The NFL Built a Brand So Strong Fans Watch Teams That Are Not Theirs

Imagine stepping into the cleats of an NFL legend, not on the field, but in the virtual arena of Madden. Join us as we unravel the NFL's marketing playbook with Brian Finneran, whose digital avatar became a legend in its own right. From fantasy football to the future of international games, we're tackling the big questions that shape the world of football. All that and more on today's episode, the Marketing MadMen. They say marketing is a madman's game. So now we turned it over to the Marketing MadMen with Nick Constantino and Trip Jobee.

Happy Saturday. Welcome to the Marketing MadMen. Nick Constantino here. And today we are talking all things NFL. The season's about to get started. Your fantasy rosters are probably set. Hopefully you bet some futures and had some fun things going down. But today we're going to approach it from a different angle. Before we get to how we're going to do this, I'm going to introduce my guest a little bit differently. I'm going to read an AI transcription of an article about the digital legacy of this person. And then I'm going to let him respond and tell his version of the story. So, and I quote, The text discusses the inclusion of Brian Finneran in the Madden NFL 25 All-25 team despite his relatively modest real NFL stats. The choice is seen as a playful nod to the game's history where Finneran's virtual avatar was an unstoppable force due to his exaggerated in-game abilities. The author argues that while Madden NFL has become a highly realistic simulator of football, it's the remaining elements of unpredictability and humor, like the overpowered Finneran, that keep the game entertaining and distinct from the actual NFL. Finn, what do you think about that, my man?

I think it's fair. I think it's fair. Some of the language I would have used, I would have changed. But when you talk about a relatively modest, real-life NFL career, that's probably pretty true for 12 years, 260 catches or so and a handful of touchdowns.

Until you go to the fact that you played 12 years, man. People don't even get through three years and they act like they had a career.

I was fortunate enough to be part of what was and became not only for the Falcons, but for the NFL, a marketing campaign with Michael Vick. And when you have a game like Madden, which is uber popular anyway, because of the way they do it, and then you add Michael Vick in there, who becomes a superstar and changes kind of the way the game is looked at, the quarterback position. And then everybody, not only in America, but anybody in the world that's playing EA Madden, EA Sports with Madden, wanted to be the Atlanta Falcons. So when they talk about, what were some of the other terms, overpowered Finneran.

His virtual avatar was an unstoppable force. That's my favorite.

That's a beautiful thing right there. So I went from about 6.5 to 6.7, real life to the game. My speed went from 4.6 to 4.5, real life to the game. Jumping ability went from, I think it was like 90. I had some good, I was pretty athletic. I could jump a little bit, but it went from like 90 to 99 by the time they were done with that. So I reached my full potential in Madden and It's amazing. The one thing I will say is in the NFL now, it's changed. But if you had a quarterback who would just run around the pocket and get open, it's pretty easy to open and get open as a wide receiver. So it wasn't like completely realistic. And every year they try to make changes to adapt for it. But Michael Vick was such an anomaly to football that in a video game, you understand why it happened.

Yeah, no doubt. You just got to all that you get to bear all of the great stats. So that's an amazing thing. All right, so Finn, the goal here today is talk about the NFL and the marketing behemoth it is. Let's talk through some of the previous your tenure and how much it's changed. And we're going to try to get up to now and why this has become the beast that it is. There's a lot of other sports out there. We can talk about the NHL, MLB, NBA. They all do their own thing. My brief understanding is what the NFL has done such a good job of is you watch the NFL. You watch baseball for your home team. You watch the NBA because of the superstars, but you watch the NFL to just watch the NFL. And I think that's the difference.

And you learn about the players. You learn about them in college and then you watch them go to their team. So you're going to draft four or five guys you may be aware of based off of what college you watched and the needs of the football team. And then you watch them grow into real football players after their rookie season, second year. And it's one of the few sports, in my opinion, unless you're a diehard in the other sports, that you start to know guys on other teams. You have to know every player, but you know every quarterback. You're familiar with the head coaches of those teams. The star receiver you know of, the star running back, the defensive end that goes and kills guys. Jessie Bates comes to Atlanta, becomes one of the best in the league here. So you have different storylines and different positions where it's not just about the city like you talk about with baseball, where you just watch your team play every night. You watch When Sundays come around on Monday nights, you're really not going to miss very much.

Straight through the day. Yeah. And I think it's a good way to lay it out. So let's go back a little bit and let's talk about your NFL career when you were drafted and what the team was like when you set up. Let's just lay it down. The year you were drafted, what was the NFL like? What were you seeing when you were there? How excited were you to play?

So I came out of Villanova in 1998 as an undrafted free agent. I was a draft hopeful. So my agent and I talked about it and we thought maybe 6, maybe 7th round draft pick, but that was going to be a reach. So we ended up, draft is over. We don't get any phone calls. And then right after the draft, my agent got calls from about 10 or 13 different teams. And now, as an undrafted free agent, we have a decision to make on what teams we want to look at and what team we want to go to. So we took all those calls and looked at the rosters, looked at who they drafted and made a decision to go, which came down to the Eagles, Baltimore and Seattle and Seahawks.

