"protecting the brand"

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2574163-book-excerpt-daniel-snyder-and-the-unreal-power-of-nfl-owners?utm_source=cnn.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=editorial

“….see link….The NFL owners are an interesting group. There are a handful of high-profile owners, but most stay in the background. Ownership meetings are among the most secretive aspects of professional football. Some owners (and management personnel, including general managers) are genuinely decent people who want the best for their players. Some other owners see their teams simply as ATM machines, and the players as interchangeable parts. They don’t see the players as true partners. If they did, they would care more about them, and definitely not say what the owner of the Texans said to GQ magazine in early 2015.

In the story, Texans owner Bob McNair was quoted as being dismissive of the NFL’s concussion crisis, saying, unbelievably, that most head trauma of NFL players didn’t happen in professional football.

Wrote Gabriel Sherman:

By the summer of 2013, [Roger] Goodell was determined to put Bountygate and the broader concussion issue behind him. He held a series of meetings with team owners in New York and persuaded them to settle the class-action lawsuit brought by more than 5,000 players who were seeking financial payouts for concussion-related conditions such as Alzheimer’s, dementia, and depression. Goodell argued that while the league could fight in court and likely prevail, the litigation would be a festering wound on the league’s image.

“It was about protecting the brand,” recalled Bob McNair, who attended the sessions. “Do we want the brand attacked on this for the next 10 years? Or do we want to go ahead and take the high road? In effect, we don’t think most of these concussions referenced even occurred in the NFL, but we’re not going to complain about it.”

It wasn’t about protecting the players; it was about protecting the brand. McNair might as well have called the players cattle.

Indianapolis Colts vice chair and co-owner Carlie Irsay-Gordon, who is 34 years old, didn’t do much to dispel the stereotype of owner as out-of-touch millionaire. Talking to Cindi Leive for Glamour magazine in January 2015 about her confidence in the Colts, this was how she responded:

You don’t ever want to become one of those doubters. … These [late-season] games can be really, really rough because everyone’s tired. You’ll see the strains. A lot of it is just fatigue-related…[and] they don’t take care [of themselves]. A lot of these guys are younger and they’re less educated and…you’d be amazed at what some of them eat. … Some of them, all they eat is McDonald’s.

And they’re less educated.

On concussions:

At the end of the day I think [these athletes] are adults and they’re getting paid large sums of money. … A lot of these guys that are claiming they’re having these concussion issues, they have alcohol or drug problems that are just going to compound it. … There’s no secret there are risks associated with this game.

One of the more interesting aspects of covering ownership is the perception of owners by fans and even many in the media that the owners are pseudo-gods—men of industry, world conquerors—when in fact they are ordinary, flawed human beings like the rest of us. Their blemishes are hidden by money and power. Perhaps most interestingly, in some cases, the reins of a franchise are simply handed to a son after a father passes. Some of them, like John Mara, son of the late Wellington Mara, who ran the Giants for decades, work hard (and intelligently) to make the franchise better. They have the drive and smarts to do it.

They also do not flaunt their privilege. Late in 2014, a sixth-grader named Cade Pope, who is from Yukon, Oklahoma, wrote all 32 NFL owners, telling them he was looking to become a fan of a team and asking each why he should support them. Only one owner wrote back: Jerry Richardson, owner of the Carolina Panthers. Richardson sent Pope a replica team helmet signed by star linebacker Luke Kuechly and a handwritten note. “Cade, we would be honored if our Carolina Panthers became your team. We would make you proud by the classy way we would represent you,” Richardson wrote.

Yet some of the league’s owners reflect the current state of the league and how it acts as if it can do no wrong. Or whatever it wants. Snyder exemplifies that attitude.