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Why the NFL Doesn’t Need Los Angeles
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[link widoczny dla zalogowanych] In tribute to the National Football League’s nostalgia-tinged, size-doesn’t-matter, redistributive genius,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], Super Bowl XLV will pit the nation’s 152nd largest metropolitan area against its 22nd largest. Green Bay defeated Chicago yesterday to clinch the National Football Conference; Pittsburgh prevailed against the New York Jets in the AFC Championship.
[link widoczny dla zalogowanych] Think about that. In what other contexts could Pittsburgh and New York – not to mention Green Bay and Chicago! – compete on a level playing field? Certainly not in baseball, America’s supposed pastime. In the unlikely scenario the Pittsburgh Pirates met the New York Yankees in a World Series, the Yankees’ payroll would exceed the Pirates’ payroll by a 6-to-1 margin ($206 million vs. $35 million), reflecting the relative size and economic prowess of their home markets.
But yesterday’s NFL championships were no David-versus-Goliath showdowns. That’s because the NFL, a club of billionaires peddling a game that glamorizes merciless hitting, practices a form of redistributive socialism that would make even European lefties blanche. All NFL teams, regardless of the size of their home markets,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], share national TV revenues equally and operate under the same salary caps. To further promote equality,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], the NFL has last-place teams draft first from the collegiate ranks, with the Super Bowl champions getting the last pick each spring.
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The NFL’s socialistic revenue-sharing arrangement, which treats all franchises alike and thus helps shine an outsized spotlight on communities like Green Bay and Buffalo, is made possible by a half-century-old law that exempts sports leagues from antitrust laws when negotiating their TV contracts. The NFL,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], Congress decided, should be considered a “single entity” rather than a collusion of franchises and their owners, at least when making deals with TV networks.
[link widoczny dla zalogowanych] Count me among the ranks of those long dumbfounded by the irony of professional football – American football! – practicing such socialism. But watching this weekend’s championship games made me realize – and there is plenty of ruminating going on when you hit what seems like the hundredth wireless-carrier commercial of the afternoon – that there may be something more at play here than the NFL’s obsession with parity.
The league is also in the preservation business, exploiting our collective need for shared ancestral traditions, for deeper roots. The NFL is much less concerned about whether a city like Los Angeles, the nation’s second-largest metropolitan area, ever gets back in the game than it is about how to preserve franchises in lesser cities like Buffalo, Cleveland, Pittsburgh and Green Bay. These cities have declined in the real world, but, as an embodiment of certain ideals, they have never been more valuable to the NFL brand.
It's currently unknown whether or not the Bengals will resign their defensive leader and middle linebacker, Dhani Jones,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], before the 2011 season. If they don't sign him,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], it's also unclear who will attempt to fill Jone's very large shoes. Maualuga is physically built to play the middle linebacker position and many believed he'd be Jone's eventual replacement. But what about Muckelroy? Also, the Bengals would need to consider who would take over Maualuga's outside linebacker position. Even though the Michael Johnson played defensive end for most of the 2010 season because of injuries, could he possibly be ready for a starting job? Maybe the best course of action would be to re-sign Dhani Jones for a couple more seasons until the Bengals can find a perfect replacement or ease Maualuga/Muckelroy/M. Johnson/somebody else into their new positions.
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Even though the Bengals defense fell from a top-five ranking in 2009 to a No. 15 overall ranking in 2010 and the linebackers are considered the leaders of the defense, all of the blame can't necessarily rest on their shoulders. A massive amount of injuries on the defensive side of the ball will strongly reflect on the linebackers stats throughout last season. If the defensive line and the secondary is shredded by injuries, any defense would have a hard time competing, especially against some of the best offenses in the NFL. The starting linebackers still led the team in tackles and, even though they're young, they continue to improve.