And Baltimore was a relatively new team then.

Yeah, it was, yeah, 98. So it was, Jim Harbaugh was like a veteran quarterback that came over late and he and I had worked out together before the draft. And when I picked Seattle, he called me and said, if you ever have a quarterback in your pocket, like a guy you know, like you and I working out, go to that team because it gives you a better chance to make it. I was like, damn it. That's good advice. So I went to Seattle and Needless to say, I didn't make the team. It was close, but I didn't make the squad. So I sat out the whole 98 season. What was it like? It was old, it felt older. We had Astroturf still down on the grass, the old school Astroturf, like carpet in your mom and dad's house. Hard as concrete, brutal to play on, wore tennis shoes out there and tried to do it. It was the old school Seattle uniforms back then before they made the switch inside the Kingdome or Silverdome, whatever the hell they called it out there. I went to Europe after that, played for the Barcelona Dragons, and then I came back and signed with the Eagles and was on their team for five weeks, a cup of coffee. Had a bad drop in one of my first couple games, probably the second game. And they cut me, set out eight weeks, and then I finally landed on the Falcons practice squad in December of 1999. And then I made the roster in the next 11 years. So that's where I made my hay and was able to do some different things. So what changed? I don't know. I think fantasy football became a huge part of what it was. I didn't even know people were playing it back then when I started playing.

It was rudimentary at best, but people were doing it.

I remember people coming up. It was like, three or four years in my career. I got you my fantasy team. I was like, all right, good luck with that, dude. So we got Michael Vick throwing me passes. I catch 50 balls a year and score 3 or 4 touchdowns. I don't know if that'll help your team or not, but it's cool. So it just started growing. And I think the biggest thing was I was always kind of a company man. So I enjoyed the rules. I enjoyed the regulations. I didn't have a problem that our socks had to be a certain height or our shoes had to be a certain color or you couldn't do things with your uniform. It just makes it so clean and precise and consistent through the whole league, you understand what you're getting in the product is so good.

Yeah, and I think that's a really good point because this is when the NBA was going crazy. The outfits that they were wearing, the NBA had gone nuts at this point and the things that they were wearing. And look, this is not a racial conversation or a lifestyle conversation, but I understand the value of keeping things unified, right? Like I send my daughter to private school. I hate it. My wife makes me. But the fact that she's in a uniform every day means these kids can't make fun of each other for wearing different things and it makes And I understand how the perception can be, it makes it just black and white. But in a sport, you have to attribute some of the success of the team to how many company men there were and how quickly the non-company men are out of the league.

Yeah, it's interesting. Depending on what you do and how you do it, you can do that to yourself pretty quickly. And I'm not against the NFL no fun league or not for long or whatever you want to call it. But it's lasted a long time, become better and better because of the rules and regulations and stipulations and And they've loosened the reins a little bit. You can celebrate a little more. You can have some fun. And they've enabled you to express yourself in a certain way. And then just because you can't do it on the football field in a game doesn't preclude you from doing it off the field. With different NIL deals in college, they'll build that up into what you're doing. And I had an AirTran marketing deal, which was fantastic. I had billboards around town. Super cool. That was so sweet to see yourself. You drive downtown. It's like.

What a Delta thing about AirTran sponsoring the hometown kid.

It was interesting. There was about six or seven of us on the AirTran deal. And listen, I live and die for Delta now. Trust me, always have. So when you get free flights back and forth to LA.

They might be 6 hours late, but you're not free.

That's not fair. We had a good run.

You're not endorsing them anymore. You could have a real conversation. So let me ask, one of the things you're right, and I love it that the game outside of football has gotten so big that these guys' personalities come outside of it. The Manning brothers are obviously the easiest, best example. As A die-hard Giants fan, I always, just the thought of Eli Manning was bigger than what the player was, and he's done such a good job of living into this persona that they actually get different on-field and off-field personas. So I think that's definitely what's changed. But just talk about when you were playing, what was the marketing like? Were you constantly around these big marketing deals? Because it's got to have just sped up so quickly.

Yeah, I did. One of my first big kind of on-field deals is my Nike contract. And they try to find players that are number one pretty good football players and then doing the right things and count on showing up for different things. So when Matt Ryan signs his deal in 2008, or when Roddy White comes in, Roddy signed with Reebok, who had a connection with TaylorMade at the time. So he got like 200 grand a year to spend in merchandise with both those companies. Matt Ryan, very similar with Nike, a few years later, got an absurd amount of money to spend with the different teams. So as far as the NFL stuff, you had, obviously, they had to have a licensing deal with the league, and then you got it on the field or off the field or whatever it might have been. So For me, I watched a lot of big name guys on my teams, the Jamal Anderson's of the world, the running back when I first got here, Michael Vick for sure, Keith Brooking. You watch those guys. I think Patrick Kerney, one of our defensive linemen, got one of the very first shoe deals from Under Armour when they were coming in the shoe market. And I'll never forget, he went through four or five different pairs of shoes because he couldn't get it right. Couldn't find one that fit his. And I don't even know if it worked out because it was such a shoe that they were just like, I can't have you pay me 200 grand and break my freaking foot or have an uncomfortable feeling.

