Sunday, July 30, 2006
Further proof the NFL is the most corporate sports entity
So I was perusing the news stories on TSN.ca and lo and behold I find that the NFL commissioner search has been short listed to 5 names. Two of the five names have some connection to the league but the other three do not. In fact those three have such corporate backgrounds that it actually makes me worry for the league.
First, before I state why I'm worried here are the candidates and their backgrounds
Now I realize that you need lawyer types to run a huge entity like the NFL but it disturbs me that most of these guys are men with only business and legal backgrounds. They don't seem to have any real sports or PR experience. The hiring of any one of these candidates will the NFL even more cold and sterile then it is now. This is a huge problem in sports and it may be the basis of a future posting but let it be known that it was the NFL that started us down this road.
The corporatization of the NFL has been in steady ascension since the early 1990s and the hiring of the new commissioner may very well be its zenith. It seems to me that the NFL is one of those rare entities that actually respects the office of Commissioner unlike, say MLB for instance. This is a great thing but it can go horribly wrong if you're saddled with a head honcho that's bound and determined milk the cash cow of success right to the very last drop without thinking of future consequences.
As it stands right now the NFL is a multi-BILLION dollar entity with the biggest national TV deals, strong satellite distribution of its SUNDAY TICKET package, a wholly owned network which utilizes NFL Films and soon to add prime time games during the regular season, mega selling merchandising and finally the greatest spectacle in North American pro sports.
Do we really need to make this league MORE corporate and machine-like?
According to this short list the owners seem to think so. I also look at this short list with some alarm as a fan of the Buffalo Bills. The NFL is the only pro league that has a strong and equal revenue sharing plan. The last CBA saw a clash between the old guard who helped craft this magnificent (and some would say socialistic) system and the new money guys who want to outspend everyone in the hopes of winning with an "all star team". As far as I can tell the CBA was pretty much a compromise but it has left Dan Rooney (Steelers) and Ralph Wilson (Bills) a bit non-plused about the whole thing.
Looking at the short list it seems the owners in charge of the search committee may be giving the owners the option of maintaining status quo or hiring someone who may side with the New Money Owners. This in turn could see the NFL becoming more of a free market league which could only have ill tidings for the future.
In my humble opinion the NFL has maxed out all potentialities. If anything, this league needs get back to a smaller scale operation as it has become a bull in a china shop. At some point the corporate greed and the need for green will override the product on the field. In some ways we're already seeing this with the bloated excesses of the pre and halftime extravaganzas for the Season Opener, Thanksgiving, Playoffs and Super Bowl games. The NFL in its need to be "professional" has sapped all creativity by putting huge uniform restrictions to the point that players look more like models for sports equipment rather then athletes, urging coaches not to "dress up" (first it was Mike Tice and the latest example is Mike Nolan) and finally, while I'm not a fan of some of the endzone celebrations I think the league went TOO far in restricting what a player can and can not do.
Heck, just look at the telecasts on Sundays and compare it to 15 years ago. There's more ad time in a regular season NFL game today then there was back then. Everything associated with the NFL HAS to have some kind of corporate sponsor. The league has absolutely whored itself out to the almighty dollar. I don't mind this but when it's so transparent it becomes a rather glaring problem.
So now; we the fans, who have so little say in all this are forced to hope that the NFL owners vote to stay in house and maintain the status quo. In some ways this may also lead to some problems. There are some that view Tagliabue's reign as nothing more then an over-extended caretaker regime. Yes he did rake in huge TV deals, has gotten the league on the verge of returning to LA and has overseen a growth in the league that hasn't been seen since the 1950s. Nonetheless, this has been viewed as just the natural progression of what Pete Rozelle envisioned for the league. In all honesty Tagliabue has contributed very little to the actual game. In many ways he's a failure. He oversaw the Browns leaving Cleveland and the Oilers moving to Tennessee. He brought the Browns back but put such stringent restrictions on what they can and can not do that the "new" Browns were doomed to failure from the start. At the very least you can credit Tags with a smooth expansion process which has brought the Texans to Houston.
So by going with the status quo there will be little to no innovation, continued "polishing" of the NFL image while on ground level we have players misbehaving to an egregious degree. Going outside the league with these more business/legal types will make the league more sterile and greedy.
In essence the NFL may be doomed to topple over it's huge monolithic structure and all the good will that fans have built up for years may very well dissipate. In fact, I can almost certainly say that during the next CBA talks that there WILL be a lockout/strike. It'll be very interesting to see how it plays out both in the media and to the fans especially with a new commissioner in place.
First, before I state why I'm worried here are the candidates and their backgrounds
- Roger Goodell: NFL COO and one of Paul Tagliabue's closest aides.
