Even if you are not a football fan, it’s hard to ignore the Superbowl. If the football doesn’t interest, you’ve got the commercials, the food, the awards show and even some politics thrown in.
Superbowl XLV was no exception, there was more than $200 billion dollars spent on advertising, a pre-game Obama-O’Reilly interview, not to mention several George W. Bush sightings. It caused several wing places in Evanston to become so backed up on orders that they had to stop taking them altogether. Trust me, I tried.
However, behind all of the show, the NFL has proven to be one of the few professional sports leagues that offers a fair playing field to all its teams. Consider the story of the Pittsburgh Steelers and Green Bay Packers, two teams with completely different media markets and organizational structures. There is some relief knowing that two teams with such different backgrounds can make it to the biggest stage, a feat that doesn’t seem to be possible in some other professional sports leagues. The Packers play in the NFL’s smallest TV market and also have smallest hometown in Green Bay, Wisc., whereas the Steelers are in one of the biggest markets. Not only that, the Packers are the only team in the NFL that is publicly owned with around 112,00 different stock holders. The Steelers, on the other hand, have been majority-owned by the same family, the Rooneys, since the formation of the franchise in 1933.
In the professional sports league whose total revenue tops all the others, it seems only fitting that the team from one of the smallest towns was able to win on the biggest stage. This wouldn’t have happened in other professional sports leagues. For example, take baseball, which doesn’t have a salary cap, but instead a luxury tax where teams with a payroll over a certain amount get taxed. The payroll of teams range from the Yankees with $206 million to the Pittsburgh Pirates with $35 million, just over the $33 million that the Yankees star Alex Rodriguez makes in one year. The Yankees have won five World Series titles since 1996, but the Pirates haven’t even had a winning season (yes I’m talking more than a .500 win-loss ration) since 1993. That’s 18 seasons. Don’t get me wrong, Green Bay is one of the NFL’s most storied franchises, but their success shows the importance of an even playing field between all teams.
I’m not trying to convince you that the NFL is the model professional sports league. The league has had its own problems along with its successes. Take the defensive lineman for the Steelers, Brett Keisel, whose beard measured 7 inches at its peak – success. Then, there is length of former Packer’s quarterback Brett “unit,” which he texted to the New York Jets’ “Gameday Host”, Jenn Sterger – not such a success. Or, take the fastest running back in the NFL, Chris Johnson of the Tennessee Titans, who can run the 40-yard dash in 4.24 seconds. But there’s also the foot fetish of Jets Coach Rex Ryan.
The NFL might not be perfect, but it has a lot going for it.
Ben Rothschild is a Weinberg senior. He can be reached at [email protected].
