Mike Freeman’s 10-Point Stance: In the NFL, Bad Owners Make for Bad Franchises

Some NFL owners are biggest reason their teams stink, lots of “Snacks,” and will African-American coaches get shut out?  

   

1. Trickle-Down Intelligence, or Lack Of It, Plagues the NFL

In San Francisco, 49ers owner Jed York, after firing his third coach in three years, was asked at a news conference whether he was competent enough to make the decisions on the next general manager and coaching hires. It was a brutal question, but a needed and fair one.

York said it didn’t matter what his response was because it wouldn’t satisfy the questioner. He was right. After firing Jim Harbaugh, the 49ers have made lots of cash off the field, but on it, they’ve been a swirling pool of poo. The biggest reason for that is York.

In Buffalo, general manager Doug Whaley told reporters he had no input in the firing of Rex Ryan, and didn’t know why Ryan was fired.

The owner of the Bills, Terry Pegula, later contacted John Wawrow of the Associated Press to say the Bills were not in disarray even though Whaley didn’t know what was happening with Ryan. When an owner has to say the franchise isn’t in disarray, it usually is.

In L.A., Rams ownership gave Jeff Fisher an extension before firing him a week later.

And in San Diego (for now), the Chargers maintained their aura of cluelessness, firing Mike McCoy a year after they almost fired him but instead fired a handful of his assistants.

On and on the circus goes.

If you want to know why the dregs of the league stay the dregs of the league, look no further than the owners of the teams. Not the coaches. Not the general managers. The owners.

Consider this from The MMQB’s Albert Breer: There have been 45 coaching changes over the past six years, and 25 of the NFL’s 32 teams have accounted for those changes.

The seven not on that list—the Bengals, Packers, Patriots, Ravens, Saints, Seahawks and Steelers—all have something in common: good, stable ownership. Yes, that includes the Bengals and Saints, too.

Ownership is the biggest reason why teams struggle or remain competitive; whether a decision is made rashly or not, smartly or not. A good owner, like New England’s Robert Kraft, can help create a decades-long tradition of winning. Someone like York can potentially do the opposite.

But owners seem to evade criticism because they aren’t as visible. It’s much easier (and I’m guilty of this) to point the finger at coaches, whose decisions are more immediately tangible. Ownership decisions play out over time, but they are no less impactful and carry greater import for a club’s long-term health. 

Though York didn’t answer whether he could make the right decision for the Niners moving forward, I give him credit for facing the heat. Where are some of the other owners from these perennial losers?

Good owners know when to make changes but, perhaps more important, when not to.

Years ago, the Giants were under mounting public pressure to fire Tom Coughlin, and last summer, they heard calls to fire general manager Jerry Reese. They held firm in both cases, and saw Coughlin lead them to two Super Bowls and watched Reese’s moves transform their defense this season into a unit no team wants to play.

Critics of Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin have occasionally chimed in about their desire to see him gone, but Pittsburgh’s ownership kept him, and here the Steelers are again, back in the postseason, with a good shot to reach the AFC championship game. The Steelers have had three coaches in the last 45 years and six Super Bowl wins. That’s smart ownership.

But the bulk of the league doesn’t have a Rooney or a Mara or a Kraft in the owner’s office. Does that mean they are doomed for eternity?

When you speak to coaches and executives in football about NFL owners, they all say the same thing: Bad owners become good owners by changing their methods, and good owners become Hall of Famers by expanding their already successful ways.

But these coaches and execs look at the ways some owners have handled recent coaching changes and don’t think they’ve learned or adapted.

There is a sense that in San Francisco and Buffalo in particular, ownership will make the same errors they’ve made before. York is not highly …

continue reading in source www.bleacherreport.com