Cabott,  and a marketer by the name of Jacqueline (Davis) Dahl, whose company is called 1Up Sports Marketing.  It is Dahl, in fact, who actually is seen most often with Mahomes, particularly on social media, i.e. Instagram and Twitter.


  





















 

This write-up is not about Steinberg nor Cabott.  Their responsibility is for the professional career of Patrick, which could not be transpiring any more prosperously and is right on track according to their professional three-year plan.  

But who exactly is this Jacqueline Dahl and how did she land Patrick Mahomes as her premiere, superstar client?  Because, without a doubt, it is Dahl who is at the helm of Patrick's social media representation and image, the likes of which has Narnia quite perplexed.  So much so, that we here at Narnia have become curious about her own history and qualifications, discovering that for what very limited information there is available on this sports marketer, the data regarding her experience is minimal at best.

As a college student, she attended the University of California, San Diego where she was also a tennis player.  Dahl's career in the administrative/marketing side of sports began by serving an internship with the San Diego Padres as a part of the "Pad Squad", a group of gals who would entertain the fans before/during games while also participating in community activities.  


Her resume expanded into the MLB and the broadcast sports world when she served stints with CBS Sports, the Houston Astros, and Fox Sports San Diego.  

Following these jobs, Dahl ended up at a Texas-based sports agency called Select Sports Group LLC where she was Director of Marketing.  Select Sports Group, ranked at #10 on Forbes' 2020 list of most valuable sports agency groups, represents some NFL'ers, Andy Dalton and Frank Clark being amongst the agency's 94 clients.  The company apparently has done pretty well after starting up in 2011, although Andy Dalton seems to be one of only a small handful of clients it doesn't mind letting website visitors know that they represent.  😉

It was in July 2015 when she began working for SSG after being "recruited" by the agency, according to The Denver Post in this article from 2019.  (Kind of an interesting choice of a verb, isn't it?) By the way, The Denver Post is almost like Fort Knox to even try and read a simple page title, let alone an entire article. smh.

And, according to this article from playerswiki, Jacquelyn (then Davis) and a baseball player by the name of David Dahl,

"might have started dating each other in late 2015 as they posted their first photo on their social media on November 16, 2015.  After that, they were spotted several times together in public events and also in social media." - players wiki.com

Well, after a little snooping around it actually looks like the date was November 1, according to David Dahl's Instagram. 

She and David went on to get married in November 2018, but apparently Playerswiki can't get that date correct either.  Their article states that they married on the 12th of November, whereas their registry on Williams Sonoma lists it as November 9, a Friday.  One date error in a Wiki article isn't an ideal situation already, but two dated errors?  A wedding date should be, how should one say,...accurate?

 

  




 
 



Meanwhile, Patrick Mahomes was announcing his entry into the 2017 NFL draft on Tuesday, January 3 that same year.




The rest, of course, was history as Patrick was drafted by the Kansas City Chiefs and below he is pictured with his agent, Leigh Steinberg, Chris Cabott and family (not shown is the father, Pat Mahomes Sr.) on April 28, 2017.



It does not appear that Jacquelyn Dahl was in the picture yet, does it? Nowadays, she's seen at Patrick's side more than Leigh Steinberg. 

• April 25, 2017 - Dahl is pictured with running back D'Onta Foreman, who would go on to be a third round pick of the Houston Texans in the NFL draft (three days later). Location for the picture  is South Congress, which is in Austin, TX.



• April 28, 2017, the day of the NFL draft, Dahl is posting that she's at Moon Palace, Cancun for a wedding.

• May 07, 2017 - A family Wedding

• May 19, 2017 - Dahl posts a "dancing" video while in Beverly Hills, CA for the NFLPA (NFL Players Association) Rookie Premiere, an annual post-draft event held to connect business partners with some of the most promising and marketable future stars.  Dahl was still with Select Sports Group and posts the video of herself, co-worker Caroline Potter also of SSG, and Brittany Matthews, now widely known as the girlfriend of Patrick Mahomes.


                                         Dahl, Caroline Potter, Dahl's sister and Matthews

Caroline Potter is Director of Brand and Marketing Strategies with SSG. She was a Clemson Tiger cheerleader and named Sports Illustrated's Cheerleader of the Week in May 2016, just prior to graduation.  By February of 2017, she's posing with Dahl at Super Bowl LI.

• The summer of 2017, (then) Jacquelyn Davis became engaged to David Dahl, MLB baseball player.  David Dahl grew up in Alabama and was drafted in the first round, a tenth overall selection so he was a high prospect.  They would marry in November 2018.  It's not clear who took this "candid" picture...