And they were brand new out of Baltimore. It started as a lacrosse company. So Under Armour, that was one. Yeah, I think it's great. And I think we're going to keep this conversation going because there's a couple of very specific questions I have. But you've been listening to Marketing MadMen on Xtra 106.3. We're talking NFL with Brian Finneran and we'll be right back.

Now back to the Marketing MadMen on Xtra 106.3 FM.

Welcome back to the Marketing MadMen on Xtra 106.3. Nick Constantino here and we are talking NFL with Mr. Brian Finneran, the digital legacy of the greatest NFL Madden player that ever existed to be, and I quote, overpowered Finneran. So the most important question I have for you had to deal with Nike. Did those Nike shoes make it into the Madden game when you were catching your touchdowns for Michael Vick? Did you have those Nike shoes on? Did they make a good investment in that sense?

That's a great question. I always have to go look at a Nike, a Madden picture or in-game process. Because I would imagine if they're going to do what they're supposed to do, and Nike would probably want a piece of that.

You would imagine. And that's why I ask. I would say you're completely right. Fantasy was huge. But Madden Football, the video game, probably had such an impact on what the NFL became and was just because how many people played it and how many people got their introduction to it. I remember that Madden soundtrack was one of the most important things on Earth, dude. I still listen to songs that I only heard of because they were on the Madden soundtrack. So I think those are a couple of lifestyle things that were going adjacent at the same time. I think that the marketing piece was huge. I think that the advent of fantasy, which I mean, we can have a whole two hour discussing just on gambling because anyone that plays fantasy, I'd be worried if I were the fantasy guys because you know what's even more fun? Futures betting and sports betting in real time. I love fantasy, don't get me wrong, but my fantasy world went awry when last season as a Giants fan, I was rooting for Jalen Hurts to do something and I was like.

Fantasy is just the beginning to jump into something a lot more sensitive.

I don't want to say gateway drug because I don't completely believe in that nonsense, but yeah, let's call it what it is. So Trip has joined us. So Trip was, I think he was on the NFL field and he was playing some football and he got tackled hard. Now he's joining the conversation.

Now I'm limping slowly and now he's limping slowly over. All right, so we're talking NFL. We're talking how we've got here. So I'm going to cover a couple of points from my notes. Let's talk about the, you said this about the guys dressing similarly and everyone being Let's talk about the influence on American values. Let's talk about the Mannings of the world and Monday Night Football. Let's talk about when you were playing. What are some of the things your coaches were telling you? What were your managers telling you about just how big the NFL was and what things were they were doing to try to set up this marketing behemoth that they've created?

You know, it's always been, you always say it's like about the shield, the NFL logo. And it really has been for a long time. And It goes back, kind of goes down from there, the shield to your team and your helmet and the logo on your helmet and the name on the front of your chest. And then after that, kind of the back of your jersey where your name is. So if you can buy into the program, buy into what they're selling you, and then build your own brand yourself by playing well, by being around the team and the community and letting people understand, especially big companies, because Every big company in and around Metro Atlanta wants to be involved with the Falcons, especially when they're good. And then if you can develop those relationships with those teams and those companies, then you have an opportunity to build your brand a little bit and make it happen. So I always made it a point to do the community stuff. Go to the little elementary schools and read books during our days off or stop by the children's hospital and visit the sick kids when we can do that. So we had in our contract with the Falcons and every NFL team, you have to hit a certain amount of appearances for the team and a lot of people go above and beyond, but there are little stipulations and rules where you have to be out there and be public and see people. And the more you can do it, I mean, I work for 680 The Fan now because I was very friendly in the locker room. I wasn't afraid to talk to guys after games and during training camp and built a bit of a reputation and relationships with the people around here at sports talk radio.

And you're in what they were called one of the glamour positions. So I mean, that was almost an expectation more of all those guys. You know, no one wants to see the offensive lineman as amazing as they are and as gigantic. And the fact that a guy that big can run a 4-5 40 has never, I mean, that is the most incredible feat of athleticism that anybody can see, but they want to talk to the receivers and the running backs.

You'd be surprised, and that's partially true. The Falcons had a rule and it was an old coach, Alex Gibbs, just a pain in the butt offensive line coach was put coach in the league for 40 plus years I think just looked like this little curmudgeon guy that's been in the sun too long and had an anger streak to him but when I tell you he could coach lineman so he had rules with those with his line that only one guy could speak every week to the media and they kind of rotated. So they lived and died by it, but it brought them all closer. We had an unbelievable unit. We led the league in rushing like two out of three years in a row with that group, but it also limited what those linemen can do for themselves branding wise and marketing ability. It really shut them down. And we had some real characters in that offensive line room that didn't get a chance to put themselves out there in the locker room through television or radio because Their coach pretty much had him shut down and locked down.

