NFL owner Mafia meeting drama

[PP2]

Can't say "none of us". I don't want 1B$. FOr me : the problems that ensue aren't worth the cash considerations.

As Notorious BIG and others before him have said: "Mo' money, mo' problems."

 

[borg]

Report: Roger Goodell made $128 million over past two years

Because the NFL no longer operates as a tax-exempt trade association, the league has no requirement to publicly disclose Commissioner compensation.

profootballtalk.nbcsports.com

Essentially a $2mill /team/year tribute to their Don whose job it is to quietly settle disputes and disperse justice amongst the rank and file soldiers and their regional underbosses in a manner uniquely familiar within Sicilian-influenced entities, all while legally extorting fans and corporate America who fund this 11 figure operation.

Would love to know the size, budget, and scope of Park Avenue's security/investigative branch.
The ghost of J. Edgar Hoover wishes he had such power.

 

[203Pat]

Essentially a $2mill /team/year tribute to their Don whose job it is to quietly settle disputes and disperse justice amongst the rank and file soldiers and their regional underbosses in a manner uniquely familiar within Sicilian-influenced entities, all while legally extorting fans and corporate America who fund this 11 figure operation.

Would love to know the size, budget, and scope of Park Avenue's security/investigative branch.
The ghost of J. Edgar Hoover wishes he had such power.

Which is why I always scoff at the notion that us fans should be grateful to the organization for the last 20 years. It's a business.

 

[Bill Lee]

I can't even imagine the things these guys have said in the last 10 years worth of emails in the WFT investigation. There would be no one left if those ever leaked.

We can already tell the owners feel entitled and invulnerable, and those feelings clearly go down a few levels deeper into the management hierarchy to POSes such as Bruce Allen and the rest of the all-boys club that is WFT management.

Clearly NFL owners and senior management would not feel the need to understand why it's not a good idea to be so unguarded in electronic communications.

NFL has already defied one judge by not releasing financial records in the STL case.

Let's see what happens now that Congress has requested the WFT material.

Which is why I always scoff at the notion that us fans should be grateful to the organization for the last 20 years. It's a business.

In particular, Goodell didn't do any of the heavy lifting that has made the NFL what it is, yet he gets rewarded as if he does.

Rozelle is the one who set up the labor and media structures that has generated decades of steady strong cash flow while keeping so many pro-ownership aspects such as contracts that can get cancelled at will.

Imagine if the league actually had to pay every dollar that's in the contract? Well, that's what MLB and NBA does.

At best all Goodell has done is not killed the goose that lays the golden eggs, although he's given it a good thrashing from time to time.

 

[NashuaPats]

Report: Roger Goodell made $128 million over past two years

Because the NFL no longer operates as a tax-exempt trade association, the league has no requirement to publicly disclose Commissioner compensation.

profootballtalk.nbcsports.com

 

[Bill Lee]

It's a business.

I listened to both of Andrew Brandt's recent podcasts on the WFT situation this week (one with lawyers of the accusers, the other with two of the accusers themselves) and at the end of the second one of the accusers said that if we really hate how the NFL operates we need to hit it where it hurts, in the pocket book. Stop buying tickets, stop paying for parking and concessions, stop buying merch, stop watching games to stop or at least reduce the TV revenue flowing.

It hurts to be with my reaction to this for a while then realize that this is just too much to ask of myself, even though it's so clear that NFL is a mafia. I am too in to the NFL to just give it up. I can find countless rationalizations to support why this is so, but it doesn't change the bottom line.

I lost a big chunk of fandom via Deflategate, and now these events are taking away another chunk. I am losing a lot of fandom due to the way even established media figures who know better have gone into troll mode, some part time, some full time. Maybe with time it'll push me over the edge and I'll just realize it is all a poor use of my time and my emotional bandwidth, but I'm not there yet.

It's a rationalization to say I'm really not giving the NFL much if any money. I watch games over the air. I don't buy merch. I record games to DVR and skip commercials. Yet of course the DVR sends its telemetry into the big media machine so my NFL fandom is being tracked. I download podcasts and that too gets recorded. If you aren't paying you are not the customer, you are the product.

I'd like to say I'm taking a stand and walking away, but I'm not there yet. I'm pretty confident there will be a point where the NFL just takes their greed and/or arrogance a step too far and/or the media just totally sours the experience for me. It feels inevitable that a tipping point is coming.

 

[Hyped]

Sixty-four million a year for that buffoon........

 

[BTTA]

Can't say "none of us". I don't want 1B$. FOr me : the problems that ensue aren't worth the cash considerations.

I can hook you up with some nonprofits doing amazing work to improve the world and people's lives. All you have to do is say "yes" to the money, and then hand it off to them.

Still going to say no thanks?

 

[VrabelJr]

NFL owners are an unnecessary evil in pro sports. I hope they all go broke. A favorite memory of mine is when the city of San Diego told the Chargers owner to pound sand over asking for hundreds of millions of dollars, several times. As much as I love football it is not a necessity and these turds should never see a cent of public money. Good on the city of St Louis. These modern day aristocrats talk non stop about how their teams bring jobs and revenue (mostly low quality jobs) so it’s a double edged sword: if you yank your team you should owe the city.

