Alex Morgan spent Monday at ESPN. (Photo copyright Patricia Giobetti | http://www.printroom.com/pro/psgiobetti)
Alex Morgan is currently promoting her new book, The Kicks: Saving the Team, and that included major stops at ESPN headquarters in Bristol, Conn., on Monday and at various NBC properties on Tuesday in New York City.
Monday included a meet and greet lunch with ESPN employees as well as several live SportsCenter hits. Part of the chatter was, naturally, Morgan’s rise to greatness, highlighted by her performance at the 2012 Olympics, where she made worldwide highlight reels by scoring the latest goal in FIFA history, a 123rd minute winner vs. Canada in the USA’s 4-3 semifinal win at Old Trafford.
And naturally, ESPN plugged the upcoming USA-Canada Olympic semifinal rematch on June 2, which will air on ESPNEWS.
But what was important for the National Women’s Soccer League was the third different live spot Morgan did in the 11 a.m. hour, with Sage Steele. In that interview, Morgan spoke to Steele about the NWSL, which included some highlights of Portland Thorns FC games. Credit to Morgan, as well, for trying to work in NWSL into the conversation in previous hours.
Here’s the interview with Steele:
Morgan also did an #askAlex feature through Twitter.
On Tuesday, Morgan appeared on Access Hollywood as well as NBC Sports Network’s “The Crossover” show (full disclosure: I work for NBC Sports). The Access Hollywood interview was more about the new book, while The Crossover interview is all about the NWSL (really solid interview on the new league). Here are the two videos, starting with The Crossover:
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It’s important not to overstate the meaning of all this; this promotion was primarily of Morgan and her book, not the NWSL. But it’s certainly a noteworthy mention for the young league.
ESPNU will also run a documentary on Abby Wambach on May 15, tracing her career from her NCAA championship with Florida to today.
In the meantime, keep checking here for day-to-day coverage. But these sort of small steps all add up for the new league. As with anything I caution…sustainability is key (in this case, continued coverage).
