Who would have thought that the NFL would be leading the way?
As a sports law professor I have been a frequent critic of the National Football league and its owners – their insatiable greed, their lack of concern for the safety of their athletes and their lack of loyalty to fans, allowing franchises to abandon cities that have strongly supported them for decades like St. Louis, Oakland, San Diego (and before that, Cleveland, Baltimore, Houston and St. Louis again).
But as the most popular and valuable sports league in human history marches toward Super Bowl 55, I have to give the league some kudos. The NFL has surprisingly provided some positive guidance for other sports leagues, and perhaps our country at large, in a few important respects.
Player Safety
First, after recklessly ignoring the severe long-term dangers of head injury, and intentionally misleading the players and the public for decades with false statements about concussions, the NFL has finally gotten its act together. By enacting and strictly enforcing rules prohibiting hits to the head and leading with the helmet, which rules have matriculated to college and high school, the League has undoubtedly saved thousands of young men’s lives.
Moreover, by having independent medical personnel determine if a player has experienced a concussion during a game and, if so, precluding that player from returning, the NFL has made a meaningful stride in putting player safety over the temptation of competitive-minded coaches to sacrifice a player’s brain to win a game.
That rule came front and center last weekend when two of the game’s biggest stars, Kansas City’s Patrick Mahomes and Baltimore’s Lamar Jackson, each got hit in the head during critical junctures of their playoff games. Both were visibly shaken and were taken to the locker room for independent evaluation as mandated. As anyone watching on TV suspected, both were diagnosed with concussions and, thus, ruled out of further play. Baltimore, which was losing at the time in a close game, proceeded to lose the game, and Kansas City, which was winning comfortably at the time, barely held on for the victory.
Had this been only a few years earlier, I suspect the coach would have simply “asked” these superstars if they could go back in the game accompanied by the plea that “we really need you.” And the players undoubtedly would have acquiesced, knowing that the culture of this macho game required them to put aside a potential severe brain injury and suck it up for the team. Brett Favre and many others did that dozens of times in their careers.
While I’m still not personally convinced that football can really be played in a safe manner, I applaud the NFL for taking this principled stand and actually “walking the walk” – and making sure to apply this critical safety rule at a time when the temptation to ignore it was at its highest. In the process the League may have prevented these outstanding young athletes from incurring the long-term neurological damage that so many before them encountered after their playing days were done (be it from CTE, ALS, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s or a self-inflicted gun shot to the head) .
Race Relations
Next, there is the touchy subject of race. Few would dispute that we have a major race problem in this country based upon our hellacious past as a nation and a host of lingering issues relating to massive disparities in criminal justice, economic opportunity and education. There are divergent views about the source of these problems and how to best address them which has caused considerable friction.
I believe that the large-scale segregation of whites and blacks in much of this country is a major contributor to the fear, lack of understanding and empathy and distrust that permeates these issues. School desegregation may have been fraught with problems back when it was widely employed in the 60’s and 70’s but it did force black and white kids to interact more frequently, to get to know one another better and even, in some cases, develop good friendships.
One of the best forums for racial interaction and breaking down some of the barriers occurs in sport where the nature of being teammates often promotes understanding and helps develop bonds – striving for a common goal, overcoming obstacles as a group, rooting for each other, and simply spending lots of time together laughing, arguing, and learning about each other’s backgrounds, lives and families.
Pro sports leagues can even improve race attitudes among those who merely support the team since fans often develop a kinship, respect and love for all of their players, whether they are white or black. This is true I suspect even in the most racist parts of the country. For example, there are undoubtedly numerous confederate flag-waving Alabama football fans who have gained at least some appreciation for their beloved team’s black players without whom the Tide would indisputably be a team of also-rans.
The NFL is in the best position of any sports league to lead in enhancing race relations. Not only is it the most visible, popular and successful sports league in the world, but it’s also the only league these days with large concentrations of black and white star players where these important interactions and relationships can routinely take place.
Major League Baseball has since the days of Jackie Robinson, and my favorite Cardinal teams of the 1960’s with Flood, Brock and Gibson, sadly become a league mostly devoid of black players. Only about 7% of current MLB players are black (although there is a significant concentration of Latino players). The NHL has never been a sport with significant black participation given the small concentration of blacks who live in Canada and Northern Europe, the principal sources for talent. The NBA, by contrast, is comprised almost entirely of black players, and those who are not black are mostly European. Indeed, seven teams in the NBA currently do not have a single American -born white player on their roster.
Only in the NFL are their meaningful concentrations of both blacks and white Americans (about a 70-30 split). This mix along with the nature of the game that demands more team unity, chemistry and camaraderie than most sports makes it particularly well suited to improve race relations. And surprisingly the NFL has begun to do its part.
Although initially failing badly on its reaction and treatment of Colin Kaepernick and others protesting against racial injustice by simply taking a knee during the national anthem, the NFL has recently stepped up. It has publicly recognized racial injustice, posted anti-racist slogans in the end zones of its stadiums and permitted players to place placards on their helmet supporting Blacks Lives Matter. It’s a modest effort for sure but it’s nevertheless significant given where the NFL was only a couple of years ago.
Economic Support for the Less Fortunate
A third surprising contribution the NFL has made has been its long-standing effort to improve competition and level the playing field in a way that gives every team in the League a legitimate shot to be successful. In the other major sports leagues large market teams have an enormous advantage over small market teams making it extremely difficult for the latter to compete for a championship. Not true in the NFL.
