[quote=poorgradstudent][quote=Allan from Fallbrook]
Football is driven by winning. Period. The only that matters to EVERY team in the NFL is winning the Superbowl and they’ll do whatever it takes to get there.[/quote]
Actually… no.
Football is a business and about making money. Winning can help the teams make money. But clearly it is sometimes in a team’s best interest to go cheap on coaching if they know they don’t really have a shot at the superbowl that year.
“Player expense might not equate to wins, of course. But there’s something more basic happening. In the NFL structure, a cheap team that loses might have more profits than an expensive team that wins. Victory is nice, to be sure, but losing cheap can be remunerative. As all NFL teams save the Packers are privately held, and of those all save the Raiders are family businesses, money that is not spent on players goes into the pockets of the owner and his relatives.
Each NFL team gets exactly the same national TV payment whether it’s winning big on “Monday Night Football” or losing badly and never aired nationally. Ticket sales can vary and generally are where the profit resides. But the revenue swing between packing the house and having a poor gate just isn’t that great.”
So yeah, NFL Football is about making money, first and foremost. High school football is much more about winning, and NCAA is sort of a hybrid.[/quote]
PGS: Good post, and better stated than mine. However, I’d argue (as a counterpoint) that pri is also correct regarding branding and nothing is better than a winning brand.
A friend remarked about being in Tokyo some years back and noticing the large number of Dallas Cowboys jackets being worn. American football is not big in Japan, but the Cowboys logo is nearly immediately recognizable as “American” and thus the popularity.
One of the best marketers and promoters of the NFL brand was Al Davis and the Raiders were the NFL’s first real “brand”, in that Davis was looking to create a saleable image and an outlaw culture that stood as a counterpoint to the established “safe” images of teams like the Packers, Redskins and Cowboys.
Money and winning are strongly entwined and the NFL is now a multibillion dollar marketing operation and the Superbowl is the culmination of that season long operation. Look at the amounts spent on Superbowl commercials and the anticipation of what Pepsi, or Bud, or Doritos will come up with each year as their signature commercial.
Yes, maybe all teams aren’t similarly focused on reaching the Superbowl, but they also aren’t there to lose, either. Witness the recent firing of Jack Del Rio, head coach of the Jags. J’ville isn’t exactly the most competitive squad out there, but the organization didn’t hesitate to make a change. I’d opine the reason for that change had very much to do with coach Del Rio’s W – L record. I’d also be willing to bet that Caldwell won’t survive if the Colts go 0 – 16, in spite of his winning record in the seasons leading up to this one.
