The goals of successful major league sports franchises are simple: win games and win fans. Yet, over the last decade, the scoreboard-to-seat sale relationship has become significantly more complicated.

During Super Bowl XLIX, Marshawn Lynch of the Seattle Seahawks showed his displeasure at answering questions from the media by repeating during his Media Day appearance, "I'm just here so I won't get fined" (which could have been as much as $500,000 by the NFL for not appearing) and then, at his next required press conference offering, "You all shove cameras and microphones down my throat. I ain't got nothing for you all ... You all will sit here doing the same thing. I'm here preparing for a game."

We can't fault you; we've all been trained to do it. In every business, large or small, we continue chasing it. When will we realize what we might be looking for, might not be there?

Every industry has buzzwords, though it has often struck me that sports, marketing and advertising over-index for the phenomenon. Since we live in a world where "internet years" make a decade ago feel like a half-century ago, I feel like I'm reaching back into the stone ages of marketing vernacular to surface the term "connection planning."

For several years, it seemed as if Peyton Manning appeared in every commercial on TV, including Nationwide, Papa John's, Gatorade, DirecTV, MasterCard and Buick. That impression was not too far from the truth, enabling the Denver Broncos quarterback to earn upward of $13 million annually from endorsements, the most among NFL players.

Only two days removed from Super Bowl XLIX and there are a few things we all learned: Pete Carroll made the wrong call, Tom Brady solidified his legacy, and more brands than ever are making a bigger push to join the online, real-time conversation on social media.