- Gregg Levy: NFL outside counsel (the same job Tags had before being named commish)
- Frederick Nance: A Cleveland Lawyer
- Robert L. Reynolds: Concord Mass. Resident who's the VP and CEO of Fidelity Investments
- Mayo A. Shattuck III: Lives in Baltimore and is the chairman, President and CEO of Constellation Energy
Now I realize that you need lawyer types to run a huge entity like the NFL but it disturbs me that most of these guys are men with only business and legal backgrounds. They don't seem to have any real sports or PR experience. The hiring of any one of these candidates will the NFL even more cold and sterile then it is now. This is a huge problem in sports and it may be the basis of a future posting but let it be known that it was the NFL that started us down this road.
The corporatization of the NFL has been in steady ascension since the early 1990s and the hiring of the new commissioner may very well be its zenith. It seems to me that the NFL is one of those rare entities that actually respects the office of Commissioner unlike, say MLB for instance. This is a great thing but it can go horribly wrong if you're saddled with a head honcho that's bound and determined milk the cash cow of success right to the very last drop without thinking of future consequences.
As it stands right now the NFL is a multi-BILLION dollar entity with the biggest national TV deals, strong satellite distribution of its SUNDAY TICKET package, a wholly owned network which utilizes NFL Films and soon to add prime time games during the regular season, mega selling merchandising and finally the greatest spectacle in North American pro sports.
Do we really need to make this league MORE corporate and machine-like?
According to this short list the owners seem to think so. I also look at this short list with some alarm as a fan of the Buffalo Bills. The NFL is the only pro league that has a strong and equal revenue sharing plan. The last CBA saw a clash between the old guard who helped craft this magnificent (and some would say socialistic) system and the new money guys who want to outspend everyone in the hopes of winning with an "all star team". As far as I can tell the CBA was pretty much a compromise but it has left Dan Rooney (Steelers) and Ralph Wilson (Bills) a bit non-plused about the whole thing.
Looking at the short list it seems the owners in charge of the search committee may be giving the owners the option of maintaining status quo or hiring someone who may side with the New Money Owners. This in turn could see the NFL becoming more of a free market league which could only have ill tidings for the future.
In my humble opinion the NFL has maxed out all potentialities. If anything, this league needs get back to a smaller scale operation as it has become a bull in a china shop. At some point the corporate greed and the need for green will override the product on the field. In some ways we're already seeing this with the bloated excesses of the pre and halftime extravaganzas for the Season Opener, Thanksgiving, Playoffs and Super Bowl games. The NFL in its need to be "professional" has sapped all creativity by putting huge uniform restrictions to the point that players look more like models for sports equipment rather then athletes, urging coaches not to "dress up" (first it was Mike Tice and the latest example is Mike Nolan) and finally, while I'm not a fan of some of the endzone celebrations I think the league went TOO far in restricting what a player can and can not do.
Heck, just look at the telecasts on Sundays and compare it to 15 years ago. There's more ad time in a regular season NFL game today then there was back then. Everything associated with the NFL HAS to have some kind of corporate sponsor. The league has absolutely whored itself out to the almighty dollar. I don't mind this but when it's so transparent it becomes a rather glaring problem.
So now; we the fans, who have so little say in all this are forced to hope that the NFL owners vote to stay in house and maintain the status quo. In some ways this may also lead to some problems. There are some that view Tagliabue's reign as nothing more then an over-extended caretaker regime. Yes he did rake in huge TV deals, has gotten the league on the verge of returning to LA and has overseen a growth in the league that hasn't been seen since the 1950s. Nonetheless, this has been viewed as just the natural progression of what Pete Rozelle envisioned for the league. In all honesty Tagliabue has contributed very little to the actual game. In many ways he's a failure. He oversaw the Browns leaving Cleveland and the Oilers moving to Tennessee. He brought the Browns back but put such stringent restrictions on what they can and can not do that the "new" Browns were doomed to failure from the start. At the very least you can credit Tags with a smooth expansion process which has brought the Texans to Houston.
So by going with the status quo there will be little to no innovation, continued "polishing" of the NFL image while on ground level we have players misbehaving to an egregious degree. Going outside the league with these more business/legal types will make the league more sterile and greedy.
In essence the NFL may be doomed to topple over it's huge monolithic structure and all the good will that fans have built up for years may very well dissipate. In fact, I can almost certainly say that during the next CBA talks that there WILL be a lockout/strike. It'll be very interesting to see how it plays out both in the media and to the fans especially with a new commissioner in place.
# posted by Chris Fung @ 5:29 PM 
