Should NFL owners get paid by the win?
 

We've heard more talk recently about whether teams should - or do - intentionally tank seasons now to get a top draft pick. While it's for the most part stupid and crazy talk by people who don't know the difference between life and video games, the incentive does exist, and we do know that the Colts did it a couple of years ago since there were over 150,000 options better than Curtis Painter.

I don't know exactly what the profit level is for a typical NFL tam, but if you set aside a pool of TV money and gave teams a set amount per win at the end of the year, enough to make a difference in their bottom line, would it encourage owners to put the best team on the field every year?

I don't know if that number is $100,000 per win or $500,000 or $1 million. You'd want to make it enough that it would make the owner's silicone-heavy trophy wife squeal in glee after each win, but not so much that it puts a losing team in huge financial jeopardy. You'd want it to be enough that an owner would prefer an eight-win season over a two-win season if he can control it, so that fans get the best product during their TV-viewing experience.*

Or now that I think about it, maybe it's not a bad idea to make the owner of a perennial loser start taking a bath every year so he'd sell the team.



* - Because no one can afford to go to the games in person any more since the owners are maximizing revenue regardless of how bad their team plays.

The PGA Tour has always had the best salary structure, but it doesn't easily lend itself to team sports.

That said, I still think that owners should get pro-rated shares of TV money based upon RS W-L records and playoff success.

You want to do everything possible to make sure that people like Al Davis or the Hunt family never own NFL teams. There's no financial incentive to build anything worthwhile for the fans, which is asinine for an entertainment product you have to pay to attend.

No. Mainly because I'm a big Shao Kahn fan and I want him to get paid regardless of how shitty Jacksonville is. I'm not actually a big fan, I just like his mustache.

What's the PGA structure? I don't follow golf since it doesn't have many violent collisions.

No.

the TV money idea is actually pretty good...

I'd love to see that happen.

Almost every tournament has a 36 hole cut. Top 70 players and ties in most events, or if you are within 10 shots of the lead in some.

At the conclusion of the tournament, players are paid based upon order of finish. If you don't make the cut in a regular tournament, you don't make a dime. It doesn't matter if you're Tiger Woods. You still have to cover your own travel expenses and the loop for your caddie.

Guys can still make a comfortable living off of endorsements, but even those contracts are about 40 percent what they were before the real estate bubble burst.

If you wrench your back, you don't make any money that year. If you have a career year and then do nothing for the next half decade, your ass is shipped back to the mini tours.

It's one of the only true meritocracies in sports.

This.

but that would create a lower level of teams, once you start winning you have more money to keep buying more players
or is the salary cap still same and covered by Tv revenue and this is just extra money in owners pockets?

I think it would cause a lot of problems between teams to try and move the league forward. Teams with a franchise QB would be pushing for more rules to benefit offenses, for example. It's already happening, and adding money to the issue would just make it stronger.

Cap stays the same, but the profits the owners make on the team are based upon how good the team is.

If the Chiefs were any other business they would have shuttered their doors thirty years ago. The owners should not be guaranteed eight figure profits each year just because they happen to own an NFL team. Produce a competitive product or get ****ed. Happens with movie studios, video game developers, TV networks, publishers, etc.

The owners should not have the power they do. The commissioner is a goddamned puppet. There should be an independent competition committee of people not affiliated with any NFL team that makes decisions on rules.

I don't see a single owner blatently not trying to win. I guess you can try and make a case for the Colts tanking on purpose, but it's not like Irsay went and took a baseball bat to Mannings neck just do he could draft Luck.

Tennis the same thing but it really only works for non team sports. Now, head coaches I could see getting this deal. Might make them more aggressive.

True it is more a problem in baseball but it seems like something has happen where a lot of the recently horrible teams have gotten a lot better ie Cinci, Pittsburgh, KC, Seattle, and Baltimore.