But there was a protocol, let's call it, that I don't sense, I think it's harder for coaches, general managers, et cetera, to have any type of protocol. The community stuff, I think, continues. That's my sense. Everyone wants to do that. But on the personal branding, Today, it seems like it's a little more free-for-all, and whether it's NIL and all the other stuff coming up, the athletes today have a different perspective maybe than you did.

Yeah, you're probably right. And there's so many opportunities out there to go get something. And I just lucked in. We were talking about the AirTran deal I had earlier for like 6 years, just free flights all over the country. As long as there were seats on the plane, we can get them. First class or back of the bus didn't matter. And I could put 10 people on a list. and mostly family members that if they wanted to get on a flight and come see us play and there's an open seat, they could do it. I only got that deal because they already had Michael Vick, they already had work done, they already had Keith Brooking.

Oh my God, they had to hit a quota.

Too many black eyes. They wanted one more guy, watch out. They wanted one more guy and they asked the head marketing guy, Jim Smith at the time, think he's with the Braves now if I'm not mistaken. So they went to Jim and they said, who do you think we should get? And I had a couple of good seasons in a row and I felt I was a pretty good guy and nice everybody in the building. And I said, you should sit down with Finn and talk to him. So I had a meeting with a couple of bigwigs at AirTran, just had lunch with them downtown. We worked out a little deal and next thing you know, I'm getting free AirTran flights for the next six years. Billboards up all over town and it was exit 86 off 85 S heading towards the airport. You could just see it just.

What I love is the fact that you were on television already, but you were so happy to see yourself on a billboard. So you hear that guy's advertising works. I don't care what anyone says. This dude's playing in the NFL on TV with millions of people, but the ego is happier to see himself on a billboard. You know, one of the things, and Trip, I think you're right, but if you look, I see the NFL gravitating a little bit more back to what Finn was talking about. If you see the wide receivers are trying to get together, not on the same team, just the wide receivers are trying to get the tight ends have done it. was I think it was Travis Kelce and George Kittle and Greg Olson that ran this tight end camp where they were trying to get everybody together. Now that's probably because of contract negotiations and CBA because I feel like the NFL is a little behind on the contract stuff because the NFL has so much power over here. But I think you see that in one of the positions, linemen are all about cohesiveness as a unit. Number one is quarterback and receiver. I don't think anyone would argue that. I would say two, above defense, the captain of a defense is that offensive line. When you're pulling and the way that they're zone blocking nowadays, You're making the wrong thing and you're not cohesive at a unit and covering each other, you're screwed.

Yeah, I'd put offensive line first just because of that. I mean, if one guy messes up and goes the wrong way, the play is dead. So at least if you block for a little while, the quarterback can find one of his options. So it really does start up front. It's kind of a cliche, but it is so true. And those guys, when we made it to, when the Falcons made it to the Super Bowl in 16, I think, and when we made it to the NFC title game, We had all five of our linemen played in every single game. And you make that run because they know each other so well and they work so well together. And you protect the quarterback. And then obviously the other things they do.

You know, with that, and you hear a lot these days, I think the NBA, even the last 20 years, has gone the total opposite. I mean, the stories about when they're not in the building and everyone's off on their own. How does that when you're not in the building today, you know, in the NFL?

No, in the NFL, it's great. I made it a point to make sure the quarterback is my best friend, whether we had things in common or different walks of life or whatever. I just knew that my whole career was going to depend on that quarterback finding me and counting on me being where I'm supposed to be. And if I could also on top of that, become really good friends with them, room with them during training camp, be around them as much as possible, go to extra meetings after practice and see how we look. So that relationship was huge. Matt Ryan, when he came to Atlanta and I was hanging on for dear life late in my career, I just came off 2 ACL injuries and missed two years in a row. And Matt comes in as young rookie and he happened to move into my neighborhood. And I made a point to invite him over. We watched the playoff hockey games together. This time of year when it's kind of dead, we'd go and work out together. We played a little golf together. So you make it a point to develop those friendships. And I did it because I needed all the help I can get because as Adam said, or whatever this guy talking about, overpowered Finneran, the relatively modest real-life NFL stats. I need all the help I can get.

See, I knew starting with that when I go into some good conversations. So let's change pace a little bit. So one of the things I think about anything growing is this becomes perpetual, right? All of a sudden now when they start seeing the economic impact, like when you talk about a Falcons game now, the amount of people that are coming into town, booking hotel rooms, filling these stadiums, the cultural significance, I mean, man, you drive past this city skyline and Mercedes-Benz looks like a city in itself. If you were coming from out of town, see that you're like, oh my, it's the skyline. Mercedes-Benz is the skyline. So talk a little bit about that impact and that societal impact. When you were around, did people recognize you? Were you sitting for meals? I mean, watching the community get behind these teams is unbelievable. And look, you have a helmet on, so they don't always see you without your helmet. But talk about that a little bit.

