Lewis Is on Other End of Shutout

Ray Lewis was chosen most valuable player of Super Bowl XXXV, but quarterback Trent Dilfer was on parade at Walt Disney World on Monday.

On the day after the Baltimore Ravens’ 34-7 victory over the New York Giants, the usual endorsement bonanza for a Super Bowl MVP was not materializing. Companies were predictably steering clear of the controversial Lewis, who pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice for hindering the investigation of a double murder after last year’s Super Bowl.

Dilfer, despite passing for merely 153 yards, also was selected for the “Got Milk?” newspaper ads.

Five Raven players will be featured on Wheaties cereal boxes: Safety Rod Woodson, defensive end Michael McCrary, receivers Shannon Sharpe and Qadry Ismail and offensive tackle Jonathan Ogden--but not Lewis, the NFL’s defensive player of the year.

“He was just far too risky,” said David Carter, a sports marketing consultant who teaches a class at USC on the business of sports.

“Blue-chip corporations took a pass, Disney took a pass, General Mills took a pass. Despite the intrigue, this is an era when you can find others to better represent your company.”

Spokesmen for Walt Disney Co. and General Mills Corp., the maker of Wheaties, declined to discuss specifics of the Lewis snub.

The Wheaties Web site operated by General Mills notes that the Ravens’ defense was led by “the likes of defensive end Michael McCrary, who made a habit of shutting down running backs and tormenting quarterbacks, and safety Rod Woodson, one of the best defensive backs in league history.” No mention is made of Lewis.

Disney spokesman Craig Dezern said Dilfer was chosen because of his poignant return to the Super Bowl in Tampa, where he had been jeered as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ quarterback only to win the Super Bowl with the Ravens.

“We thought Trent was really the Cinderella story,” Dezern said.

He also said bypassing Lewis was not unprecedented.

“There’s a misperception it’s always the MVP,” Dezern said.

In 1996, running back Emmitt Smith of the Dallas Cowboys was chosen over cornerback Larry Brown, the MVP.

In 1998, Denver Bronco quarterback John Elway was selected over running back Terrell Davis, although Davis joined Elway as a Disney pitchman the next year after the Broncos repeated and Elway was MVP.

Lewis said after the game Sunday that he hadn’t been interested in the Disney spot, and said Monday he hadn’t signed any endorsement agreements before the game, as is customary for potential stars.

He said, however, that he expects to have options.

“There’s a lot of things that have come my way this whole week prior to the Super Bowl and a lot of things coming my way after the Super Bowl,” he said. “When I get back home and sit down, I’ll go over a couple of things with the marketing people and hopefully get some things set.”

He is more likely to be chosen for ads in the Baltimore area. He had a reputation there as a star player before the scenes emerged of him in a prison uniform and shackles last year, when he was on trial for murder. Charges were dropped when he agreed to plead guilty to obstruction of justice and testified against two co-defendants who later were acquitted.

Lewis was never a candidate for the “Got Milk?” advertising campaign, said Kurt Graetzer, chief executive officer of the Washington, D.C.-based National Fluid Milk Processors Promotion Board, which uses celebrities wearing “milk mustaches” to market milk.

Rather than going after Super Bowl MVPs, the board “usually starts looking for the quarterbacks . . . and if we can’t get them, we’ll go elsewhere,” Graetzer said.

Newspaper ads that ran before Sunday’s game featured Dilfer and Giant quarterback Kerry Collins. Ads that began running Monday featured Dilfer.

Graetzer said the Got Milk campaign carefully scrutinizes candidates.

“Whenever you use a celebrity, there are going to be issues generated by the actions of that celebrity,” he said. “We’ve been very fortunate.”

Bob Williams, president of the Chicago-based Burns Sports Celebrity Service, said companies tend to play it safe.

“Whether it’s an athlete like Latrell Sprewell or Ray Lewis, a coach like Bobby Knight or an announcer like Marv Albert, there are controversial people who advertisers are not comfortable enough with to use as endorsers,” Williams said.

“Ray is still on the wrong side of the line of controversy that’s acceptable to consumers and advertisers.”

The Lewis case is intriguing because of its complexity.

Prosecutors dropped the murder charges, but Lewis doesn’t always receive sympathy as an innocent person wrongly accused, largely because no one has been convicted of the crime.

Carter, the Los Angeles-based consultant, said Lewis erred in his handling of media scrutiny at the Super Bowl--at least in terms of positioning himself for endorsements.

“I understand he didn’t think he needed to [revisit the case with reporters],” Carter said. “But to play the marketing game, you have to kowtow.”

Losing quarterback Collins’ endorsement appeal probably also would have been somewhat limited because of his past alcohol problems. But he emerged as a sympathetic figure after his frank admissions about overcoming his past problems on the Monday before the game.

Advertisers don’t always shy away from controversial players. The Anaheim-based Carl’s Jr. hamburger chain hired former NBA player Dennis Rodman as a pitchman during the late 1990s because his colorful style appealed to the younger males who drive fast-food sales.

Whether it’s worth the risk might depend on the company.

“For Disney and General Mills, the amount of bashing they would have received was so great, it would have been devastating,” Carter said. “The goodwill they get by taking a pass, looking above the fray, may serve them a lot better. I think there are going to be more companies that are not going to take the risk.”

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Norwood reported from Tampa, Johnson from Costa Mesa.

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