February 23, 2004
Football Notes
Pushed by newer owners, the NFL will soon be reconsidering certain details of the master agreement that created league-wide revenue sharing -- the one business decision that folks in the sports business say was the smartest thing late commissioner Pete Rozelle ever did.
As Eric Fisher of the Washington Times explains:
NFL owners next month will vote on the future of the NFL Trust, the master business agreement that maintains that shared national revenue structure. It is unlikely the entire agreement will be scrapped in favor of the more chaotic market-based system prevalent in baseball and particularly hockey. But several owners — including Dan Snyder in Washington, Jerry Jones in Dallas and Al Davis in Oakland — want several key tweaks to the system that will give them more financial control over their own marketplaces.
Consensus among league and industry sources is clear that change in some form is coming.
"There are strong feelings among the owners about this, no question," said Marc Ganis, a Chicago-based sports industry consultant who works frequently with NFL teams. "What is being asked is a fundamental question: Are the owners going to still work together as partners or, in effect, become 32 free agents?"
While I'm always sympathetic to heavily leveraged owners who are looking for new sources of revenue, I have to wonder if these folks might not be killing the goose here. Stay tuned.
Meanwhile, back here on the ground in Washington, news has leaked that the Redskins are talking to the Broncos about swapping All-Pro defensive back Champ Bailey and a second round pick for running back Clinton Portis. Why ask for a second round pick? Because that would allow the Broncos to snag another running back in the draft, perhaps even Maurice Clarret.
On WHFS, one of the Sports Junkies suggested that the price for Portis was too high, and that the Redskins needed to negotiate the pick out of the deal. Further, he also suggested that head coach Joe Gibbs was concentrating too much on the offensive side of the ball, neglecting a defense that couldn't stop anybody last season.
First of all, the Redskins should do everything they can to make this deal happen, even if it costs them another high pick. Portis is one of the few stud running backs in the league, and sacrificing Bailey and a second round pick is a small price to pay for a back who could very well rush for more than 2,000 yards next season.
As for the defense, the potential addition of Portis helps in ways you can't even begin to imagine. Don't doubt that Gibbs plans on pounding Portis for more than 30 carries a game, something that will keep enemy defenses honest, and keep the Redskins defense off the field and fresh.
The problem with the Redskins defense wasn't personnel, it was the fact that the offense couldn't score, and couldn't control the ball with any sort of reliability. With Portis, that gets fixed, and you'll find the Redskins defense will be a whole lot fresher in the second half of games than they were last season.
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