Thursday, August 11, 2011

Miami Dolphins to fans: Please stop posting practice video

Miami Dolphins
((ht: sun-sentinel.com))

We are posting this because it is interesting a poses some interesting questions.

The Miami Dolphins are facing off with the video camera phone and so far the phone is winning. Apparently over the past week or so, someone has been posting practice video on YouTube and the team is a bit less than thrilled about it.

The Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel spoke with Dolphins PR guru Harvey Greene who essentially is pleading with fans not to do this saying the team has rules on this. "Those rules exist so that we're not placed at a competitive disadvantage by having the teams we play see video of any portion of our practice."

Read the entire Sun-Sentinel story RIGHT HERE

This is the greatest fear of any NFL team. They are incredibly paranoid about any kind of video that shows practice plays being discovered by another team. Not that the plays won't eventually be seen, they will. Scouts will see them beginning with the 1st exhibition game.

But it poses an interesting dilemma. TV people are not allowed to shoot practice as a general rule. The video you see on the nightly news or SportsCenter is generally drills or position work. Not full-fledged plays. And there are exceptions.

But fans with camera phones are a different beast. On one hand the teams want fans there, but how do you regulate the phones? And you certainly can't stop them from posting it.

All-in-all, it's an interesting dilemma and one that TV folks have been pondering for awhile. NFL teams eventually are going to have to keep people from bringing there phones to open practices, but the bigger question is, "How do you stop them?".

Here's some of the video in question: (because we can)

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