February 11, 2016

The Wow Factor: Few could have guessed that the league's return would become so bloody, bitter and, most of all, emblematic of how power in the NFL truly works. From Seth Wickersham and Don Van Natta Jr. at ESPN.

posted by billsaysthis to football at 04:45 PM - 3 comments

Fascinating. I'd love to see pictures of that LA Rams office.

posted by Rock Steady at 05:45 PM on February 11, 2016

Great read. My takeaways from the article:

1. An NFL owner can be around for a quarter-century and still be called part of the "new guard" (Jerrah).

2. The NFL had two bidders on the $90 million Inglewood land: Kroenke and NFL executive Eric Grubman, either for himself or another entity. What a mess! Roger Goodell is a joke.

3. Both stadium proposals being 100% privately financed is a nice exception to absconding with hundreds of millions in public money.

4. The Carson plan included a farmer's market. How did that not cinch the deal?

5. The St. Louis Rams had a league-low valuation of $930 million in 2014. That gives me hope the Jaguars won't eventually be shipped there.

6. NFL owners spend a lot of time at steakhouses.

posted by rcade at 10:09 AM on February 12, 2016

This gives another angle on the true cost to the owners of the Goodell commissionership. While Goodell was distracted and occupied once again grossly mishandling a critical situation (Ray Rice), this process got out of hand and he showed no ability to gain any sort of control over it thereafter.

Once all the filings pursuant to Deflategate and other debacles are over and done with, it would be interesting to run a tally to see how many billions Goodell's presence and management style (or lack thereof) has cost the league, both directly and indirectly. He has a knack for compounding one mess with another; none of them end simply or inexpensively in terms of money, public perception, or prestige.

If the NFL was being run on a cash basis with no payment trails out of a private hangar at LaGuardia Airport, Goodell would have been rolled up in a rug and double bunked with Jimmy Hoffa a long time ago.

I hope Don Shula is getting a piece of the NFL owners' steakhouse action.

posted by beaverboard at 11:02 AM on February 12, 2016

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