The Business of Football

It’s May, there’s been just a couple of OTAs and the Ryan brothers are already talking trash. Will that make beating them with Jimmy Garoppolo at quarterback that much more enjoyable?

Hard to say. I already enjoy seeing the Patriots beat any team coached by Rex Ryan way too much as it is.

Yes, it’s early. Still, hard not to enjoy the vines of Tom Brady throwing a TD pass to Martellus Bennett. The Patriots have the luxury of leaving Gronk, Jules, Danny Amendola, Nate Solder, Sebastian Vollmer, Dion Lewis and LeGarrette Blount on the sideline while they work on the depth chart. Local pigskin pundits and bobbleheads have filled their columns extolling the virtues and upsides of rookies like D.J. Foster and Kamu Grugier-Hill. It’s become an annual challenge to the gridiron cognoscenti to identify the late-round pick or undrafted free agent who will emerge, find a spot on the roster and possibly make a play that wins a Super Bowl.

Speaking of Malcolm Butler, reports have surfaced that his absence at voluntary OTAs is contract-related because of course it is. Butler, who started as an undrafted free agent had zero leverage when he signed his rookie contract, which he has clearly outperformed. No doubt Butler and his agent are simply looking for fair, market-based compensation. Watching the NFL replay of last year’s Patriots-Giants game with Butler virtually shutting down Odell Beckham, Jr. certainly argues for paying the man.

Fair, of course, is an Einsteinian term in that it depends on the point of view of the observer.    

As fans, we want to see New England keep the band together; Butler, Dont’a Hightower and Jamie Collins represent the young core of the Patriots defense. We wanted to keep Chandler Jones, too. Instead we’ll have to hope Jabaal Sheard sticks around, hope Chris Long can return to form as Geneo Grissom and Trey Flowers develop in their sophomore seasons. Which is another reminder that Bill Belichick always has a plan, even if it isn’t the plan we were hoping for.

Butler, Hightower, Collins and Sheard are reminders that we can talk about industrialization, men’s fashion and safety-linebacker hybrids all day but ultimately, work - the business of football - must intrude.

I’m also reminded as I look at that list of names that defense wins championships.

Meanwhile, reports that Tom Brady and Jimmy Garoppolo split first-team snaps in the OTA session that was open to the media remind us that the final Deflategate shoe has yet to drop.

While it’s somewhat reassuring to see consensus on science and Brady’s legacy in the Google Machine, we note that the case is no longer about guilt or innocence. Okay, it was never about guilt or innocence. It’s always been about the CBA, Article 46 and the Commissioner’s power.

Yes, I’m a conspiracy nut. Enthusiast. Anyway, it’s way too easy for me to imagine men in suits in oak-paneled offices looking for some means to put Ray Rice, Greg Hardy and concussions in the rear view while simultaneously restoring the Commissioner’s tyrannical power over the players and their union and realizing Brady was the perfect patsy. He was a Patriot and nobody liked the Patriots and everyone already thought they were cheaters. He’s a superstar, possibly the greatest of all time. That would establish the “nobody’s bigger than the game” subtext. And he’s white. I can see this whole thing starting not with the Colts, but with Goodell.

Except I also think Goodell is an idiot; a spineless, amoral, jellyfish of a man. It’s hard to imagine him forming a coherent thought, let alone putting together a sting operation to take down Tom Brady and the Patriots.

I should never forget that Goodell is the creature and creation of the NFL’s owners.

We also shouldn’t forget the owners are businessmen - wildly successful billionaire businessmen - more than capable of finding a competitive advantage in the ethical margins of the marketplace over the competition (aka “cheating”) in order to win profits. These are the guys who write big checks to presidential candidates who make speeches about how government regulations are killing business. Integrity? Sounds good in the company’s PR materials but integrity only matters when if affects the bottom line. Sometimes it’s cheaper to pay the fine than fix the problem. That’s just good business.

Should we be surprised at the support from the Other 31 for Brady’s four-game ban, at their disregard for facts or fairness? This isn’t about winning fair and square; it’s about winning. Period. The Other 31 aren’t upset by the Patriots cheating. They’re upset the Patriots cheat better than they do.  

This isn’t about the commissioner’s power over the players. It’s about the owner’s power over the players.

The NFL is not really a free market, not with controls like the salary cap and franchise tags. The salary cap isn’t in place to ensure a level playing field; it’s in place to control the cost of labor. I know, it’s hard to muster much sympathy for men being paid millions of dollars but how much would Tom Brady or Aaron Rodgers or [fill in the name of your favorite NFL superstar here] be worth in a truly open marketplace? $50 million? $100 million?

What would that do to ticket prices?

Then again, would you buy an iPhone if it cost $10,000?

Okay, yes; we’re all complicit in the abuses of free market capitalism, even if most of us have little choice in the matter. We also don’t really want to know how Apple treats its workers in order to price its products to sell any more than we want to know the true market valuation of a football player’s brain.

The NFL’s concern for player safety isn’t about compassion; it’s a publicity stunt. $30m sounds like a lot of money to those of us who can’t afford a $10,000 iPhone but for a business with a net worth somewhere around $64b it represents an investment of 0.05%.

5/100ths of 1%.  

Was Robert Kraft’s amicus brief sincere? If so, is it a potential game-changer, not just for Tom Brady, but for the power dynamics of the NFL, it’s owners and players? Granted, it would carry a little more weight if Brady’s absence didn’t hurt Kraft’s brand and bottom line but it’s still important. It speaks to the institutionalized lack of fairness in the current CBA and specifically Article 46. And in this case, it isn’t counsel to the NFLPA making that statement, it’s an owner.