Since they do it all, the linebackers are a reflection of the defense's stats as a whole. The defense fell out of the top-five and top-10 defenses in the NFL from 2009 to 2010, and while a lot of the blame can be aimed at the fact that there were a massive amount of injuries on the defense,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], some of it can go to the linebackers who definitely have room to improve. Even though Jones led the team in tackles, he wasn't in the top-20 in the NFL and the Bengals defense allowed the third most runs of 20 yards or more in the league throughout the regular season.
Football’s ethos, after all, was shaped by cold,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], broad-shouldered cities like Pittsburgh and Cleveland – cities that loom large in our narrative of shared origins. This isn’t only a question of geography, but also of values. In our elegiac imaginations, America’s fading industrial cities embody a back-to-basics work ethic and a determination to overcome adversity. (It’s no accident that Steeler and Packer jerseys are reliably among the top-selling NFL gear nationwide.)
That’s why fans all across Southern California routinely cram into Packer and Steeler bars, as they did again yesterday, to watch the games. Whether these California-based Steeler and Packer fans have personal links to Western Pennsylvania or Wisconsin or not, they have an aspirational link. It’s about yearning for a shared tradition and a grittier three-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust version of life—not to mention single-digit temperatures in which you can see your own breath. These are spectacles best witnessed from a bar in L.A.,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], of course, but spectacles that nonetheless link us to our past, and to one another.
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Unfortunately,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], the NFL and its players’ union are currently in a stalemate over a new collective bargaining agreement, opening the possibility of a player lockout and strike commencing as early as this spring. This would be a serious blow not only to America’s best-run sports league, but also to the league’s city-preserving egalitarianism. That’s because some union sympathizers are now pressing Congress to further narrow or eliminate – rather than expand – the NFL’s anti-trust exemption. Such a change would bring the days of a nostalgic league that sustains the competitiveness of a place like Green Bay to a swift end. And we’d lose a lot more than a business model.
Dhani Jones was solid as ever, Rivers and Maualuga less so but they’re still young. I really haven’t been impressed with Rivers at all, but it could be worse. Brandon Johnson is very good for a backup, in fact I’d say he’s better than Rivers at this point. Muckelroy looks like he could develop into a very good run stopper, if nothing else.
Semi-off topic but I’m curious how long the hold outs, whether db’s or qb’s, will be this year for all the Bengals draft selections – with the CBA situation and a team where the qb, the top rb, the starting wr’s are all leaving,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], hoping or trying to leave. The qb even threatening retirement.
Personally, I want the team to expose the dysfunction of the ownership for all the world, and the NFL brass, to see so maybe we finally get a chance for a system vs whatever it is we have had for the last twenty years.
I will happily still follow the careers of Carson, Cedric,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], Chad and even TO if the end up somewhere else and do a good job. My guess is that the will.
Dhani’s fine but old and slow. Rey was supposed to be this big hitting psychopath but, more often than not, he seems lost out there. And Rivers doesn’t seem to have that killer instinct. Whether Ward’s hit took it out of him or he never had it to begin with, I don’t know but he look soft. Brandon Johnson should be starting in my opinion and I could see Muckelroy taking over for Dhani before Rey. I’m starting to like the idea of drafting Martez Wilson out of Illinois in the second to bring some vitality and aggression to the corps. Man, I miss Odell Thurman.
The Bengals backup [link widoczny dla zalogowanych], linebackers may be the corps greatest strength. Backup outside linebacker Brandon Johnson has proven invaluable both in special teams and in obvious passing down situations. Roddrick Muckelroy ranked second on the team in special teams tackles and tied for the team lead in forced fumbles. Even on-again-off-again defensive end Michael Johnson spent some time at outside linebacker before he was forced to play defensive end due to injuries on the line. Even though we didn't get to see it in 2010,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], Johnson's freak athletic ability could have a massive impact from the linebacker position in passing situations. All backup linebackers are under contract for the 2011 season except Brandon Johnson.[link widoczny dla zalogowanych],[link widoczny dla zalogowanych],[link widoczny dla zalogowanych],
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