A prophetic warning

I recently finished the Michael McCambridge work 'America's Game', which I can't recommend highly enough, and since I then I've been dipping back into passages here and there because I found it such a joy to take in.

McCambridge concludes the book (published in 2004) by praising the control of the league exhibited by commissioners Bert Bell, Pete Rozelle and Paul Tagliabue in keeping it prosperous and steady, the professional league with the best setup in terms of creating relatively even competition on the field, and sustainable finances off it.

But he ends the book with a prophetic warning note that is particularly telling in the current disagreement between players and owners that seems increasingly likely to threaten the existence of an NFL season this autumn:

'But just as in the days of Pete Rozelle, the ultimate decision is up to the owners of the National Football League franchises. The people who own those thirty-two clubs are inheritors of one of the great enterprises in modern American society. The game has a purpose that goes far beyond business and a meaning that goes far beyond entertainment.

But history, and the fall of Major League Baseball, has shown us that the NFL's status is not a birthright. If pro football falters, it won't be because its players misbehave, or its fans are fickle, or because the networks drive too hard of a bargain. It will be because, in seeking ever greater riches, the owners commit the cardinal sin of taking their eyes off the ball.'

I don't claim to know the inside details of the current fractious state of affairs, but it seems to fundamentally revolve around owners determined to keep more money back from the players and share less of it with fellow owners. In this sense it contrasts the spirit of the old owners, who recognised or could be persuaded of the need to maintain strong competition. This old guard have now largely passed on and are increasingly thin in number, against the new breed of investor in franchises, generally more concerned about bottom line revenues against the success of competition on the field.

As Mike Carlson is repeatedly at pains to point out, it seems utterly reckless to throw away a setup that put the NFL well above the more chaotic and less egalitarian baseball and hockey organisations (both of which have seen more labour related disputes and strikes over recent decades than pro football) for the sake of small percentage differences that would result in the owners lining their pockets.

The fact that Super Bowl XLV was set in the house that Jerry Jones built, representative of an owner keen to dredge additional money from large new corporate stadiums that can provide lavish luxury suites, was won by Green Bay, a non-profit community owned franchise, was not lost amongst many sports writers.