outofplace said:
Seriously, show me the kind of proof there is of an NFL team not trying that there is for MLB teams like the Pirates and Marlins. I'm not talking about losing. Losing can be chalked up to incompetence. I'm talking about actually drafting players they know are inferior to save money. I'm talking about keeping the payroll so low that it is not even a quarter of what the big boys spend.
Oh wait, NFL teams can't do that last one. Because the NFL system is better and won't allow it.
Everything looks great with the Arizona Cardinals right now, but you're forgetting that Bill Bidwill has always been every bit the penny-pinching loser that the McClatchy family is. Just through the Google I found this Dan Wetzel column that explains it pretty well:
He supposedly docked players salary for team meals, refused to buy extra socks and rationed Gatorade. Hed do anything to save a buck. In a league built on spending, he saved. He had a near religious opposition to paying market price to retain free agents.
He was great at raising ticket prices though.
http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news?slug=dw-misfitbidwill012809
To a lesser degree, Georgia Frontiere could be considered Bidwill-like. I doubt anyone in Cincinnati would say Mike Brown has spent all he could to become a winner. There's some belief that Ralph Wilson is happy to cash those TV checks and keep getting richer while the Bills don't snifff the playoffs.