Pat Bowlen & Jerry Richardson, Lead Negotiators

That YahooSports article ranks the NFL team owners and includes this gem on the co-chairs of the NFL Management Council:

Pat Bowlen: After years of relative stability and smart, league-friendly stewardship, Bowlen had what seemed to be the owner’s equivalent of a midlife crisis this past winter after the Broncos blew a playoff berth with a late-season collapse. First Bowlen fired longtime coach Mike Shanahan and replaced him with then-32-year-old Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels. Bowlen then allowed McDaniels to hire another neophyte, Brian Xanders, as his handpicked general manager. To say the newbies had a rough start was an understatement. In April McDaniels tried to trade 26-year-old franchise quarterback Jay Cutler(notes), lost the player’s trust and acted as though damage control was beneath him, creating an untenable situation that finally prompted Bowlen to deal Cutler to the Bears. After Cutler successfully pushed his way out of town by alienating the owner, star wideout Brandon Marshall(notes) attempted to do the same and was miffed when the strategy didn’t work. He’s currently under suspension for conduct detrimental to the team. Talk about a Rocky Mountain Low. Through it all Bowlen has been wishy-washy and weak, admitting during the Cutler saga that he’s been having short-term memory lapses. (That might also explain why Marshall’s agent, in June, said Bowlen had told the receiver in a one-on-one meeting he’d deal him while McDaniels insisted the Broncos had no such plans.) Bottom line: I’m worried about Bowlen. He’s only 65, but he appears awfully confused about the direction of his team. Oh, and here’s the capper to a horrid offseason: When Bowlen fired Shanahan, his coach and de facto GM, he wasn’t aware that a league rule required him to post a deposit for the balance of the outgoing employee’s contract. “So he had to give the league $21 million in cash,” one owner says. “Surprise.” Ouch, babe.

Jerry Richardson: Until a couple of days ago, this was going to be a feel-good tribute to a small-market owner who survived a serious health scare and resumed his place among the NFL’s elite owners. Then came Tuesday’s shocking announcement that Richardson’s two sons, Mark and Jon, had resigned from their high-level posts, and now comes the story behind it: According to a source familiar with the situation, team president Mark Richardson, a member of the NFL’s competition committee, and older brother Jon, who headed up Bank America Stadium, had clashed in recent years – partly over business-related issues, and partly over Jon’s resentment that his younger sibling had a higher-profile position. As their father’s health declined last year, ultimately resulting in Jerry Richardson’s heart-transplant operation last Super Sunday, Mark and Jon escalated their battle for control. When Jerry recovered and reclaimed his role as the franchise’s prime mover and shaker, he saw that some of the team’s minority owners were uncomfortable with the situation and warned his sons to start getting along, or else. Richardson backed up his threat Tuesday; rather than choosing one son over the other, he got rid of both of them, announcing Mark’s replacement as team president (Danny Morrison) the following day. Gulp. This will make for a reasonably awkward Thanksgiving dinner, don’t you think? Beyond that, it will cause the league’s other owners to feel far less secure about the Panthers’ succession plan. Whereas Mark was a highly regarded heir apparent, no one in league circles knows anything about Morrison, who had been serving as TCU’s athletic director, or what might happen after Jerry is no longer running the team (both sons retain ownership interest). My first reaction after all of this drama was to drop Richardson in the rankings, but the more I thought about the situation, the more I could see his perspective. Richardson, while the controlling partner, is part of an ownershipgroup. Though I’m sure he didn’t relish the thought of firing his sons, doing so sent a message to his partners that he’s putting the business ahead of his personal interests. It’s all very Tony Soprano, and a part of me absolutely digs it. If Morrison turns out to be an unsuitable replacement, Jerry will get dinged in next year’s rankings, but for now I’m leaving him in the No. 3 slot. As the chair of the NFL’s Management Council Executive Committee, he’ll play a pivotal role in the crucial labor showdown that will play out over the next 18 months (or, quite possibly, into a lockout-interrupted 2011 season). I don’t know how the NFLPA will react to his presence across the table, but after what just went down in Charlotte, I have to admit I’m kind of scared of the guy.

Filed under: NFLMC

Learning about the NFL Management Council

If you’ve been reading along or have read the About page, you know that I’m writing this blog because I’m trying to education educate myself about the collective bargaining process in the NFL.  Well, I’m learning.  Earlier, I posted an entry about whether the NFL should be required to fully open its books for the NFLPA to review.  I tried to distinguish the Silverman v. MLB PRC case, noting that the court found the PRC (MLB’s “Player Relation Committee”) was the negotiating party to the agreement, not the MLB commissioner.

Quick recap: The MLB union had argued that the commissioner had publicly discussed the league’s supposedly poor finances as a rationale for its position in the CBA, which meant that the union should be able to look at the league’s books.  The court, however, held that the Player Relation Committee was the party with whom the union was negotiating, NOT the commissioner.  Because that committee (supposedly) hadn’t invoked the issue of the league’s poor finances, the league was not required to open its books.

SO. That’s a long way of saying that my initial dismissal of this argument isn’t exactly right.  The NFL is represented in the labor negotiations by its own committee, the National Football League Management Council (NFLMC).  The latest information (found at the SportsBusinessJournal) shows that the following team owners and presidents sit on the NFLMC:

• Pat Bowlen (co-chair), owner, Denver Broncos
• Jerry Richardson (co-chair), owner, Carolina Panthers
• Mike Brown, owner, Cincinnati Bengals
• Bill Ford, Jr., owner, Detroit Lions
• Clark Hunt, owner, KC Chiefs
• Jerry Jones, owner, Dallas Cowboys
• Robert Kraft, owner, New England Patriots
• John Mara, owner, New York Giants
• Mark Murphy, president, Green Bay Packers
• Art Rooney II, president, Pittsburgh Steelers

Look for comments from these folks about finances.  We already have Mark Murphy talking about how salaries are rising faster than revenues.  But you’ll notice that Kraft and Bowlen have spoken in very general terms about finances or the process.  We’ll follow these folks, but let us know if you see any interesting comments.

Needless to say, I would have realized this if I went ahead and read the CBA, which states that the NFLMC is “recognized as the sole and exclusive bargaining representative of present and future employer member Clubs of the National Football League . . . .”  Oh well.  I’m digging into the CBA and will be posting about the various provisions.

Also, we’ve added these folks to the RadRev Cast of Characters.

Filed under: labor law, NFL revenue, NFLMC, Art Rooney, Bill Ford, Clark Hunt, Jerry Jones, Jerry Richardson, John Mara, Mark Murphy, Mike Brown, MLB, Pat Bowlen, Robert Kraft, Sports Business Journal