Why NFL's Most Storied Franchises Suck
The Chicago Bears, Washington Football Team, Dallas Cowboys, Cleveland Browns, Detroit Lions and the San Fransisco 49ers all are 75+ years old with the NFL and all have had better days as franchises.
These teams all have had some sprinkling of some good years every now and then but all in all they have been a bunch of losers. The 'America's Team' Dallas Cowboys have not won a Super Bowl in over 25 years, the famed Chicago Bears has 1 Super Bowl win to their name in 1985-1986. Ever since Dan Snyder took over the once named Redskins he is 0-23 in Super Bowl Appearances.
So why are the top grossing revenue teams like the Cowboys, Redskins, and Bears doing extremely well financially but absolutely suck in the trophy cabinet?
The reason...NFL rewards mediocrity. It's not the number of wins a franchise gets, it's revenue sharing. Modern day sports socialism. There is zero benefit to the franchises to win. They will get the same payouts increasing exponentially every year because of the shield's ability to negotiate billions of dollars in TV revenue.
If the NFL as a group decides to become a true Capitalist company they would tier payouts based on the team's performance. Then there will be a race to superior football. These fat and happy owners will tell you yea I want to win, but the likeness of a George McCaskey and his family will be paid $300MM this year for TV revenue so the can afford to continue to make just dumb decisions time after time.
Since George McCaskey has taken over the Bears front office he has constantly tripped over his decisions in hiring GM's like Phil Emery and Ryan Pace that has given away draft picks to other teams like candy. These personnel decisions has set this franchise back to the bottom 1/3 of the league year after year.
There is no business in the real world that would ever survive independently if these executives continue to make mistake after mistake that harms the performance of the company time after time. Investors would demand a seat change, they would demand better accountability, but since these awful teams are protected under the shield of the NFL, they get by with owners like Dan Snyder who has single handily ruin a once storied and proud franchise like the Redskins once were.
I am amazed that you have business owners like Jerry Jones and the Ford family that are successful in the business world, but cannot run a football franchise to save their life. It brings to question, is it them that made their business successful or the hard working intelligent employees under them that is making them billionaires.
The NFL can afford to have these franchises fail because they some how have continued to sucker fans like me who are living in the past hoping that one day I can relive my childhood to where I saw my Bears win the Super Bowl and rejoice and connect my joyful past with a Bears Championship.
The NFL doesn't sell reality, the NFL sells hope. TV contracts like ESPN and FOX portray the theatrical art of the gridiron every Sunday that shows hope, that once day the Bears will beat Green Bay...that the Browns will win a playoff game, that the Cowboys will once again have their coach hold the Lombardi Trophy smile at the camera and scream "How Bout them Cowboys"
Until then it will be a vicious cycle of crumbs being dropped to fans like the Draft, where your beloved team will pick up a franchise saving QB, crumbs like this next coach will take us to the promise land, we've seen this for over 30 years now in some cases, and until the executive leadership changes or give up their power, these same franchises will continue to get rich in failure.