Patriots’ Deflate-Gate good for media, radio

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NFL / National Football LeagueAs the scuttlebutt about New England Patriots’ quarterback Tom Brady using under-inflated balls in the AFC Championship game continues, the media are big winners. Add to that the NFL and Super Bowl advertisers. As media pundits around the country are pointing out, a story with legs like this couldn’t have come at a better time – even if the NFL’s official line is to furrow its brow.


In Boston, it’s a story on steroids. The city’s radio sports legend WEEI says the story has pushed its digital properties into record territory.

Between January 19, the day the allegations about the footballs, and January 25, WEEI.com racked up over 1 million unique users to www.weei.com, over 4.3 million page views, a total of 6.1 million Facebook users with more than one million participating in a WEEI post and more than 1.1 million Facebook views of a special Deflate-Gate video produced by the station’s Jerry Thornton and videographer Peter Neudel, plus an additional 285,000 views on YouTube.

WEEI Brand Manager Kevin Graham says you don’t post numbers like that unless sports fans know you’re the digital destination for timely and credible information. “I’m very proud of the combined efforts from our on-air and digital content teams in reporting this ever-changing story. We have been at the forefront of coverage from the beginning and been the go-to station for national media outlets such as ESPN, The CBS Evening News, FOX News and CNN, to name a few.”

Nevertheless, it’s a story that has captured the public attention in its own right. And that shouldn’t leave anyone in the media world feeling deflated.