It's funny, I walk into different places and people realize who I am after we talk for a little bit or somebody says something to them. And then they try to apologize for not knowing who I am. And I was like, If I, you might know me if I had my helmet and my jersey on.

Or you read The Digital Legacy of Brian Finneran, a well-written article.

But you're sure as hell not going to know who I am when I just walk in street clothes and looking like I look. So.

But is some of that, compared to 20 years ago, there are so many more on-field experiences. The VIP passes with X number of people get to be, on the field during warm-ups. X number of people get to be out at the national anthem. All these things that, I mean, there were probably a few, but my sense is.

You know, it's 10 times they fuel each other. Because you have all that sponsorship revenue, you start doing those things. Because you're doing those things, you make sponsorship revenue. And I think the NFL, and look, going to make Goodell out to be the savior of all this, but Goodell saw a lot of this stuff and laid a lot of this stuff out and it becomes perpetual, just starts rolling over because now, yeah, what did they just approve? Two billion dollars to build a stadium in Jacksonville? Like literally one of the worst teams in the NFL that nobody cares about that just signed a quarterback that might be in the third tier of quarterback that they just signed him to $250 million.

He's better than that.

I'm not sure I like to play. I like Trevor. I love Trevor Lawrence a lot. I'm just trying to rile. I'm just trying to shake it up a little bit, but honestly.

I'll say this, the Georgia Dome was an unbelievable place to play, especially when Blank dropped that thing down to $10 a ticket a game. For $100, you can get into every single game of that thing. So you open it up to so many different walks of life and different people.

But just that alone is insane because now to get in the stadium, you're talking 200 bucks. They didn't even show up. So that is, talk just for a second. Talk about that. Talk about Blank and his impact in the community because that's a huge thing.

Yeah, Dick Sullivan is, I think he must have been his marketing guy at the time when he first bought the Falcons. Dick Sullivan runs all the PGA Tour superstores now, I believe. By the time Dick was working for Arthur Blank and they came up with this idea to get people excited about Falcon football again and get him inside the building. with $10 seats, 10 games, $100 a season for multiple seats in the upper deck. That way you can get people filled in. And it kind of bled down in the lower level too where it was a little bit cheaper. But you're trying to build some excitement and get some people going. We had come off a couple bad years when Jamal Anderson got hurt and then they just come off that Super Bowl run in 98, 99, 2000, 2001 we got a little better I guess. 02 was Vick's year and 04 make the NFC title game. So it was interesting how it kind of all worked out. But it's fascinating when you think about where it starts and where it goes to. But I was thinking about this year and changing from the Georgia Dome, which is kind of this, just kind of a, I love playing there. That was where I played every single one of my home games for the Falcons. But it was just a place, you know? It was never doctored up. It was never sexy on the outside. The inside seats were garbage until blank made them all red and then it really looked like something. And then you build this unbelievable facility in Mercedes-Benz Stadium, like you talk about part of the skyline now. You see when you drive up the glass and the retractable roof and all the different things go into it. You got people that want to come see it. There's teams coming. Oh, plus you got teams that are coming in this year. It's unfortunate, but when I tell you Kirk Cousins first game against the Pittsburgh Steelers in our building more Steelers fans there. It's going to be 50-50 Falcons Steelers and you're going to see your terrible towels swaying. If we don't win that game, it's going to be ugly and nasty. It's not going to feel good. And then we go to Philly, I think, and have to deal with them on a Monday night or something, Sunday night, and then we come back and got the Chiefs, the Super Bowl champions who haven't played down here.

Yep, the Cowboys are coming, the Giants are coming.

So you have all these helmets and all these different what is it I'm looking for? The logos of these different teams where people have not come to watch a game in Mercedes-Benz and they're going to come watch it.

So talk about that and then the, let's say the season ticket investment and what's that line of how passionate is the city and then are you willing to sell? And so I've done the opposite. I grew up as a Packer fan, family, daughter up there and all that. So I've been there when it's 50-50, you know, yellow and green at the dome. But how does that sway in of getting people enough to be totally invested versus what? I sell two games, one of the Steelers fans, one of the Cowboy fans, and I make up 80% of my season ticket package.

I'm on the air with home team Brandon Lee, and they call him home team because he's been around here a long time. I think he went to Dunwoody, grew up in Decatur, went to Morehouse. And he's a lifer. He loves every team in every city. He has season tickets to the Falcons games. And I think it was the Bears were coming in town or somebody and he had an opportunity to sell his season tickets for that game and probably make almost all of his stuff back for the season, at least half of it, the cost of his tickets. And I got into him. I said, if you sell those, because I was a huge fan of the team. And I said, if you sell those tickets, you no longer get to be called home. When I tell you we almost came to it. because of the passion he had for the team, but the finances that he was looking at. So it's an interesting take. I think Matt Ryan said it best in his, he went to go speak to the team the other day and then got surprised with the Ring of Honor induction. And he talked to the team about what it means to be an Atlanta Falcon and what it means to play in the city. And he said, the one thing about being in Atlanta is you have to earn it. And if you can earn their fandom and their passion and everything else, it's tough to beat. But it's also hard to do because you got to win a lot and you have to do it in a consistent basis.

