Sunday, October 20, 2002
NFL needs to fix Bengals mess
It's time for the National Football League to stop enabling the Bengals. When the league mandated revenue sharing and a salary cap, it wanted all its teams to have an equal chance to win. It didn't mean to hatch the Bengals. But it has.
You can choose to compete in the NFL. Or you can choose to run the Cincinnati club and reap the generous benefits of that competition, without contributing to it.
The NFL offers no great incentive to be great. As an owner whose team plays in a publicly financed stadium, all Mike Brown's bills are paid before the workday begins. Beyond pride and ego, why should he punch the clock?
“If Mike Brown can sell all his luxury boxes and share in the wealth created by the national TV deal and shared revenues from tickets and NFL merchandise, he's in great shape,” said Bruce Johnson.
Johnson, a professor at Centre College, teaches a class in the economics of pro sports. The scariest thing we've heard about the Bengals lately isn't that Corey Dillon might quit or that the team might draft yet another quarterback. It's this, from Johnson:
“(Brown) might conclude that the way to maximize profits in Cincinnati is to field a lousy team.” Yeah. He might. You know, maybe, he already has.
Whether the Bengals win them all or lose them all, they'll still get the same money from the league as everyone else: the same TV money, the same money from NFL Properties and NFL Films, the same 1/32 cut of the visiting gate. It's like Boxcar Willie drinking from Donald Trump's champagne flute.
“In Cincinnati, you're seeing the consequences of the socialist system,” Johnson said. “Why work? You're going to get paid anyway.”
“With 32 franchises, someone is always going to be the laggard,” said Michael Duberstein, the economist for the NFL Players Association. “The question is, how long can one team be the continual laggard?”
How long? Is 12 years enough? When are the other owners going to look at Mike Brown and start screaming? Socialism and freeloading don't have to be the same thing.
You, Jerry Jones: When do you sit across the table from Brown, slam your fist and ask: “Why should I get the same cut from NFL Properties as you, when your fans are wearing Emmitt Smith jerseys?”
You, Dan Snyder: When do you get nose-to-nose with Brown and ask: “Why should you get the same money from gate receipts as I do, when I'm filling an 85,000-seat, privately funded stadium in Washington every week, and you can't sell out 66,000 seats more than a few times a year?”
Bob Kraft, when do you jab a finger in Mike Brown's lapel and ask: “I cared enough about my fans to hire Bill Belichick and pay for a smart scouting department. I won a Super Bowl last year. When do you get on board?”
It's a little like George Steinbrenner's justified resentment at writing revenue-sharing checks to the Montreal Expos. The Bengals haven't just taken their fans and local taxpayers for a ride. They've done it to their partners, too.
Why don't owners go to commissioner Paul Tagliabue and say: “Tags, the guy in Cincinnati isn't holding up his end of the deal. He shares the wealth we've created, without adding to it. Tell him to get his house in order. Tell him to hire a competent general manager and create a professional personnel department that isn't crammed with cronies and relatives. Our league is only as strong as its weakest member.”
The NFL created the current Bengals. It can pressure them to change. Otherwise, there will be more of the same, at least until the six-, eight- and 10-year leases on club seats and luxury boxes begin expiring at Paul Brown Stadium. That's all gravy money for ownership. Those are dollars they don't have to share. If those seatholders decide not to re-up, the Brown family will take a stinging shot in the hip pocket.
But that's more than three years away, at the earliest.
The league needs to step in and say enough. The league legitimized this mess. Now, it needs to clean it up.
E-mail: pdaugherty@enquirer.com
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DAUGHERTY: NFL needs to fix Bengals mess
