Sports Illustrated, CBS Sportsline and ESPN must be collaborating to create an uproar in the blogosphere this offseason. It's the only explanation I can offer for these lists that keep popping up. And just to keep you abreast of the situation - the latest load of crap to hit the internet tubes is Michael Silver's list ranking the top owners in the league.
Silver begins his list where any sportswriter would logically begin, given the last 6 years of disgusting success - Robert Kraft, owner of the "untouchable" Patriot dynasty. I gotta give it up for Kraft not only for the post-season success but also his 2007 personnel land-grab - snatching up Randy Moss (for a 4th rounder no less!), Adalius Thomas, Wes Welker, Donte Stallworth, and Kyle Brady. Given this, it's hard not to be a Patriot fan...or something like that...no but seriously, I think we can all say that on paper this bodes pretty well for the team that has won 3 Super Bowls in the last 6 years and gone deep in the playoffs otherwise.
But wait, where does Dan Rooney rank? The answer = A solid #9. The good news he is definitely ahead of William Clay Ford (Lions), Bill Bidwill (Cardinals), Mike Brown (Bengals) and Randy Lerner (Browns). The bad news is the Steelers "frugal spending" is Silver's primary reason for ranking him at 9 and not higher up. I could see where this might come into play, but in my opinion, that's just part of his job. Let's face it, as much as we all love the Steelers, they're not a big market, big spending team (like Daniel Snyders Redskins...#5 owner by the way...yes the guy responsible for Steve Spurrier, Lavar Arrington, Adam Archuleta, and Danny Wuerffel). But what they do well is use their money wisely. Sure, we'd all love to see Alan Faneca and Joey Porter play out their days as Steelers, but if you look at the guys we had/have to sign in the near future, one can understand the need to cut loose some guys who would demand large salaries and are [arguably] past their primes.
As for Silver's other negative reasoning - Larry Zierling and the porn email extravaganza - I think letting Zierling keep his job was fine. Everyone is entitled to his/her mistakes from time to time. Yes, this was quite a mistake and pretty embarrassing for the Steelers, but the good news is he's not getting paid to send emails. So while this is unfortunate, I don't think I would've fired the guy either.
That all said, I can't necessarily justify ranking Rooney much higher than 6 or 7. Still in the top 10, but I do think there have been and will continue to be some things that Rooney will never do and that holds him back (money is definitely a factor). On the flipside, I don't think these two guys deserve to be rated as highly as they were -
#5 - Daniel Snyder, RedskinsPlus, I think Alex Spano of the Chargers got a bit of a raw deal at #24...but that may be just me.
#7 - Bob McNair, Texans
Anybody else want to weigh in?
4 comments:
I don't have time to really get into the list in depth, but if keeping your hometown fans happy is a big part of being a good owner (and I'd argue that it's the biggest), Rooney should be behind only Kraft.
Skins fans hate Snyder, Dolphins fans aren't happy with Huizenga because they always suck, the Texans don't have fans, the Cowboys haven't been happy since the '90s.
Steelers fans are always happy. Being frugal is always so frowned upon, but how many times this offseason have we (and every other Steelers blog) given a rundown of great moves vs. bad moves made by the Steelers? And how many times have the great moves far outweighed the bad ones?
He's a class act and one of the best. This list looks like it was taken from a player's perspective as opposed to a fan's (and perhaps Silver said that, I don't know bc I didn't read it).
It's still a mystery to me why the Steelers are called cheap. When they cut people like Joey Porter, it's to get under tha salary cap, which I'm pretty sure means they spend a lot. All the talk about small and large market teams is irrelevant with the new CBA, since there's a salary floor that's something like 70-80% of the the salary cap.
Snyder hasn't been spending any more money than the Steelers, he's just over-paying for some people while cutting other quality players (see Ryan Clark). The Redskins suck... They've had one winning season since 1999 and one playoff victory in which they gained 120 yards of offense. He may be a good businessman, but he's not good for the team at all.
Everyone, stop saying the Steelers are cheap... maybe they overpay their backups and average starters, but they spend all they can.
Hey man, I hear ya!
Nothing makes me angrier than teams who soak up big names hoping they'll fit their system and produce.
There's few worse moves than just grabbing anyone you can despite individual consideration (see Lavar Arrington, Adam Archuleta, etc.).
My measure of an owner's quality is to ask the question, how often do you go into a season knowing you have no shot at a Superbowl?
With the Browns, Bengals, Cardinals, and a few other teams, it has been depressingly often. With the Steelers it's been pretty rare that I've gone into a season knowing they were going to suck.
Rich D
Post a Comment