• In an interesting aside, on Monday, May 15, 2017, Brittany Matthews allegedly signs a professional contract to play soccer in Iceland. "...these last four years [at Univ. of Texas-Tyler] have made me fall in love with soccer all over again and want to go on and play professional soccer.  Every coach I have had at UT Tyler made a huge impact on my love for this game and my decision to play professional soccer.  An opportunity opened up for me in Iceland and I could never pass up such an amazing experience to go do what I love." - Tyler Telegraph

She'll allegedly quickly return to the States merely four (4) months later after suddenly realizing that a career in physical fitness was calling to her, rather than soccer.
















• Jan 30, 2018 - Patrick Mahomes became the #1 quarterback for the Kansas City Chiefs for the 2018-19 season, after the organization traded former starter, Alex Smith to the Washington Redskins.   Marketer Jacquelyn Dahl posts her first picture with Patrick on her Instagram on Feb. 25.  Remember, her first photo with his 'gf' Brittany Matthews took place as soon as he was drafted back in early 2017.

Six Degrees Moment - The gentleman in the middle, clad in grey, is a former Texas Tech wide receiver named Danny Amendola.  He has been somewhat of a journeyman in the NFL, going undrafted but still able to sign with the Dallas Cowboys.  This outing above could have been at a Texas Tech basketball game which was scheduled that evening in February, 2018.  Amendola has someone interesting in his 'dating' history.  Remember in our previous Musings post Pt 2 of 5, we were taking a look at Selena Gomez's "dating" history as it related to Justin Bieber.  And lo and behold, Selena Gomez had a music producer by the name of Zedd in her 'file', and Zedd had supposedly dated someone named Olivia Culpo.   And we were chuckling because Olivia Culpo had Nick Jonas, Ryan Lochte and Tim Tebow in her history.  Well, guess who else is in her 'history'?  Yup - Danny Amendola.   What. A. Small. World.  We'll be back to this topic later in Part 5b.














 

 

• The Chiefs got off to an 8-1 record at the start of 2018 and Patrick became the talk of the NFL.  In the first of what would become many highly publicized stories concerning Brittany Matthews, her stepfather suffered a medical emergency at the November 11 game at Arrowhead Stadium.  The quarterback's partner would post not only a long and detailed Instagram post about the occurrence, but private and sensitive pictures of her stepfather's last moments of life. 



This was followed by numerous tweets and even a story in The Daily Fail. 

 

























The comments (only 25) on The Daily Fail article were overwhelmingly negative, so one might think a marketer like Jacquelyn Dahl would take notice.  Instead, as Patrick's star continued to rise, so did the social media activity and the high visibility of his family - the mother, the younger brother and sister, and the 'longtime girlfriend'.  The father would be seen, but mostly in just a camera shot of his position in the Arrowhead Stadium box where Patrick's family was always given a spot.  

Before and after football games during the highly successful 2018 season, Matthews, the brother Jackson, and marketer Jacquelyn Dahl were seen on social media, showing their presence and access to the field, i.e. taking pictures on the players' warming bench.  

• A bad photoshop from October 2018



brother Jackson and Matthews at the Dec 8, 2018 game:







Jackson with owner Clark Hunt's daughter, Gracie Hunt, on the team warming bench.



• In 2018-early 19, the pictures combining brother Jackson with Brittany Matthews far outnumbered those of her with Patrick.  Dahl could be seen in many of the photo decks as well.  Fans began to question what the real relationship was.




There were many comments as seen in one of the posts above of fans wondering why there were so many photos of Jackson with his brother's girlfriend.  A year later, these photos decreased in number, but in its place began to be more high profile or Chiefs-fandom-contained controversial "incidents".  An eye opener was the Christmas Day 2018 "family pajamas" photo.

The "family Christmas pajamas" photo included Patrick's mom, Matthews, brother Jackson, sister Mia and others.  But not the father.  And Patrick, star quarterback, was ... an elf.














 

 

And time to be seen at a Lakers game, February 2019.


 


 

 

Lots of high profile visibility, although it did help that Mahomes' college team, the Texas Tech Red Raiders, made it to the Final Four in 2018-19.  Here he is in the twitter video below, leaving Matthews in the dust.


 


 

A PR-related appearance after a long, tough game with the Baltimore Ravens on Sept. 22, at a Jonas Brothers concert. All coordinated; the Jonas Brothers (WME/Endeavor clients) guests at Arrowhead and then afterwards, high profile visibility and social media activity.