You got to be top of mind for such a long time. There's one thing I learned about this city. The attention spans are short. There's so much going on. And I think, look, we got about 5, 6 minutes left in this segment. What I want to talk about is Atlanta. So obviously you've been on air on 680 The Fan now. for a decade, decade plus. Okay, so you saw a town just coming off the Olympics grow into this behemoth that this city is now. And let's be clear, you know, the Olympics were here, but most people outside the country were only aware of Atlanta because of that. And now all of a sudden you are a cultural hub where everything that's happening in this country is coming here. From the shots, the shoots in LA, all the LA people are moving here and they're sitting here and I've interacted with them and they're sitting here and they're looking, they go, why in God's name when I go back to Los Angeles? the weather is not that much better. The traffic is worse, the pollution is worse. Why would I go back? The lifestyle, they like it. But anyway.

You go. I'm from Orange County, an hour south of LA. The weather is much better. This 3 months of summer here, dragging to more. Like it's going to be 97 degrees today and miserable. I get it.

You get the 60 degree.

You pay for the weather. You pay for the weather.

And I spent my time in San Diego, I completely agree with you, pay for the weather. But I'm saying compared to going from LA to going to Minnesota, the weather here is palpable. You could, but talk about just what you saw the city grow and talk about into your now radio career. I mean, you know, just for some context, we're doing 180 advertisers a month and you're dealing with all kinds of businesses and people and you're at Falcons events and you're at other, just talk about what you've seen the city grow. grow just from a marketing base and from a business standpoint.

The Hollywood film industry that's blown up here has been fascinating to see that take place. That's been pretty cool to see these giant warehouses for Amazon and UPS or whatever else you want to throw in there that have shown up recently and just continue to build and continue to do that says A lot. I think all the different giant companies that are downtown filling up these buildings again. was it NPR? Is that right? NCR? Thank you. NCR got that big building a couple years ago. Public radio is doing pretty well if they got that building. That's right. So yeah, you notice it. I think you have the brands that'll stick around forever and just resonate to no end, which is Delta and Chick-fil-A and Waffle House and those ones. But it's been fun to watch it grow. I wish it would slow down a little bit so people stop moving in and around my neighborhood, but so far it's been quite a boom in the last 25 years that I've been here.

I'm going to use this word only because of Nick, but I think it's the boroughs that have really popped up, right? And when I first came here in 88, you know, to Emory, and so I mean, I think it was there was a little bit of Midtown, there was Buckhead.

Can we call them pockets? The borough of Queens by itself is five times the size of city of Atlanta. So let's call them pockets. Let's not go, let's not go boroughs.

But I think that's changed. I mean, downtown has become something now. I mean, you've got to your point with the, you know, the film industry, I mean, the south side, what it's done for that. We know what the north side has been and it just keeps, I mean, it's out in South Carolina now, I think. But I think that's been the biggest thing is how there's these vibrant areas of the city nowadays. You can go in, you can go out, and that's changed.

And I think that even the stadiums create that stuff. Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Castleberry Hill is an awesome neighborhood that existed because of the stadium. They're building those hotels, the Reverb and all those hotels around the stadium. It's one of the things they know these stadiums create economic impact on multiple multipliers.

No question.

When they fix downtown, and we've been saying it now for years, the Gulch gets redone when they fix that stuff. Could you imagine what that's going to look like. Can you imagine the lore? I mean, we've been doing our tailgates at 123 Marietta now for 10 years. In any city in America, you're not getting that real estate. We're half a mile from the stadium in the prime corner that we were able to finagle our way into that lot, watch it grow around and what it's going to look like. And again, I think one of the problems is those pockets also have extended further out. A lot of people are moving to Roswell, so it stops the economic impact of downtown. But I think when people see what the vision is going to be, and you have these people that want to invest in it, I mean, Arthur Blank is a great example of a guy who invests in the communities. I mean, God, his name's on a hospital now that's going to be 600 beds.

That whole scene, and I don't, you can think of whatever you want of Arthur Blank as a football owner, but as a philanthropist and what he's done for this city alone is amazing. Glad you brought up the hospital. I drove by last night on the way home from the airport, and I just left an event in Chicago for the is Anne and Robert Lurie and their Children's Hospital Miracle Network. What they do up there, we raise like 1.7 million bucks up there on Monday on a golf deal with Kevin Butler. Anyway, I'm driving by it and in September, they're moving the entire hospital in one day from one location to the new one that Arthur has built. And I can guarantee it's It's going to be night and day compared to the old one. It's not even probably that old.

