Football is upon us! If you are anything like me, you were kind of ignoring the NFL lockout, pretty much operating on the assumption that a deal would get done in time to have an NFL season. We would lose at most a preseason game or two. No big deal. It seems that assumption has come to fruition as last week a deal was finalized and the free agent frenzy began. It’s always entertaining to see which teams clearly have current season championship aspirations by how aggressive they are in signing expensive and highly-coveted free agents. Committing that much cash and that many years to a lot of these players is such a gamble.
New York Times football writer Judy Battista recently tweeted this:
[oEmbedTweet 91583422098718720]
Her tweet omits a few of the top 10 teams, if you’re interested here is a list of the top 50. The fifth most profitable sports team is Real Madrid, and the seventh is Arsenal (the two top 10 occupants missing from the tweet). Six NFL teams inhabit the top 10, 3 football (soccer) clubs, and the Yankees are the lone MLB franchise. No shock here, it seems the NFL is where the dollars are. I was instantly intrigued when I saw the Washington Redskins at #4.
Many of us like to root against the “evil empires” of the sports world or the deep-pocketed owners who are perceived as attempting to “buy a championship” when they perennially sign the high-priced free agents and expensive head coaches. This stigma is certainly attached to the Yankees and Cowboys.
The Redskins haven’t really been near the top of the NFC East standings for a while now, but shouldn’t they be? How can you justify putting such a bad team on the field year after year when your franchise is one of the most valuable in all of sports?
Haynesworth had the talent of Reggie White but the work ethic of an ex-Denny’s employee.
I think the Albert Haynesworth thing probably set them back 4 to 5 years. We all make mistakes. How could Washington know that Haynesworth had the talent of Reggie White but the work ethic of an ex-Denny’s employee? (I say “ex-” because with that kind of attitude he would clearly be fired from any Denny’s)
Elite NFL teams have two things in common:
- Good coaching
- Top 10 quarterback
If you have one of those pieces but not the other, you can still have some success, and even make the playoffs. If your team is still shopping for both of those items, it’s going to be another long year. For some teams it has been a long decade or more. Thing is, when your franchise is among the most valuable in sports, you don’t really have an excuse.
It continues to be challenging to root for the Redskins each NFL season; my favorite team, the Redskins can only seem to manage minor successes without playoff runs. They are no longer my “favorite” (see Joey for airquotes) team rather my team. However, the Skins did defeat the SuperBowl champ Giants this year. And after that loss, the Giants were reborn and decided to beat everyone. You’re welcome Giants (and also congrats).
I agree. When a team has faulty leadership from the top down it is hard to expect any sustained success. I’ve been a Miami Dolphins fan since the early 80s and since the Cam Cameron/Nick Saban/sign Culpepper instead of Drew Brees debacle it has been miserable to root for them. My wife is from NoVa and is a lifelong Skins fan, so fall/winter Sundays in our home have pretty much sucked for a while now!