The NFL Monopoly
In the past ten years the NFL has increased its revenues from 8 billion to 18 billion. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell promises that this trend will continue and the league will be making $25 billion by 2027. The National Football League is without a doubt the richest of America’s three major sports. Although it has always been viewed as a successful league, the NFL was not always this rich.
NFL owners benefited from congressional legislation in 1961 that permitted the NFL to pool together negotiations with television and radio broadcast rights. In addition, congress also extended their definition of non-profit to sports franchises, thus granting NFL teams additional tax breaks. These two decisions, which were made to back a struggling sports league in the 1960’s have resulted in the creation of one of the most powerful monopolies in America. As such the NFL has been designed, since the cold war, to make a lot of money.
As the league grows in popularity, so do networks’ dependence on NFL games for viewership. In the past year the NFL has secured deals with CBS, NBC, Fox, Disney, and Amazon worth over $113 billion. For fans of teams, these deals means a rise in the salary cap and more money for their teams to spend on players. However, before that money can see the likes of a Von Miller or a Tyrann Matthew, it goes directly to NFL owners.
Jerry Jones holds a lot of power and influence in the league. He was the man behind multiple franchise moves in the past decade including the Rams and Chargers to Los Angeles and the Raider to Las Vegas. With the level of control Jerry Jones seems to operate with, many people in the media view Jerry Jones as the commissioner over Roger Goodell.
These claims are not baseless. While Goodell is the face behind the deals with the major networks, he is not alone in negotiations over broadcasting rights. Every year the NFL owners congregate for a secretive, but well known executive meeting. During these meetings it can be assumed that a lot of the decisions for the direction the NFL is moving are made there. This in turn has given Godell the label of a puppet for the more powerful owners in the league.
The NFL is a monopoly, but inside the NFL is another monopoly. The owners of the teams have executive control over the league with no formal system for checks and balances. The United States government is even unable to moderate the power of the league and its owners. With the legislation from 1961, NFL teams have become rich enough to hold cities hostage with their demands, whether those be renovations or an entirely new stadium. Millions of tax dollars go to these teams and their stadium and the cities and the politicians within are unable to do anything about it.
Without an external system of checks and balances, the NFL is under its own jurisdiction for all things, including scandals and the law. While the NFL usually hands out their punishments based on the decisions of the US legal system, they do make exceptions. One of the most significant criticisms of the league is their inconsistency with the punishment of players. In 2012 Ray Rice received a single game suspension after video surfaced of him physically abusing his girlfriend at the time. Fans and media alike then compared that punishment to the 4 game suspension that Tom Brady received in 2016 after allegations of the patriots using deflated footballs in the AFC Championship game.
This system of punishment extends to players and personnel only. If an owner or people close to an owner were to break the league’s rules then there would be no system in place to govern their actions. These circumstances lead to the scenario surrounding Dan Snyder and the Washington Commanders. Reports and leaks from the organization reveal a workplace full of sexual harassment from Snyder and his staff, as well as multiple instances of tax fraud. While Congress has gotten involved with the situation, Snyder still holds control of his team through his wife. It is also worth noting the close relationship between Snyder and Jones, the league’s most powerful owner. Which begs the question, what can even be done?
