SI: Ranking the NFL Owners
Evaluating and ranking all the NFL owners from 1-32
The Dallas Cowboys' team charter had begun its initial descent, and Bill Parcells settled into his first-class seat and prepared for an uneventful touchdown. The Cowboys had a road game against the New England Patriots the following day, and Parcells, one of the NFL's biggest control freaks, had mapped out a specific itinerary for his players.
But on this mid-November evening in 2003, the Dallas coach still didn't realize where the plane was about to land. Because the team was staying in Providence, R.I., Parcells assumed the Cowboys would be arriving in that city and taking a short bus ride to their hotel. There was just one catch: That night the families of Dallas owner Jerry Jones and Patriots owner Robert Kraft were scheduled to dine together -- in Boston. Rather than drive there from Providence, Jones had chosen to have the plane land at Logan Airport, where several buses were waiting to transport Parcells, his players and the rest of the team's traveling party 60 miles to the south.
The stunned Parcells undoubtedly simmered during his hour-long bus trip to Rhode Island, especially given the fact that he had a contentious relationship with Kraft dating back to his stint as the Pats' coach from 1993-96. Picturing the two families enjoying an upscale dinner probably made the coach want to hurl.
Yet Parcells never said a peep to his boss. As a man who'd spent more than a quarter-century working in the NFL, he knew a good deal when he saw one. Bizarre as it sounds, even in the world's most prosperous professional sports league, a good owner is hard to find.
With so much money at stake, and so many big egos involved, you'd think there'd be good owners in every NFL city, or close to it. The truth is much more depressing than that, though the football fans of Dallas and New England certainly have reason to smile. So, in honor of Parcells' long bus ride, here are our first NFL owner rankings, with many factors considered, but the biggest of all being this: If you're a fan of the team in question, how happy should you be about the person or people running the show?
Top Shelf
1. Robert Kraft, Patriots; 2. Jerry Jones, Cowboys.
Kraft and Jones have many similarities. Each has parlayed controversial coaching hires into three Super Bowl rings. Both men have smart, forward-thinking eldest sons who play major roles in running the team and wield influence within the NFL -- Patriots president Jonathan Kraft was instrumental in forging the revenue-pool compromise that led to labor peace last March, and Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones has spearheaded the team's drive toward a new stadium. And best of all, both owners care deeply about two things: Making money and winning, not necessarily in that order.
A long-suffering season-ticket holder before he bought the team, Kraft still cares deeply about the fan experience, and he and his son have created a successful business model that allows the Patriots to thrive without over-spending on marquee free agents. Jones, upon entering the league in 1989, became an entrepreneurial upstart in a league of sluggish old-liners enjoying the fruits of de facto communism. His successful efforts to increase the Cowboys' revenue have been exemplary and often emulated, and he has been willing to pour a significant portion of his profits back into the franchise in search of on-field excellence.
Next in Line
3. Dan Snyder, Redskins; 4. Wayne Huizenga, Dolphins; 5. Jeffrey Lurie, Eagles; 6. Jerry Richardson, Panthers; 7. Bob McNair, Texans; 8. Malcolm, Bryan, Joel and Ed Glazer, Buccaneers; 9. Pat Bowlen, Broncos.
I can't believe I'm ranking Snyder this high, and a lot of people I know around the league are going to brutalize me for doing so, but right now Dan is The Man in two big ways: He has turned the franchise he loves into a money-making machine, and his willingness to spend that money in pursuit of victory is second to none. Plus, since his hiring of Joe Gibbs as coach, he has begun to learn to get out of the way on the football side.
Huizenga is a shrewd businessman and big spender who deserves a title in something other than baseball one of these years.
Lurie hires good people -- particularly team president Joe Banner -- and, though I don't always agree with it, sticks to a system when it comes to player-valuation.
Richardson runs his smaller-market team like it's one of the big boys, and as a former player he understands the game on every level. He wants to win, badly, and has been doing so as of late.
McNair has deep pockets and a horseman's flair for high-stakes gambles. His moves haven't paid off yet, but he is hell-bent on bringing Houston a winner.
Many Brits would like to do to the Glazers what former Manchester United star David Beckham does to soccer balls, and Malcolm and his sons have done some truly annoying things on U.S. soil, like their embarrassing, last-second spurning of Marvin Lewis four years ago. But overall, they've turned a dead NFL market into a flourishing enterprise, with a solid stadium situation (pirate ship and all), one of the league's highest-revenue operations and a habitually competitive team.
Bowlen has his quirks, and he gets hammered in Denver for his undying allegiance to Mike Shanahan, but it's tough to argue with success: Shanahan has won two Super Bowls and continues to field a competitive team, the Broncos play in a sparkling new stadium, and executive VP Joe Ellis does a good job on the business side.
