The sports industry has been fraught with public relations challenges the past 10 days. When I began to form this post in my head, the “only” examples were Michael Vick, Brett Favre, Plaxico Burress and Major League Baseball. Today I add to that the National Football League and ESPN.

What could be more appropriate for sports PR case studies than Vick, the former Atlanta Falcons quarterback who spent 18 months in prison for running a dogfighting ring, was recently conditionally reinstated by the National Football League and hopes to earn a roster spot and respect; Favre, the three-time NFL MVP quarterback who’s trying to delete the last line of his bio written by critics that identify him as an all-pro waffler after he retired in 2008 from the Green Bay Packers, unretired to play for the New York Jets, retired and after months of speculation, courting, consideration and biceps rehabilitation, told his former NFC nemesis, Minnesota Vikings, he wasn’t coming out of retirement again, after all; Burress, who was indicted by a grand jury on three weapons counts in New York after shooting himself in a nightclub last fall; or Major League Baseball, that endured another leak of premier players (Manny Ramirez and