A close circle entourage surrounding Patrick at his first Pro Bowl 2018-19 season, in Florida.  From left to right, Dahl, mother Randi Mahomes, Matthews, sister Mia and Patrick.  Teammates Eric Fisher (behind Patrick) and "The Sausage" Anthony Sherman, Gehrig Dieter, Tyreek Hill and Dee Ford are all to Patrick's left.



The curly-haired young man in cargo shorts Gehrig Dieter, was not a Pro Bowler, unlike the other teammates in the photo.  Yet, Dieter was in attendance and in photos and videos as though he was.  Dieter has been a storied "best friend" of Patrick's, highly visible in twitter conversations with Patrick and photos, yet he is mostly a practice squad player, having been released and re-signed multiple times.  In other words, as many Chiefs fans have figured out for themeselves,




















A head-scratcher to be sure that an average wide receiver who is unable to sustain a solid position on the regular roster, but is repeatedly retained on the practice squad, is given the high visibility that Dieter has been, and with the team's superstar quarterback.  


Feb 2019 - Accounting for where Mahomes was staying while training in the off-season.



April 2019, the set up tweet by Patrick Mahomes about "messing up" with setting out his trash:



With the highly visible revelation about the location of the house, complete with the (suspiciously released) street address by a local KC television news team, followed by Matthews' cries for privacy.


Just a month before, it was wailing on lack of privacy during her numerous "work out" videos:


Not sure what exactly this one was about,


The 2019-20 season in fact, featured Ms. Matthews frequently being quite "noisy" on social media, to the point of being featured on TMZ and People magazine for social media such as the following for which Narnia apologizes with sincere embarrassment and shame on behalf of the part(ies) involved. By all means, please do give a listen and watch.  ;-)



  *July 2020* - seems as though this tweet disappeared.  Let's find another one.  Cue the print screen - there are plenty of these around.



 

🠉🠉🠉  Hmmm, looks like that account @SavageBoston has been suspended.  Imagine that!


 



 

The social media laden story about Matthews and Jackson Mahomes being allegedly "harrassed" by New England Patriot fans in a December 2019 game.  The use of People and TMZ over a non-story after a higher-than-normal-ratings game, bellows that of a publicist/marketer's work.




Where are the nearby fans?  Look cramped at all to anyone?


 


 

Amazing, isn't it?  Many "Patriot accounts" involved, plus the press, Kansas City Chiefs fans, gossip rag sites were all heard from.  Who wasn't heard from?   The main player involved, Patrick Mahomes.   Patrick is never heard from regarding the unpopularity and attention-seeking verboseness of his girlfriend.

This is all the work of a publicist/marketer.  Coincidentally, Patrick Mahomes' major in college?   Marketing. 

During the 2019 season, there was social media "melodrama" circling around the mother Randi and unnamed members of the family.  Since she was no longer being seen at the Chiefs home games and frequently tweeted photos of herself and daughter Mia back in Texas, one could only assume there was trouble between her and son Patrick and/or Brittany Matthews.   Cryptic tweets such as,


Nearly all of the tweets are removed now, but at the time, they invited curious fans to speculate and/or offer sympathy.




In mid-December, Randi Mahomes returned to Arrowhead Stadium to see her son play after being noticeably absent all season.



A "reunion" picture of mother and offspring and then a sub-tweet followed, which indicated that now all was well, 

It was a family melodrama carried out on social media and followed by many deletions of evidence.   The mother "returned" into her son's life, fortunately just in time for the post-season.  While it's not clear what the whole activity was about, the coordinated and timed effort was oddly very publicly shared and appeared staged.

Nowadays?  Currently Patrick is seen on social media being trained by, I mean with Matthews and bemoaning missing events like being at the Masters.  









When Patrick faced backlash for the tweet, the vast majority of fans jumped to his defense for missing a favorite event during the pandemic and subsequent Covid-19 lockdown.  Less than an hour later, his account had retweeted a reply which provided a back-up and "blessing" for Mahomes' feelings, clearly intended to silence any critics.


And what at first seemed like a bit of self-pity during a tumultuous time became a "rallying cry" of celebrity defense and blaming the gut reactions of fans who were acknowledging the ever-increasing seriousness of the present pandemic, one which now has killed the most citizens in the United States than any other country.  Isn't that a familiar tactic one sees on many blogs and social media when a celebrity is faced with some criticism?  It is turned back on to the fan for daring to voice an opinion. 

Again, this took place on social media.  And while this was a lengthy exhibit of events from the past two years, notice the trend of it all.   

Social media.

Which brings us back to Jacquelyn Dahl, who is Mahomes' marketer, aka publicist. 
From there, it was one marketing experience after another — with CBS Sports, with the Houston Astros and with Fox Sports San Diego — before Jacquelyn was recruited by a Texas-based football marketing agency, where she worked for about three years before launching 1UP.



