2010/11 NFL Owners and Their Responsibilities to Their Fans...

The National Football League has a very different form of ownership compared to other sports around the world. Mainly the sports teams (excluding the Green Bay Packers) do not belong to the city, they belong to the family. The family decides what is best for the franchise, whether that be who holds what position within it, or where the team resides.

In 1933, Art Rooney Sr bought the Pittsburgh Steelers for $2,500. For decades following this the Steelers went nowhere, that is until Dan Rooney hired Chuck Noll, and the SuperBowl trophies flowed. From 1972-2000, the Pittsburgh Steelers won the AFC Central Division championship fourteen times, the AFC championship five times, and won the Super Bowl four times. Since then they've added two more Superbowls to that list. 

In September of 1968 Paul Brown formed the Cincinnati Bengals, and in eight seasons he lead the Bengals to three playoff berths, as President he would oversee two Superbowl trips. In 1991 Paul Brown passed away and in doing so the era of Mike brown began. To cut a long story short, under Mike Brown the Bengals have made two playoff appearances in 20 years, setting numerous records for futility along the way, you name it the Bengals sucked at it!

Which brings us to today.

The Carolina Panthers (2-13) have secured a very rare victory, winning the 1st overall draft pick in the 2011 NFL Draft. A lot of the blame has been placed upon owner Jerry Richardson, and rightly so. The positive i see in this situation is the way Richardson has addressed it, expressing a real desire for change and a willingness to do whatever he can to create a winning team, in a letter to Panthers Permanent Seat License holders he said; "I want all of  you to know that we plan to look at every aspect of our organization. What we do in the future will entirely be geared toward putting the best possible team on the field. I am committed to fielding a winning team, and I'm willing to invest the resources necessary to make it happen." Reason for hope in Carolina? Yes. But is it a long term fix? No.

The Cincinnati Bengals (4-11) are team that had so much promise coming into this season, whether you bought into the hype or not, it was there, causing several pundits including Pat Kirwan of NFL.com to name them their superbowl pick, how then has this team become something so unashamedly awful? Despite having a large number of critics the 'locker room cancer' Terrell Owens may have had it on the money, "I think there's underachieving from the top down," Owens said. "You start with the owner, you start with the coaches. And obviously we as players, we are a product of what the coaches are coaching us throughout the course of the week." With more Browns lined up to carry on the forlorn franchise, can fan expect change? Probably not. Do they deserve it? Yes.

Every fan chooses to support a franchise for whatever reason, whether it be by birthplace, family ties or by some other reason. One might suggest that if you don't like the product, stop watching. What is strange to me is that fans do keep going back week after week to root for a team whose Owner is completely bereft of any knowledge in how to run a successful team, and has no intention of changing that? For Example, does Mike Brown not owe it to the city to make some serious changes in Cincinnati? After having the taxpayers of Hamilton County controversially pay for his new stadium, and as applies to many other teams, having fans fill out his stadium week in week out despite the losing record, buying his merchandise and his season tickets, does he not owe it to the city to make some changes? Or will things continue like this until fans become so disgruntled that he moves his team to another city where they will cheer initially before things go a similar way? How can one stop this sort of thing happening?

An NFL franchise like the San Fransisco 49ers, has a rich history and tapestry that it is an important institution to the city of San Francisco, why then does it have to come down to Jed York's hand whether or not the franchise succeeds? A man with no qualifications to do the job.

The main culprit is the NFL ownership rules which requires no more than 32 owners of one team, with one owner having to hold 30% of it. Why is this the case? The Green Bay Packers who operate outside of this rule are arguably one of the leagues most treasured franchises, with what are frequently called the best fans in the league, a rich history and a promising future ahead, why then is this style of ownership not seen as productive to the league?

If things remain the way they are, fans will rely on whether or not their owner has the good judgement to do the right thing for the franchise, because for every Dan Rooney, there is a Mike Brown.

I may be speaking with fan-sized knowledge of the finer points of NFL financing and league policy regarding ownership, but there is a single point where i feel, as a fan i have the right to make. If someone is putting a percentage of their income into your team, through merchandise purchases, buying tickets, time, and loyalty and in some examples stadium funding do you as an owner not owe it to them to run your business in a manner that fans expect of it?

If the NFL wants teams to build themselves a rich and respectable history in the city which they are located, and move away from the city-hopping fickleness of the past, some serious changes need to be made in order to create a greater number of credible, respectable and culturally important franchises.

How badly run does an NFL franchise have to be before it becomes a concern to the NFL head office? How badly exploited, ripped off and let down to fans have to be?