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?