The Dallas Cowboys' team charter had begun its initial descent, and Bill Parcells settled into his first-class seat and prepared for an uneventful touchdown. The Cowboys had a road game against the New England Patriots the following day, and Parcells, one of the NFL's biggest control freaks, had mapped out a specific itinerary for his players.
But on this mid-November evening in 2003, the Dallas coach still didn't realize where the plane was about to land. Because the team was staying in Providence, R.I., Parcells assumed the Cowboys would be arriving in that city and taking a short bus ride to their hotel. There was just one catch: That night the families of Dallas owner Jerry Jones and Patriots owner Robert Kraft were scheduled to dine together -- in Boston. Rather than drive there from Providence, Jones had chosen to have the plane land at Logan Airport, where several buses were waiting to transport Parcells, his players and the rest of the team's traveling party 60 miles to the south.
The stunned Parcells undoubtedly simmered during his hour-long bus trip to Rhode Island, especially given the fact that he had a contentious relationship with Kraft dating back to his stint as the Pats' coach from 1993-96. Picturing the two families enjoying an upscale dinner probably made the coach want to hurl.
Yet Parcells never said a peep to his boss. As a man who'd spent more than a quarter-century working in the NFL, he knew a good deal when he saw one. Bizarre as it sounds, even in the world's most prosperous professional sports league, a good owner is hard to find.
With so much money at stake, and so many big egos involved, you'd think there'd be good owners in every NFL city, or close to it. The truth is much more depressing than that, though the football fans of Dallas and New England certainly have reason to smile. So, in honor of Parcells' long bus ride, here are our first NFL owner rankings, with many factors considered, but the biggest of all being this: If you're a fan of the team in question, how happy should you be about the person or people running the show?
Top Shelf
1. Robert Kraft, Patriots; 2. Jerry Jones, Cowboys.
Kraft and Jones have many similarities. Each has parlayed controversial coaching hires into three Super Bowl rings. Both men have smart, forward-thinking eldest sons who play major roles in running the team and wield influence within the NFL -- Patriots president Jonathan Kraft was instrumental in forging the revenue-pool compromise that led to labor peace last March, and Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones has spearheaded the team's drive toward a new stadium. And best of all, both owners care deeply about two things: Making money and winning, not necessarily in that order.
A long-suffering season-ticket holder before he bought the team, Kraft still cares deeply about the fan experience, and he and his son have created a successful business model that allows the Patriots to thrive without over-spending on marquee free agents. Jones, upon entering the league in 1989, became an entrepreneurial upstart in a league of sluggish old-liners enjoying the fruits of de facto communism. His successful efforts to increase the Cowboys' revenue have been exemplary and often emulated, and he has been willing to pour a significant portion of his profits back into the franchise in search of on-field excellence.
Next in Line
3. Dan Snyder, Redskins; 4. Wayne Huizenga, Dolphins; 5. Jeffrey Lurie, Eagles; 6. Jerry Richardson, Panthers; 7. Bob McNair, Texans; 8. Malcolm, Bryan, Joel and Ed Glazer, Buccaneers; 9. Pat Bowlen, Broncos.
I can't believe I'm ranking Snyder this high, and a lot of people I know around the league are going to brutalize me for doing so, but right now Dan is The Man in two big ways: He has turned the franchise he loves into a money-making machine, and his willingness to spend that money in pursuit of victory is second to none. Plus, since his hiring of Joe Gibbs as coach, he has begun to learn to get out of the way on the football side.
Huizenga is a shrewd businessman and big spender who deserves a title in something other than baseball one of these years.
Lurie hires good people -- particularly team president Joe Banner -- and, though I don't always agree with it, sticks to a system when it comes to player-valuation.
Richardson runs his smaller-market team like it's one of the big boys, and as a former player he understands the game on every level. He wants to win, badly, and has been doing so as of late.
McNair has deep pockets and a horseman's flair for high-stakes gambles. His moves haven't paid off yet, but he is hell-bent on bringing Houston a winner.
Many Brits would like to do to the Glazers what former Manchester United star David Beckham does to soccer balls, and Malcolm and his sons have done some truly annoying things on U.S. soil, like their embarrassing, last-second spurning of Marvin Lewis four years ago. But overall, they've turned a dead NFL market into a flourishing enterprise, with a solid stadium situation (pirate ship and all), one of the league's highest-revenue operations and a habitually competitive team.
Bowlen has his quirks, and he gets hammered in Denver for his undying allegiance to Mike Shanahan, but it's tough to argue with success: Shanahan has won two Super Bowls and continues to field a competitive team, the Broncos play in a sparkling new stadium, and executive VP Joe Ellis does a good job on the business side.
posted by The Gryphon at 6:21 PM
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