Take a look, for example, at the 2020 pro sports season. In Major League Baseball, the four semi-finalists were LA, Houston, Atlanta and Tampa Bay – the 2nd, 5th, 9th and 18th largest metropolitan areas, respectively, in the country. In the NBA, the semi-finalists were LA, Miami, Boston and Denver- the 2nd, 7th, 11th and 19th largest metro areas. And in the NHL, the last four standing to compete for the Stanley Cup were New York, Dallas, Tampa Bay and Las Vegas, the 1st, 4th, 18th and 28th largest metro areas. In other words, each of these leagues had at least two of the top ten largest metro areas represented in the final four and only one League (the NHL) had a single team from a city not among the top 20 (Las Vegas).
By contrast, the last four still in contention for this year’s Super Bowl are Tampa Bay (18th), Kansas City (31st), Buffalo (49th) and Green Bay (158th!). Not one of these teams is among the top ten largest cities. Moreover, Buffalo and Green Bay are the two smallest cities with franchises in the NFL and, in fact, the two smallest cities with a franchise in any of the four major U.S. pro sports.
This year is not an aberration. In the last 15 years, only one city not among the top 20 largest metropolitan areas has won a World Series – Kansas City, six years ago. (For those wondering about the Cardinals, the Lou is currently number 20). Only two cities not in the top 20 have won an NBA Championship in the last decade and a half – San Antonio (twice) and Oklahoma City. In the NHL there have similarly only been two cities outside the top 20 that have won the Stanley Cup – Carolina (i.e. Raleigh, N.C.) and Pittsburgh (which did it three times thanks to having the best player in the game at the time, Sidney Crosby).
In the NFL, on the other hand, SEVEN of the last 15 Super Bowl Champions were from cities that were not among the top 20 largest metropolitan areas: Baltimore (21), Pittsburgh (27)(twice), Kansas City (31) Indianapolis (33), New Orleans (45) and Green Bay (158). And unless Tom Brady pulls it out again this year for Tompa Bay, it will be eight out of sixteen (or 50%) after this year. I am pulling for the little guys, Green Bay and Buffalo.
Why has the NFL been able to achieve what the other major pro leagues have not? All of the leagues make an effort to provide some semblance of equal opportunity to its teams. There’s the draft whereby teams with worse records have priority in selecting new players. In addition, all four leagues have placed restrictions on the amount of payroll each team can pay which prevents huge disparities among teams in all sports other than baseball (although the player Unions would say its primary purpose is to keep costs down, prevent bidding wars for players and increase their profits). The NFL and NHL have “hard” salary caps, the NBA has a “soft” salary cap that allows for some exceptions, and MLB has a luxury tax on total salaries over a specified amount that dissuades most teams from exceeding that amount.
But what really separates the NFL from the other leagues is the way it distributes its revenues. The NFL is the only league of the Big 4 where every team gets an equal piece of the enormous television pie – currently worth nearly 10 Billion each year. (And with various network deals due to expire soon, that figure will undoubtedly skyrocket).
That means Green Bay and Buffalo receive the same nearly 200 Million each year in TV revenue as does New York, Chicago and LA, despite the three largest cities in America having exponentially more fans tuned into the game and thus, being far more responsible for the value of the mammoth TV package. While there are other streams of revenues that favor larger franchises – prices for tickets, luxury boxes, stadium naming rights, advertising, and merchandise – the largest stream of revenue is spilt completely equally among all teams.
I find this fascinating. Virtually all the NFL owners are Republicans. Indeed, NFL owners have donated nearly ten times more to Republican candidates than to Democrats in the last few years. Republicans are widely known for their opposition to higher taxes as well as to subsidies (which they often call “hand outs”) to the less fortunate and for decrying costly social programs to the poor which they often criticize as being part of the “socialist” agenda of Democrats.
And yet these conservative NFL owners have decided, when operating their own business, to employ principles that are clearly not “free-market” and can only be described as “socialistic.” They have not only imposed a salary cap on each other, but have ensured that all teams, regardless of their size, success, fan base or contribution to the League’s bottom line, start each year with the same $200 Million.
Is it because they value fairness and equity and want the teams that rise to the top be based on hard work, good drafting and coaching rather than which team simply has the biggest market and most money to spend? Perhaps. Or is it because they have learned that by giving all teams a legitimate chance to compete it improves the overall health of the league and actually serves to benefit them in the long run?
Either way, it has clearly worked. Every single NFL team is widely successful financially, a proposition that none of the other sports can say. Even the least valuable franchise, Buffalo, is worth nearly $1 Billion dollars. Indeed, of the 50 most valuable sports teams in the world, including European soccer, more than half are NFL teams.
I submit that the billionaire owners of the NFL have discovered that by propping up the less financially fortunate teams and providing balance, fairness, equity and yes, even significant subsidies to the “disadvantaged” teams that the overall condition of the League is enhanced and that this accrues to the benefit of all owners. Perhaps there is a lesson in this for the “haves” in society who view paying higher taxes and other efforts to help the underprivileged as unfair and “socialistic.”
Is it possible that if we build others up, especially those at a clear disadvantage, and provide everyone an equal and fair opportunity and a level playing field, we as a society will also benefit in the long run?
