A Lawyer’s Unbiased Review of the Biggest Business in Sports
Growing up around sports, being an avid football fan more specifically, it’s always a privilege to learn the innerworkings of these larger-than-life businesses. Playmakers: How the NFL Works (And Doesn’t) written by author and longtime NFL media person Mike Florio, takes an in depth look into many aspects of the National Football League. The author voices his opinion from the scope of an NFL superfan with an above average level of knowledge on the game, both on the field and off it. As this “media critic”, like many others in the sports media world, there were problems that were highlighted in Florio’s writing and how he thinks they should be addressed. Unfortunately, these “sports critics” only have so much power when it comes to provoking change in massive companies like the NFL. As a superfan of the league, it is important for others with similar knowledge of the game to remember that although there may be some excellent suggestions, the business that is the NFL has grown to this size because they have systems in place that work well for them to continue to grow their league. Keeping in mind the resistance to change the NFL consistently exhibits, author Mike Florio entertains some valuable solutions to some of their most pressing issues in modern history.
Mike Florio is a football analyst who is the creator and owner of Pro Football Talk, a news outlet that covers all things NFL. Before that, he had an extensive 18-year legal career which provided him with the necessary background to discuss things like salary cap and organizational structures within the league. This significant legal background, coupled with experience in the sports analyst world, gives Florio the respect and credibility that is needed to keep the audience engaged throughout the book. He acknowledges the success of the league since it has catapulted the sports world into one of the richest industries in the United States. The league has also expanded internationally, increasing their viewership diversity and their overall revenue. Not all is perfect though, as the NFL owners remain some of the most powerful businessmen in the country, having the full ability to control who gets paid and by how much. These are some of the issues that Florio discusses and has reservations about. He takes on the voice of us “super fans” who have had similar thoughts about these issues. The book gives an excellent outline of many of the “deep dark secrets” of the NFL, keeping it concise while still providing necessary details to formulate individual opinions.
As someone who will be “job searching” soon, having the ability to choose where I apply and accept job opportunities from ensures that I will make the best decision for my future life and career. Contrary to popular belief, future professional football players don’t share the same luxury. For most professional football players in the NFL, they will be making significantly more money than an average entry level wage. Is that a “price” willing to be paid? The NFL draft has become one of the league’s most watched events, a process that allows all thirty-two NFL organizations to select eligible college players that they think can improve their team. For example, the team that wins the Super Bowl will hold pick number 32 in the first round of the draft, assuming no team has traded their first-round pick. This process gets very confusing and unclear even for the most diehard football fans, since teams can trade their players and their draft picks with other teams. These teams evaluate all the eligible athletes from college to make an informed decision on who to select to help improve their team based on their needs. Florio discusses many niche factors of the draft, suggesting that the draft isn’t an exact science while also taking the time to talk about the fact that it has become more of a television show than ever before. “At Its Core, the Draft Is Anti-American” is a section that really resonates with an audience broader than football super fans. This section is brief, but there is a lot of content covered throughout the section and the book as whole. More specifically, Florio argues the NFL’s draft system is in the extreme minority when discussing job offers to incoming “employees”.
Right away it’s made clear that Florio doesn’t like the current state of the draft, stating, “I don’t like the draft. I’ve come to hate the draft.” (Florio 12). He reasons that “young men embarking on their professional careers in any industry should have the right to choose where they will work, for whom they will work, and with whom they will work.” (Florio 12) is an idea that is severely overlooked within the business side of the NFL. Additionally, the NFL draft system doesn’t have much flexibility when it comes to choosing where you are going to play. Florio covers the NFL draft extensively every year and his hatred towards what has now turned into an event, has only grown as the years have gone on. His argument goes unheard because of the position he’s in as a sports analyst without any true leverage within the league’s ownership group. He also reasons that the NFL won’t change something that is one of their largest, revenue-generating, offseason events. Despite this, he discusses a potential solution that would make the draft process like choosing a nine-to-five job. In his words, making the process “more American”.
