Guest Blogger: John Kerr, Edelman Singapore

As a communicator and a huge (all too often armchair) sports fan, I love reading or hearing what professional sportsmen and coaches have to say, especially as it gets to the business end of the season. When the pressure is on, the spotlight intense and your team needs a boost, the quotes they choose to motivate their team, or spark the fans, can sometimes have terrible hindsight impact.

The past week has been a great case in point. Firstly we had Jose Mourinho of Chelsea soccer club (disclosure, I'm a big Arsenal fan, so I love this) trying to gee his team up to win the Champions League for the first time by belittling his semi-final opponents by amongst other things calling them (only five time champions Liverpool) 'a little club' and claiming that he would've been sacked if he had the same record as their coach. After a loss last night, a quick search on Technorati shows that the self-appointed ‘special one’ (Jose) is today being mocked as the ‘deluded one’ with the average number of blog posts with his name increasing from around 25 at the end of year to a whopping 250 today – to be fair, Jose’s stuck his head out for so long, many online citizens have been waiting for a chance to lop it off.

Then there was St George/Illawarra rugby league player Richie Williams who, a mere five games into his first grade career, last week decided to rile up the media and bloggers by labeling record competition points-scorer and Australian international Braith Anasta ‘not as good as he was’ before the game – an 18-4 loss later and Williams had been dropped to reserves and is unlikely to play first grade again this year.

The Dallas Mavericks National Basketball Association (NBA) team had the best record in the league this year and playing Golden State (the team with the worst record to make the Western Conference play-offs), find themselves on the verge of ‘the biggest upset in NBA (some say professional sports) history.’ Looking for superstar Dirk Nowitzki (and I like Dirk!) to take over and make the shots that matter, coach Avery Johnson responded to his superstar being quoted as saying ‘he could only take what he was given,’ by saying  “I'm tired of hearing about how they've taken him out of his game and any lack of confidence. You're just not supposed to have that, all right?”  Bloggers must be tired too, because posts about Dirk have exploded from an average 20 six months ago, to 180 yesterday. In deference to my boss Alan VanderMolen, who loves the New York Yankees, I wont mention their 9-14 start to the season and some of the choice quotes running around there, but you get the point – and that’s just a few of the sports quotes this week and that happen every week.

Now wouldn’t it be wild if business spokespeople talked that level of smack about competitors? Funnily enough, it has been a part of the communications mix in the business world for some time. However, communicators and spokespeople need to be aware that in today’s world of citizen journalism, permalinks and mobile recording devices, sensational news can come from everywhere and anywhere – customer seminars, email, even overheard from nearby tables or on public transport. The first rule of smack is, back it up if you’re going to say it – the second rule of smack and good manners is, if you’re not willing to see it in print, then keep your mouth shut. They’re simple rules, but all-to-often ignored. I for one can’t wait see what RSS delivers next week - be honest, you know there will be something...