Yeah, and you see that name you're driving through, but the economic impact again, understanding that was 60 acres of mixed real estate and all these things that they took. And I know ironically, because the townhouse I lived in when I moved here was on the property line and the amount of money they spent to buy that all out. And that is all in Arthur's name. And it is amazing the legacy. And I think, you know, as a football owner, Arthur Blank has been involved, but he's running multiple businesses. He's trying to put the people, empower the people to make decisions and do certain things, right? At the same time, you know, what is your legacy going to be? In my head, I don't believe Arthur Blank's perceived legacy is going to be the football team. And I know that sounds crazy.

Well, I hope you're wrong because we need a championship, but you're probably more, the probability is probably in your favor, where I'll probably remember more around the city of Atlanta as opposed to inside that.

I think it's a lasting legacy and it's not a criticism. But look, it's hard. It's hard to beat somebody like Ted Turner, just as a legacy of an owner in this town. And that was luck, right? He also owned TBS, so he got the Braves to spread everywhere in the behemoth. So I think more.

But look, this has been a great conversation. We're going to finish up with talking a little future predictions about the NFL and where it's going, which is anybody's guess, because how many times have we counted the NFL out? During COVID, like, oh, people are going to stop watching. They're kneeling. No one's going to watch.

It's like, oh, yeah, cool, man. I'll give you thoughts on Kaepernick at a different time what I think actually happened there. Off the air.

You're listening to the Marketing MadMen on Xtra 106.3. We'll be right back and we are in the dead middle of season four, ladies and gentlemen. Check us out on social media, handles everywhere, Marketing MadMen.

Now back to the Marketing MadMen on Xtra 106.3 FM.

Welcome back to the Marketing MadMen. Trip Jobe and Nick Constantino here with Brian Finneran from 680 The Fan and the Atlanta Falcons. It's been fun talking about the NFL and your career and your thoughts around Atlanta. So let's, we kind of teased it going into the break. Let's think about the NFL in the next 10 to 15 years. What's the biggest thing you see that might be a major change?

The emphasis on overseas football, I think, has become really big. I think the Falcons are one of the few teams to actually get their, is it marketing rights? Is that the right word? In Germany, where they bought a licensing base over there where they can sell their own products inside that country.

Oh, wow. So they own the license, so it's not Nike or someone else. They bought their own licensing.

I believe so. Look it up and make sure I'm right. It's cool. But Jacksonville, when I went to London last year as a Falcon ambassador. They invite one former player to go with them. They take care of everything, fly in Delta One, and it's pretty ridiculous. I've never been up there in my life. My wife was a couple rows back.

Was the room temperature beer off-putting to you? Because that was the first thing that got me a guard when I got to London. I was like, wait, why is this beer warm? I go, oh my God, it's delicious.

But yeah, if you get to the right pub, you can find some.

You know, there's been a lot of work in London. There's the NFL Europe academies and all that. Do you envision at some point we're talking building before or the NFL to get serious will build a campus so that teams might end up over there for a few weeks and really expand this idea of the number of games.

That's interesting. Yeah, I think a London-based campus would not be a bad idea. There's obviously some relationships between the NFL owners and some of the soccer teams in Europe as well, where maybe that might make sense. Jaguars did it last year, played the Falcons. say week 5 and we were there and then they stayed in the same area and then played a different game against another team the next week just shifted to a different stadium.

Like a base camp, but you said, so they can train theirselves.

I mean, if you have the NFL practice facilities, living facilities, all the things Does that make it easier to be there for two or three weeks versus some of the grumblings you hear now?

Yeah, because you can control the field, type of field, the field space, whatever it is. So yeah, it makes, like I think either next year or within the next two years, every team's gonna play a game overseas somewhere. We'll start, I think Friday night, we start open up Thursday night this NFL season. Chiefs are playing somebody, I can't remember who. And then Friday night, I believe Packers and Eagles. Packers and Eagles are going to Sao Paulo. But Brazil, for the first time, we'll go down there.

So send me to Brazil. Goodness gracious.

It'll be, I don't, I like the idea of having an NFL type facility where multiple teams can kind of come in and use it. I don't think we'll ever, and I shouldn't even say this, but I don't think it doesn't make sense for the players and I don't think the players like the idea of having a team in another country.

Yeah. The only reason I think it may happen is the NFL has shown themselves to be control freaks with the XFL and the UFL. I mean, let's if the NFL had bought into any of those, they would still exist. Arena Football League has been demolished. They're telling people that week before in the playoffs, they're moving. Like if they wanted those farm systems to exist, they would have had those farm systems exist. So the only natural progression of something to keep going at a point is some sort of international expansion or completely buying in China. And the problem with China is they will destroy their political legacy. And I'm saying just invest in the Chinese fan base. But you'll destroy the perceived political legacy because that's a problem. NFL's done a pretty good job of walking the middle of the line here on all this stuff. If all of a sudden now you're investing in China and the NBA botched this whole thing with Morey and what he said about China. If you go, where do you grow? It's so pervasive in this country. There's got to be a point to grow at some point. That's why I think there might be an international expansion or some sort of.

