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Oct 29, 2009 12:30 AM
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So the fledgling league may not have many fans. Fine. But you'd at least expect them to want to hear what those fans have to say, instead of eradicating feedback Mission Impossible style.
Reader Jonathan wanted to like the UFL, he really did. But he thought their neon uniforms were too Arena Football and similar to each other. So he wrote a letter, to the contact email address listed on the UFL's website. We won't reprint it here, but the gist is, "I like your product, but your teams look unprofessional and undifferentiated."
Fair enough. This is what he received:
WE DO NOT ACCEPT UNSOLICITED SUBMISSIONS. YOUR EMAIL WILL BE DELETED WITHOUT READING IT. BELOW IS OUR SUBMISSIONS POLICY:
It is the policy of the UFL not to accept any unsolicited material, information, suggestions, ideas, concepts, drawings, designs, schematics, artwork, music, graphical matter, know-how, techniques, questions, comments and other communications or content, or other works ("Unsolicited Submissions") submitted, transmitted, emailed, posted or otherwise provided to the UFL.
That's the electronic equivalent of having an office suggestion box feed directly into a wood stove.
I understand the legal obligation to warn fans that, if by some coincidence one of them comes up with an idea that gets put into use, they won't be getting paid for it. But to say up front (and in all caps!) that the email will be obliterated from existence without a human being ever setting eyes on it? Now that's a league/fan relationship that David Stern and Gary Bettman will envy.
Send an email to Barry Petchesky, the author of this post, at barryp@deadspin.com.
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