Florio’s solution targets the many people who support the NFL draft, who also believe changing the process would make the skill level of each team extremely uneven throughout the league. Florio describes expresses his disagreement with this mindset when saying “The many who blindly support the status quo say that any other system would allow NFL teams to stock their rosters with talent, rounding up all the best new players and skewing the balance of power. This argument ignores the fact that great players won’t choose a team that will not give them a clear path to the starting lineup.” (Florio 14). To simplify things, the author is suggesting that great players will not want to join a team that already has an abundance of talent at their given position on the field, since they ultimately want to be playing the sport they love. He goes onto state “Likewise, a hard salary cap for rookies, with the worst teams having more money than the best teams to sign college players, would equalize the playing field by allowing them to lure the best rookies by offering them better financial packages.” (Florio 14). This solution proposes that teams who performed poorly the season prior will be given a larger “budget” to sign players coming out of college through the draft compared to the teams who performed good during the season. This allows these sub-par teams to improve their rosters while also providing the players with opportunities that they are looking for. Offering higher pay and a greater chance of playing meaningful snaps during the season is a strong pitch for young players. This suggestion from Florio is insightful, I think it’s a very well-thought-out solution to an issue that Florio believes is a problem in the league today. As a lifelong fan of football, I have never thought the league was “one sided”. At times there may have been good teams who sustained their success over an extended period, but it took them time to get there. This is why the issue doesn’t gain as much real-world traction, since there are few who agree with Florio that is a significant problem. Florio is a member of the media and not in the front offices of the thirty-two NFL teams. These kinds of wholesale changes are up to the NFL owners and general managers to discuss. NFL owners meet once a year during the offseason to discuss major issues and potential rule changes that are up for vote at the annual owner’s meeting. In 2012, there was a very serious problem at hand that couldn’t be ignored anymore due to the looming lawsuit launched against the NFL surrounding the effects of repeated impacts to the head. Ultimately leading to the deaths of so many former players, at such a young age.
The NFL’s lack of safety and insurance towards its current and former players was publicized in the 2015 movie Concussion Starring Will Smith. Smith played the role of Dr. Bennet Omalu who was the leading force in examining the brains of former NFL players Terry Long and Mike Webster who suddenly passed away. Dr. Omalu was also the leading advocate for the premise that NFL players have a high chance of having CTE, Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy. CTE is a “progressive degenerative disease affecting people who have suffered repeated concussion and traumatic brain injuries…” (Indiana University). This degenerative disease is known to take over a person’s everyday life by affecting their mood and even changing their personality. Both the film and Florio’s writing on concussions discuss some similar things regarding the state of the NFL at the time. Florio says, “Nothing levels the playing field between big business and the average person like the civil justice system, and the league and its owners justifiably feared massive liability to decades of players who would claim that the NFL had failed to properly wan them of the risks of repetitive blows to the head and to reasonably protect them from such injuries” (Florio 194).
Mike Florio, Dr. Bennet Omalu, and the NFL were all aware that the league got itself into some serious legal trouble. I started to realize on my own that there were potentially some severe repercussions for playing the sport that I loved the most. Growing up playing football created some of my most cherished memories, not many things will be more memorable than Friday night lights. Thankfully, I was never officially diagnosed with a concussion. Despite this, there were instances where I played through some pain, chalking it up to “getting my bell rung”. This mindset is far too common amongst all football players, even though it has been proven that every impact to the head causing the brain to jolt in any direction inside of your skull is considered a concussion. CTE is the accumulation of all of these collisions. During Omalu’s research, he examined a patient whose “…medical history included symptoms of cognitive impairment, a mood disorder, and parkinsonian symptoms. There was no family history of Alzheimer’s disease or any other head trauma outside football. A complete autopsy with a comprehensive neuropathological examination was performed on the retired National Football League player approximately 12 years after retirement. He died suddenly as a result of coronary atherosclerotic disease” (Omalu). Dr. Omalu examined many patients, and he found that the symptoms outlined in his research excerpt above, were consistent across all these patients. Regardless of your experience level, former high school, college, and professional players run the risk of being diagnosed with CTE.
Regardless of the topic discussed in this book, Mike Florio stayed true to his own opinions and beliefs based on the knowledge he has accrued during his time as a mainstream media critic. In today’s world, these critics are plentiful and are often less qualified to speak than Florio is. No matter their given experience level, sports critics will continue to voice their opinions about the sports they love to watch. It’s the reason why these leagues are so profitable. In the end, it is important to keep in mind that these multimillion-dollar businesses won’t succumb to the opinions of some sports critics. These companies achieved their financial success because of their own systems, and the changes they have made to them under their own discretion. Mike Florio and the various other football critics will always remain as such, just sports critics. Ultimately, the NFL won’t listen to Florio, or any other sports critics. Even if their opinions would make the league an even better business because of it.
Works Cited
Florio, Mike. Playmakers How the NFL Really Works (and Doesn’t). Public Affairs, 2022.
“What Is Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE)?” What Is CTE? | Traumatic Brain Injury | IU School of Medicine, medicine.iu.edu/expertise/traumatic-brain-injury/what-is-chronic-traumatic-encephalopathy#:~:text=Chronic%20Traumatic%20Encephalopathy%2C%20or%20CTE,concussions%20and%20repetitive%20head%20impacts. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.
Omalu BI;DeKosky ST;Minster RL;Kamboh MI;Hamilton RL;Wecht CH; “Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy in a National Football League Player.” Neurosurgery, U.S. National Library of Medicine, pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15987548/. Accessed 31 Mar. 2024.
