What do 32 millionaires and billionaires do when they get together? Maybe play a little golf, enjoy some fine wine and a good steak? Expect all of the above and much much more when the owners of the NFL’s teams gather for the Annual League Meeting in Orlando, Florida next week.
There are some tough conversations to be had about the future of the league, especially in light of the fall in TV ratings for the second straight season – according to ESPN’s Darren Rovell, the average 2017 game was watched by 1.6million fewer people than 2016.
Commissioner Roger Goodell was rewarded at the end of last year with a five-year extension worth up to $40million annually, based on incentives. But that deal didn’t go through without incident as Dallas Cowboys’ maverick owner Jerry Jones tried to block the contract for six months. Despite Jones’s efforts the papers were signed and his fellow owners charged him $2million to cover the legal fees incurred by the disagreement and his appeal against Ezekiel Elliott’s suspension.
Expect the room to initially be a little frosty and not just because of the Florida air-con.
One of the reasons cited for the ratings drop is the players’ national anthem protests, brought to the world’s attention by Donald Trump’s blustering calls for player firings in the first month of the season. While there’s no agenda item to change the NFL’s policy on whether players should or shouldn’t stand, there are matters around it up for discussion.
For starters, the owners will vote on an $89million deal with the Players Coalition, founded by Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins and now-retired Anquan Boldin, to bankroll seven years’ worth of initiatives important to African American communities. The expectation is that the deal would put an end to the protests but no change in policy will accompany it.
On the field, the owners will discuss 10 rule changes, 12 bylaws and five new resolutions. The hottest topic will be what constitutes a catch. Needlessly complicated over a series of rule changes, it’s been a bone of contention for several seasons and reared its head in high profile incidents in the December match-up between New England and Pittsburgh and then the Super Bowl.
The Competition Committee look to have simplified the definition of a catch and owners will likely give it the thumbs-up in Orlando.
The meeting will be the first without Tom Benson as owner of the New Orleans Saints. The much-loved 90-year-old passed away last week and his widow Gayle Benson becomes the fourth female principle owner in the NFL alongside the Bears’ Virginia Halas McCaskey, Martha Firestone Ford in Detroit and Tennessee’s Amy Adams Strunk. It’s worth noting that Kim Pegula (Buffalo) and Carol Davis (Oakland) are also part-owners of their franchises.
Mrs Benson and co will also be updated on the latest bidders for the Carolina Panthers, who were put on the market at the end of the season by founder Jerry Richardson, who’s under investigation by the NFL for his workplace practices. Canadian steel exec Alan Kestenbaum appears to be in the box seat but, if you’ve got a spare $2.5billion (which would set a record for a US pro team), there’s still time to throw your hat in the ring.