 

[Bill Lee]

I can hook you up with some nonprofits doing amazing work to improve the world and people's lives. All you have to do is say "yes" to the money, and then hand it off to them.

Still going to say no thanks?

I'm still going with "mo money mo problems". Acquiring that $1B came with problems. It's hard to accumulate that sum and stay anonymous. Once you aren't anonymous, the issue becomes dealing with all the different hands that want some of it. It's no where near as simple as you suggest, IMO. Chances are you'd spend a lot of time second guessing that decision to pick that one charity, not keeping some/all for yourself, etc. Humans are wired to be nervous second guessers. Better to just deal with life as you know it.

Paul Allen's sister just watched her brother die, then got handed one of the largest estates ever that presumably she did little to nothing to earn. I bet she'd say she's got plenty of problems. Better problems than her brother knowing he was going to die of cancer, but problems none the less.

 

[203Pat]

We can already tell the owners feel entitled and invulnerable, and those feelings clearly go down a few levels deeper into the management hierarchy to POSes such as Bruce Allen and the rest of the all-boys club that is WFT management.

Clearly NFL owners and senior management would not feel the need to understand why it's not a good idea to be so unguarded in electronic communications.

NFL has already defied one judge by not releasing financial records in the STL case.

Let's see what happens now that Congress has requested the WFT material.


In particular, Goodell didn't do any of the heavy lifting that has made the NFL what it is, yet he gets rewarded as if he does.

Rozelle is the one who set up the labor and media structures that has generated decades of steady strong cash flow while keeping so many pro-ownership aspects such as contracts that can get cancelled at will.

Imagine if the league actually had to pay every dollar that's in the contract? Well, that's what MLB and NBA does.

At best all Goodell has done is not killed the goose that lays the golden eggs, although he's given it a good thrashing from time to time.

Yep. There was a thread I saw on Twitter the other day that was a fake Dan Snyder account who clearly seemed to have some long term inside knowledge about things Snyder has done over his tenure in Washington. It was a long string of tweets along the timeline of his ownership and all the scummy things he has done. It touches on how he got rich in the first place, the way he treated even high level employees, and how he just flat out ignored city laws and regulations. Snyder is someone who has gone through life doing whatever he wants and has never paid any consequences. I have absolutely 0.0% doubt he has dozens of emails as bad or worse than Gruden's.


I also completely agree on Goodell. He is paid like he is some innovator and maverick who is the reason why all these owner's teams are worth 5x what they paid for them when in fact he is just along for the ride. Like you said, Rozelle was the was the one who laid the groundwork that has become the cash cows with the relatively cheap (compared to the the contracts in the other major sports) labor deals and the media contracts. Taglibue also did far more than Goodell ever has and was a big part of the explosion of the league in the 90's. He added expansion franchises and planted the seeds for an overseas fanbase with NFL Europe. Jerry Jones is the one who pushed for many of the licensing deals, Kraft is a big part of ending the strike and the old money guys (Mara, Rooney's, Hunt's) basically helped create the league. The owners, for better or worse, are the businessmen who grew the league into what it is and your analogy about all Goodell has to do is not kill the golden goose is dead on. He is a very expensive lighting rod who the 32 could swap out for any other stooge and never miss a beat.

 

[PP2]

I can hook you up with some nonprofits doing amazing work to improve the world and people's lives. All you have to do is say "yes" to the money, and then hand it off to them.

Still going to say no thanks?

That's still completely theoretical. No bank is going to want to be responsible for holding your $1b, and the FDIC only insures up to 250k per bank account so you'd still be at risk. You'd have to spread it out across at least a dozen giant financial institution whose finances will not get messed up handling money of that size, assuming that's what you want to do. Transferring huge sums of money is a special hell of its own, as Bezos's ex is finding out. She has a team of financial managers working full time just managing her assets, and there's absolutely no way for her to know if any of it is being skimmed off. It's a giant time suck any way you put it.

 

[203Pat]

I listened to both of Andrew Brandt's recent podcasts on the WFT situation this week (one with lawyers of the accusers, the other with two of the accusers themselves) and at the end of the second one of the accusers said that if we really hate how the NFL operates we need to hit it where it hurts, in the pocket book. Stop buying tickets, stop paying for parking and concessions, stop buying merch, stop watching games to stop or at least reduce the TV revenue flowing.

It hurts to be with my reaction to this for a while then realize that this is just too much to ask of myself, even though it's so clear that NFL is a mafia. I am too in to the NFL to just give it up. I can find countless rationalizations to support why this is so, but it doesn't change the bottom line.

I lost a big chunk of fandom via Deflategate, and now these events are taking away another chunk. I am losing a lot of fandom due to the way even established media figures who know better have gone into troll mode, some part time, some full time. Maybe with time it'll push me over the edge and I'll just realize it is all a poor use of my time and my emotional bandwidth, but I'm not there yet.

