Us vs Them

Yesterday's post about the rival leagues and the pattern of those threats got me thinking. Never a safe thing but it does happen. In addition to the upstart leagues, the NFL was under constant attacks from colleges in the early years. According to the colleges, professional football was filled with criminals and would kill the purity of the game. The founding owners had to really fight to keep their league afloat. I think that it might have created an "us vs. them" mentality. It seemed everybody was looking to destroy what they worked so hard to  build. The harder you have to work for something, the more protective you become of it. The owners reluctance to reveal their books in the current CBA negotiations could be due to that protectiveness. Some of the original families still own their teams. Dan Rooney of the Steelers and Virginia McCaskey (George Halas' daughter) of the Bears were children when it was mostly a struggle to own a team. They must have seen what their fathers went through. Owning a team was not a wise investment in those days. There was a thrill that went beyond making a bunch of money. Tim Mara owned and kept the Giants more because his sons, Wellington and Jack, loved the team. He kept it for them. It is so different today. Owning an NFL team can be very lucrative. There is certainly still a thrill. There has to be. I still see people owning a team mostly for greed, highlighted by the Cowboys Jerry Jones and the Patriots Robert Kraft. If those two continue unchecked, they could destroy all that has brought the NFL to a position of strength. They should start listening to the people that have seen and experienced the struggles. As long as football is played, the money will follow. If they try and grab too much, it could all fade away like the rival leagues of the past.