If Only The Gridiron Was a Business Football Outsiders
September 13, 2005, 9:44 pm ET Leonard Shapiro gives us a glimpse into how Dan Snyder runs the Redskins. Apparently, having a GM is pretty important; and so is having an owner who doesn't make personnel decisions -- just ask Steve Spurrier. (Bugmenot/free registration required; thanks to reader Ekernas for the pointer.) Comments
13 comments, Last at 15 Sep 2005, 12:58pm If only journalists were capable of correctly using the subjunctive mood. That's the same reason I find "If I Was Invisible" unlistenable, marc. At least this headline isn't the catch phrase of a major hit song. Yechh. Tough crowd! If I were Leonard Shapiro, I would have used a different headline. /piling on to defend Shapiro's grammar--very seldom does the author of a newspaper article get to write the headline but more importantly, what was the point of this piece? Hasn't the exact same story been written several hundred times over the last few years? I kept reading, assuming there'd be some new slant "While his bottom line of a league-best $300 million in revenues last year may be the envy of his 31 owner colleagues, the true bottom line has been a 34-46 record since he was approved to own the franchise before the 2000 season." No, the bottom line is the $300 million. Football is a business, and The Danny knows that. He's been a ragingly successful owner, despite fielding a crap team. The proof is in the zillions. He's a failure from a fan perspective, not from an owner's perspective. The question is whether the performance on the field will ever have an impact on revenues. The answer clearly is no. "At the moment, this is not a championship football team, let alone a winning football team." Um....didn't old Lenny get that sentence backwards? Why aren't the skins ticket sales affected by their performance? Every other team in the league has trouble selling out when they're team is sucking, but not the stupid Redskins. My Redskin fan friends are always full of the same misguided optimism no matter what. I don't get it. Granted, they haven't had to live through a 4-12 season in a while. Maybe that's the difference. Why arenâ€t the skins ticket sales affected by their performance? It helps that 'Skins tix are lobbyist candy. "Every other team in the league has trouble selling out when theyâ€re team is sucking, but not the stupid Redskins." The Packers have been sold out for decades, even when they had a stretch of sheer awfulness that lasted for like 20 years. The Bears are constant sellouts and their last two winning seasons were four and ten years ago. I am not a Snyder fan - far from it. But he pours money into the team: facilities, legions of coaches making above scale, sending his private plane to pick up FAs, willingly spending on FA salaries/bonuses, etc. He does try to squeeze every penny of revenue out of the team, which is arguably good business (at least in the short-term) although sometimes he does things that stir up even the inalienable beast of Redskins followers. But maximizing revenue is not the same as maximizing profit. If Snyder were only interested in the latter, he would not exhibit all the behaviors described in my 1st paragraph. Snyder's failing is that he really wants to win but seemingly has no clue how to check his ego and find the right people to spend his money on the right players. November 8, 1:26pm ET DVOA Ratings
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