It's a rationalization to say I'm really not giving the NFL much if any money. I watch games over the air. I don't buy merch. I record games to DVR and skip commercials. Yet of course the DVR sends its telemetry into the big media machine so my NFL fandom is being tracked. I download podcasts and that too gets recorded. If you aren't paying you are not the customer, you are the product.

I'd like to say I'm taking a stand and walking away, but I'm not there yet. I'm pretty confident there will be a point where the NFL just takes their greed and/or arrogance a step too far and/or the media just totally sours the experience for me. It feels inevitable that a tipping point is coming.

Great post. I am pretty much in the same boat as you. I don’t think I will give up the NFL anytime soon but what you mentioned about losing chunks of fandom over deflategate and all this WFT crap I am right there with you. Even the adding an extra game, the added playoff teams, the stupid nonsensical rule changes/enhanced enforcements. Crap like that just waters the game down for me and what makes it even worse is it's not to make the game better it's to make more money. I've watched the NFL and the Patriots pretty religiously since I was around 9 or 10 years old but lots of little things chip away at that fandom year after year. Maybe it's just nostalgia but I miss the 90's and early 2000's feel of the league. I miss NFL stadiums looking like stadiums and less like alien spaceships, I miss the fact that one team wore Adidas jerseys while another wore Nike, and I miss the old super bowl logos. It was more mom and pop-ish and less faceless generic corporate shallowness.

 

[Bill Lee]

Great post. I am pretty much in the same boat as you. I don’t think I will give up the NFL anytime soon but what you mentioned about losing chunks of fandom over deflategate and all this WFT crap I am right there with you. Even the adding an extra game, the added playoff teams, the stupid nonsensical rule changes/enhanced enforcements. Crap like that just waters the game down for me and what makes it even worse is it's not to make the game better it's to make more money. I've watched the NFL and the Patriots pretty religiously since I was around 9 or 10 years old but lots of little things chip away at that fandom year after year. Maybe it's just nostalgia but I miss the 90's and early 2000's feel of the league. I miss NFL stadiums looking like stadiums and less like alien spaceships, I miss the fact that one team wore Adidas jerseys while another wore Nike, and I miss the old super bowl logos. It was more mom and pop-ish and less faceless generic corporate shallowness.

Your post was totally excellent, but in particular you stuck the landing.

It just seems each new owner that comes along is more of a grifter than the last.

People like Kroenke, the Pagulas, the Wilfs, Shad Kahn, David Tepper, on and on and on.

Just a bunch of money grubbing grifters, IMO.

 

[reflexblue]

Can't say "none of us". I don't want 1B$. FOr me : the problems that ensue aren't worth the cash considerations.

Well if you had a billion and you still felt this way, you could give us some to ease you're problems

After pondering this further it accurred to me that when the ultra wealthy have problems with money like we see here is because they are so greedy (thats probably one of the reasons they're that wealthy) that they concoct some backroom scheme to make money that would be pocket change to them, that they really don't need. I don't know how much the owners made off moving the team to LA, but at this point they have so much, if they didn't move the team they probably wouldn't even notice it. Its like it almost becomes a game, in that no amount of money is enough.

 

[reflexblue]

Your post was totally excellent, but in particular you stuck the landing.

It just seems each new owner that comes along is more of a grifter than the last.

People like Kroenke, the Pagulas, the Wilfs, Shad Kahn, David Tepper, on and on and on.

Just a bunch of money grubbing grifters, IMO.

I think about this from time to time, that now a days sports is all about making money, especially the NFL. The league will squeeze every last penny out of the fans. From spreading the draft over three evenings, to not allowing anyone to post a clip of a game, to suing bar owners that don't pay up to show the game (at least i remember that happening a few years ago. In baseball there are no longer day games in the playoffs, so the owners can make the biggest profit by having the games in prime time. Its all disgusting to me.

 

[reflexblue]

A question i have is if goodell tried the deflate gate BS on Jerrah, or Kroekie what would they have done. Bendover Bob just went a long with the whole charade, and was humiliated Would those guys have sued the league?

 

[farn]

I can hook you up with some nonprofits doing amazing work to improve the world and people's lives. All you have to do is say "yes" to the money, and then hand it off to them.

Still going to say no thanks?

Sounds atrocious. I prefer my time, a much more valuable asset. I’m prejudiced against non-profits. Most of them are just corrupt and very little of their profits go to a charity. Still pass. Just the thought of needing to hob knob with the pretentious rich folk…

 

[Joker]

My dream is Ratdell goes on vacation in Mexico and one of the drug cartels kidnap him and send his scumbag wife Jane Skinner a ransom demand of 1 billion dollars. She'd never pay it and then we'd finally be rid of this little Lord Fauntleroy goon-becile...until they found his bloated corpse stuck in a 55 gallon drum in the Gulf Of Mexico

 

[reflexblue]

My dream is Ratdell goes on vacation in Mexico and one of the drug cartels kidnap him and send his scumbag wife Jane Skinner a ransom demand of 1 billion dollars. She'd never pay it and then we'd finally be rid of this little Lord Fauntleroy goon-becile...until they found his bloated corpse stuck in a 55 gallon drum in the Gulf Of Mexico

Could we throw in the Kartrashians too?