Examining NFL owners: Inheritance babies vs. Self-made men

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Den member skinnyjimmy took advantage of the slow time to do a little research on NFL owners:

Jimmy looked at the background of the owners of 31 NFL teams (Green Bay is publicly owned), then looked at how those owners made their money. Turns out it's almost an even split -- 15 owners inherited the majority of their fortune; 16 are considered self-made by Forbes.

So does how the owners got their wealth affect the performance of their team? Look what skinnyjimmy's research found (emphasis mine):

Looking at the past 10 years (or as long as the current owner has had majority ownership) the self made owners have won 55% of their games compared to 45% for the inherited group. Also, of the bottom 10 teams, only 1 owner was self made and that was Robert McNair of the expansion Texans.

Competitive business requires continuous improvement, self made owners understand this. The lions are just a hobby for Ford. I wonder how long Henry Ford would have put up with Millen.

In a league built for parity, this a pretty significant success gap, in my estimation.

They're talking about it in The Den!