I see the two linked, though. I mean, I think if you have a London-based facility, all right, you can bring multiple teams. I think that leads to a London team, right, as well. And then eventually you might be able to have, let's say, a team in Germany. Again, you go over there for two weeks, you're based out of London. I mean, it's a 70-minute flight between London and Germany.

I don't agree, but I also think that most of these people are thinking 20, 30 years, and there's more growth potential in other places. Sao Paulo is a great example. Yeah, Brazil is a different place, but Brazil is going to be a billion people really soon. London is a economic powerhouse on the decline with not that many people that are grown there. So I just think that Goodell's thinking the long game. Mexico City is a great example. Mexico City is the largest, most concentrated city in the world. Why would you go to London? I just think that there's going to be more to this decision.

Safety reasons. I mean, logistics. I don't know. I get you. But what was I going to say? I really don't think there will be a team over there. I don't think the NFLPA will want it unless the money continues to go crazy and the salary cap continues to go berserk. Then maybe they'll buy in. But the idea, because the Jaguars are talked about for a long time to be in that team, to be shipped over there in London, be their home base, or they're just going to build, we just talked about 1.6 million. It's not going to happen. Stadium for the next 30 years, Carolina, another team that's kind of not very good for the most of their time. Never had back-to-back.

Isn't it ironic that those are the two expansion teams that started at the same time? Was it 96 that Carolina and the Jaguars? 95 that Carolina and the Jaguars and they're the ones that are being talked about in this way. It's just crazy. So what about that? Because they're all fixing their teams.

Look, from Miami to San Francisco is like a 7 1/2, 8 hour flight. That's the same flight to London from New York. So I understand that and there's time zone changes, but they're already doing some of those flights. Mexico City would actually be closer than going across to San Francisco for some teams.

All right, the other thing I would say that really would be interesting to watch moving forward is the access to eyeballs. When you think about all the TV deals and streaming, it's.

Going to be a nightmare. Amazon and Apple. It costs you $150 a month to watch all the games right now, the way these are set up with all the different channels, $160 a month to watch if you got every streaming service to watch all the games this season.

So that's something to keep an eye on how much farther they go because they're selling for Christmas Day games for, you know, 70 million. and just cashing in. And they're ready to do more of that, I think. So I think that's, keep an eye on that, because that's what really pushes their product and pushes their ability to pay these players and continue to build these stadiums.

Just technology at the point that you see, I mean, in baseball you see umpire cam, you see player. Do you eventually see a quarterback cam that is a special package that someone has to buy.

My God.

You're talking about augmented reality stuff where you can pick extra zooms and do more like a, I think the.

Lore would wear off quickly and you'd cancel.

I think it'd be great to watch from a quarterback's point of view for 5 minutes.

I think for most of us, but there are people, they're fanatics out there. I mean, I don't know.

I think the future that augmented reality where you're gonna have, you're gonna be able to put glasses on and it's gonna be able to show you in real time how fast they're running, how fast, how extreme the collision was. I think that's more likely of a thing. It won't be the channel will sell it. will be you're buying a supplementary app or something. So in real because it would be pretty cool to watch every time I hit how much force was created or how fast these guys are running. They do it after the fact, but hearing that stuff in real time, I would pay extra for that. Again, maybe for a game. I think all season, you have to be mentally prepared to do that, to do it.

Then I heard he'd pay for you to like hit him real time just to see how it felt.

I've taken a few of those a couple of times. I'm not going to be for it, but my playing days are over, dude. I cannot. I can barely. No, I'm not hating anyone ever.

This has been awesome. We got one minute left. just talk a little bit, I think, about what the NFL, what it's meant for you, what the league, just how they've done such a great job, and then we'll close us out.

Yeah, if you do the right things and like we talked about to start the show, follow the rules, build your brand, be open to different opportunities, the NFL can springboard you to whatever you want. I mean, you don't have to be a superstar. I wasn't. And to talk about the deals that I was able to get, and then parlay it into this fancy radio gig as well. I mean, you meet a lot of people. It's about how you use it, how you brand yourself, and obviously how you play on the football field. If you are serious about your career and you're willing to work and do the right things and do whatever it takes to be on the field and help your team win, that's what I love about the NFL is there really is very little BS. You either can help this team win or you can't. And if you can't, we'll give you one extra shot, but you're going to get cut Because we ain't got time for you. We don't have roster spots for us to just, you know the coach's son, so you're going to be on the scene. That's not how it works in his profession. I think that's why the product's so good.

It's the old line. It's a business. Yeah, it's a business. It is.

Guys, I love this conversation. I think your advice is great to anybody in any business about marketing or anything. Because if you do what Finn said, you can be an all NFL Madden player, despite your relatively modest real-life NFL stats. You've been listening to the Marketing MadMen on Xtra 106.3. We'll catch you next week.