Tuesday, May 12, 2009

SI's best and worst owners in sports

Because I am fascinated with sports ownership and management, I found this particualrly interesting. Sports Illustrated made their lists of the top 5 best and worst owners, in each major sport. As the old saying goes, "a fish stinks from the head." So it's not a coincidence that the same teams are bad year after year, with very few exceptions. Similarly, we see the same franchises hovering near the top of the league every season, for the opposite reason - teams run very well all the way from the top to bottom, and great organizational stability.

In the NFL list, to no one's surprise, the Rooney family was ranked the best. Also to no one's surprise, Al Davis was ranked the worst - though I'm sure they had a tough decision between Davis and William Clay Ford. Giants' ownership, the Mara & Tisch Families, was ranked the third best, which I can't quarrel too much with. But I wouldn't have put Robert Kraft at #2, simply because too much of New England's success was achieved by cheating.

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