All along the way, she leaned on her expertise in social media to give her a leg up.



“There’s a lot of big dogs in the industry — a lot of men with 30-plus years experience — but I think my competitive advantage is that I am evolving with the industry,” she said. “I used to run a zillion social media accounts, and half these endorsement deals have digital and social components to them. That’s like a second language to me.” - Denver Post, May 12, 2019  06:30 a.m.
 

A "zillion accounts". She used to "run" a zillion social media accounts = robot accounts.  Fake accounts.  Not real.  Designed to influence audiences and sometimes contort reality of a social media reaction or opinion.

When blogging partner M&M and I first noticed the frequent social media presence of Jacquelyn Dahl on Patrick Mahomes activity, i.e. Instagram and Twitter, the year was 2018, the same time Mahomes began the season as the starting quarterback of the Kansas City Chiefs.  There were definitely different media trends in the beginning of the 2018 season than there has been since the AFC Championship game in December of that year.   

Since those days, it is jaw dropping to see the number of  pictures that have been added to Brittany Matthews' Instagram account, the majority of them pictures of her and Patrick.  Pictures deleted from brother Jackson Mahomes' account.  Tweets deleted from mother Randi Martin Mahomes' account.   A lot of maneuvering and altering, tacking onto and erasing.  The big question is, why would that be? 

Playing the game used to be enough for professional athletes, but with the rise of social media, it is evident that marketers, publicists and sporting agencies feel the strong lure of endorsement money and post-season gigs on NFL network shows.  Hence, "promoting" a client has become a year-round responsibility.  Patrick Mahomes' image continues to be molded and shaped via his marketer, who sometimes seems to think he plays in New York City or Los Angeles rather than a meat-and-potatoes mid-western city.  

 Patrick is a smart young man, but football is number 1 in his heart, that much is evident.  He'll do about anything to be able to play, as was evident in his excellently and passionately written NFL Draft cover letter to the NFL teams as he pledged "I won't be a distraction, on or off the field."

 Well, he's held true to that pledge pretty much, it would seem.  Patrick isn't the distraction.  But everyone else in his public inner circle seems to be. The question is, "Why?"

And how did someone with such a small client base become the publicist/marketer of one Patrick Mahomes?


continued in Part 5b - Click Here

 pic sources:  People.com, BBC, knowyourmeme, giphy
our playlist: There's Something Going On - Frida
                     Midnight - Liam Payne
                     Hair - The Cowsills



 
Posted by at
Labels: , , , , , , , , ,

2 comments:

prairiegirl said...

I'm going to tell you one thing and that is this.

The MLB, NFL, NHL and NBA are part of the entertainment industry. With WME/IMG/Endeavor, CAA, SSG, and others all pairing their athletic and Hollywood clients together to maximize exposure and "power couple-dom", there is no more difference between pro athletics and the likes of a singer, chef, actor, reality star, sports desk anchor or broadcaster. The publicity teams are all pulling from the same book.

And we learned long ago that when there's a lying account professing to be Jake's "baby mama" when she's really not or a twitter account allowed to go on and on pretending to be Jake while being controversial without any kind of "cut it out" by his people, then it's because it's supposed to be allowed.

And so we look at the ridiculous and bad-comedy routine behavior from the likes of Brittany Matthews, and it is allowed to go on and on throughout the season? Then it's because his representation, i.e. Jacquelyn Dahl is behind it and allowing it to go on, for whatever reason.

So it's all unfortunate and embarrassing because many fans have no idea what to think of it all. And so that's why M&M and I are here to make note.

Because we are experienced in watching these kinds of shenanigans.



Monday, April 13, 2020 at 9:45:00 PM CDT
Methodical Muser said...


This is just an outstanding overview, PG. How did you ever find a lamb getting "shit" on by his mother with a 15 emblazoned on his side? LOLLLL! Now that's some kind of foreshadowing. Seriously, though just like in the music and movie industries, the sports world is all about big money and image making. When you start to see someone as high profile and image conscious as Patrick Mahomes being represented in less than desirable ways, and the outlandish behavior of Brittany Matthews allowed to be unleashed on the unsuspecting public, one has to ask what is really go on? What is Jacquelyn Dahl up to? What is she trying to distract from? And, even more perplexing is how did someone with no other superstar clients and very little experience in the NFL, hook the great Patrick Mahomes whose social media is now littered with fake drama, over the top narratives regarding his private life, and a very closed inner circle that keeps popping up? Questions, questions, and more questions.

Tuesday, April 14, 2020 at 7:40:00 PM CDT

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)