Yeah man I get you, that's why I posted it. The other piece is what JetsUK is on about-- the lack of parity exists because the rules are set up to make the QB too important. If parity is the goal, fix the bad rules we have these days. Of course, the NFL will scream that the rules are all about safety, and that's fine-- I get the defenseless reciever protections and some of the QB protections. They need to balance those out with some others--change rules that have nothing to do with player safety but benefit the defense. They already did it a few years ago by getting rid of the force-out rule on the sidelines. Just move some more in that direction--my recommendation is to allow the CB to make contact beyond 5 yards from the line of scrimmage (i.e: eliminate the Mel Blount rule).
The Niners are going to their 3rd Super Bowl in 13 years with 3 different QBs. Unless you have Mahomes or Brady, the easiest way to make the Super Bowl is by being a well run organization.
I don't imagine we'll ever get to see an objective comparison of those things not covered by the salary cap that can make a significant difference in how the various teams are prepared to win. I'm talking about the off field budget for personnel including the GM and his staff, scouting, research, analysis, coaching, training, medical and dietary. The facilities operated across the league vary as do the staff sizes. We get to see very little of salaries other than that of a few key people. We have no idea if injury plagued teams have smaller poorly paid medical and training staffs, facilities and equipment than those teams that do a better job of dodging the injury bug, but I suspect such a revelation may be striking.
All of those teams except the 2000 Ravens (an anomaly for sure) have mid to hall of fame level QB’s under center.
I don’t even think they need to change that many rules. They can leave contact down the field in, but loosen how they call it (like they did for the most part in the playoffs) and eliminate a lot of automatic first downs. Penalties like taunting and face masks also shouldn’t be back breaking 15 yard penalties that can kill drives. Late hits on sliding quarterbacks should barely be called unless it’s egregious especially when the defender lets up. Illegal contact away from where the QB is even looking turning into a first down on 3rd and 18 is absurd. The NFL just loves the chaos though.
My point is that each franchise in the NFL makes so much money, that there is no need for a salary cap to protect "small market teams" from larger ones. I also believe that there would be more parity in the NFL if there was no salary cap preventing other teams from making large scale contract offers to superstars when they become free agents.
If the Patriots only won FOUR AFC titles, that would still be 16 out of 29 possible titles won by just four teams.
Parity = Equity. But..... Equity of opportunity? Or Equity of results? One is capitalism, one is communism. NFL = Capitalism. All teams start out equal. Where they end up from there? Is up to them.
No, I understand. You made a fair point because the Patriots were an abnormality. However, they were one of four teams that won at least four AFC titles, so even without the full impact of their abnormality there is still a lack of parity.
What’s the point though? I don’t think any other sports are all too different. For example in the NBA, there was a run where LeBron went to 8 straight finals on the Heat & Cavs and the Warriors went to 5 in a row and 6 in 9 years. The NHL feels like it has the best parity, easily the most competitive lowest seed versus top seed matchups and the last 25 years have been dominated by the Lightning, Penguins, Blackhawks, Kings, Bruins and Red Wings.
The salary cap does create "parity" in the sense that you can't just have some rich owners overpay to acquire the best free agents, like we see in baseball. The salary cap does lead to pretty good turnover in teams that make the playoffs- most NFL teams go through cycles of being in the playoffs, sliding into mediocrity, then being bad, rebuilding, etc- some of us spend more time in the bad/rebuilding phases, but I digress...The champions tend to be among the same teams, but that's because (a) some front offices really are just smarter than the others, and (b) franchise QBs combined with rules changes that favor the offense in general and the quarterback in particular, so a great QB is an even bigger benefit now than it was decades ago. So there's "parity" in the sense that having a relatively poor owner won't be the reason your team is untalented- but if your team's leadership is dumb (stares at Florham Park) you can still be mired in mediocrity, and if you have a smart front office, a great QB, or both, you'll be excellent for a sustained period.
...and to add to your good take, nearly every top QB was available to almost every bottom feeder in search of a top QB. Tom Brady? every team passed on him 6 times. Mahomes? Josh Allen? Lamar? Jets (and many other bottom feeders) passed on all of them. So giving every team an equal chance is American. Demanding every team wins as many SBs is...well...communism (and DEI at it's heart)
Yeah I get your point, I just disagree. Your premise is that due to the revenue sharing, even the small market teams make enough to pay the salaries and be competitive. My point is that the incomes, while HUGE, and while a lot is shared, there are still some teams that make much more that isn’t shared…think Cowboys for instance…the brand is huge. So yeah rev sharing on TV money is huge. But since not all revenues are shared (which gave rise to the stadium naming rights revenue stream), there will still be a disparity, and the prices will just be bid up because without a cap, the money teams will be able to out do the other teams. That’s just the way these things go. The salaries continue to rise. Anyway, to me, the cap is not the problem with the lack of parity. The problem is the inherent fact that some owners are smarter and better than others. They identify and hire smarter football people to run the show, they invest in the ancillary stuff like scouting, facilities, analytics, etc. The cap takes care of the financial disparity, that again, while nowhere near as huge as in baseball, is still there. That’s it. It does not guarantee parity. But the NFL, with the use of a salary cap and a slotted draft that awards the worst teams with the highest draft picks, has created a system that does about as good a job at providing the opportunity to improve as any other sport. There’s no stupid draft lottery. There is a cap that hits every team the same way. That’s it. They laid the groundwork. Now it’s on the owners to manage their team the best they can
