Sports Illustrated's Michael Silver (no relation) has put together a ranking, top to bottom, of the NFL's owners. You can't argue with #1 (Robert Kraft), #32 (Cincinnati's Mike Brown), or the placement of Zygi Wilf (23rd, which is still about 9 spots ahead of where Red McCombs belongs).
The Eagles' Jeffrey Lurie is #6, which sounds pretty sensible to me, although I don't understand how he ranks behind Washington's Daniel Snyder (#5 on the list, despite about 40 bad contracts and 1 playoff victory this decade.)
Eagles fans, of course, despise Lurie almost to a man, believing against all available evidence that he's not a good owner. The knock is that he's "out of touch" with the town's blue-collar fans (which is probably an inevitable hazard for anyone rich enough to own an NFL team) and that he's "not committed to winning," which is sort of funny considering that the team has done little but win in the past eight years, after floundering for two decades prior to his purchase of the team.
Then again, Silver's list seems just a wee bit too heavily weighted towards owners who are media-friendly, i.e., Michael Silver-friendly.
Posted by Stephen Silver at July 3, 2007 01:19 PMAs an alumnus of Brandeis University, I am very disappointed in your coverage of me.
Posted by: Jeff Lurie at July 5, 2007 02:06 PM