A Closer Look
Date: 2/2/2022 – Deuces Wild!!
🏈This month’s topic: the NFL, its owners, and its ways 🏈
So, it finally happened. Just yesterday, as NFL football fans began digesting the results of the playoffs, we ran into some serious image headwinds for the league and its owners.
The “Circus”
Brian Flores, the former head coach of the Miami Dolphins (via Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots organization), has filed a class action lawsuit against the league and three of its teams. This ranges everything from bribery (see Stephen Ross, the Dolphins’ team owner) to interview sabotage (against John Elway & Co. with the Denver Broncos).
What else?
It also includes a “preemptive filling of a head coach position” he hadn’t yet interviewed for (with the New York Giants) that was discovered by virtue of a botched congratulatory text intended for a different Brian (new NYG head coach, Brian Daboll, from the Buffalo Bills)! We couldn’t write a fable for television as intriguing as this is already turning out to be.
What does this all add up to?
As I’ve been told by elders during my childhood while playing ball and breaking a few windows, it’s not good … at all. We are talking about a league that is extremely image-conscious, has certain “rules” in place that are clearly ignored, and is run by owners who tend to pay attention only to issues that which will enrich them further as opposed to addressing difficult topics that would make things better for everyone in the long run.
The real problem
Call it what you’d like, but I’m going to say what I’ve always said, and that is there is very little “willingness to change” the way the NFL (and its teams) operate today. Sure, there is a “Rooney Rule” in place, and the majority of the league’s players and starters are Black. However, there is but one (1) head coach (Mike Tomlin) who reflects the number (and type?) of players who are the helm of the sport and league’s success currently.
I ask you to look away from the NFL for a moment and towards the National Hockey League (NHL). Ask yourself: what would it seem like if the supermajority of players were coached and owned by some other (i.e., non-White) group of people? Would anyone notice or would nearly everyone notice? That, my friends, is the real problem. The issues stemming from this area are byproducts of the real problem.
Find a solution
Now that the proverbial “cat is (entirely) out of the bag,” we should ask ourselves the hardest questions of all: What is to be done about this? How and who should be compensated for their loss(es), and what will it take to move forward from this and ensure that real change is implemented, and we never see this happen again?
Any ideas?
See you next month (after most of you guys thaw out!)
-A.N.
Profile
Anthony Newcombe is a 4-time entrepreneur, author, and narrator. He can be reached for appearances through our Contact Page.