FTW Cast Announces Pregame Show Sponsor

BILLBOARD SLOGAN OF THE WEEK, GAME ONE:    “PLAY TO WIN”

BY TIM SCANDURRO

My wife married a lawyer over 33 years ago, but she has always hated lawyer advertising.  She would probably rank the TV ads at the top of her sh!t list, with billboards a close second. 

She’s not alone.  If you ask most panels of prospective jurors if they think there’s too much lawyer advertising, lots of hands will go up.

 So when the Tulane Talent Fund was created by the Athletic Department and FTW’s role shifted to marketing and subscription content, I was cautious when Jake asked me if my law firm would consider sponsoring the weekly game preview podcast.

But this felt different.  I know from talking to our coaches just how important FTW’s  vitality and revenue streams are to our roster and ability to compete.  The Talent Fund is important too, don’t get me wrong; I give to both.  My personal view is that the success of the Talent Fund is critical for all kinds of reasons, from meeting commitments made to coaches (including football coaches) to the perception of major college Athletics in Gibson Hall to our future attractiveness when it’s time to hire coaches or improve our conference affiliation.  We have to support it.

But FTW has an important role also, particularly where football is concerned.  It allows us to move quickly and decisively when the situation demands it.

The catch is, gifts to FTW are no longer tax-deductible donations, while gifts to the Talent Fund are.  For that reason FTW’s  model will depend on both generous subscribers  AND on  businesses getting involved with  advertising and promotional opportunities.  It’s hard to imagine a better win-win scenario for those who are able to sponsor content here.  You’re supporting an operation that has a 100% volunteer staff, all of your money goes to support the program you love, and you are gaining visibility with others like you who are among Tulane football’s most ardent, steadfast supporters.  Talk to Jake, Jimmy or Michael to learn more.

And now with apologies to my wife, on to our new weekly feature: the Scandurro & Layrisson, LLC  BILLBOARD SLOGAN OF THE WEEK. 

The Game One slogan is “Play to Win.”   Coaches always worry about game day execution the first week.  Coach Sumrall has said that in Week One contests more games are lost via mistakes than won via high level plays.  Those concerns are heightened when you’re playing a team that, while far from complete, has some formidable pieces that can hurt you badly.  Pieces who are pulling down very large B1G sized paychecks.  Pieces who we tried to get to come here.  We are also likely starting a quarterback who didn’t even show up until a few weeks ago, and two corners who will be seeing their first significant playing time.  So I get it.

But if we are who we think we are, let’s get after these Cats aggressively.  Our coaches have a good handle on how to attack them on both sides of the ball, but mistakes are going to happen; they always do.  Trust your talent and your leaders to overcome those and bring the fight to Northwestern from the opening kickoff.  We have them at home.  Respect them, but don’t fear them or fear mistakes.  No ‘easing in’ or ‘game shortening.’ No letting them hang around; their quarterback is too good to do that.  Let’s come out of the tunnel acting like, coaching like and playing like the confident favorites we are.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to have this one be tight late where we have to “go to the scorecards” with a Big 10 officiating crew.  We’ve seen what that looks like.

I’d rather knock them out.