If the Internet has taught us one thing, it’s that humans love lists in ranked order. And so it’s no surprise that, on the eve of training camps — the last time of the year every single fanbase has championship hopes (realistic or not) — Michael Silver comes along to remind some of us that, no, your team is rotten at the top and hope is a fruitless venture.
That’s right, it’s Part I of his annual Owner Rankings, #17-32
Silver’s pick for the worst owner in the league? Jacksonville’s Wayne Weaver. He bases the distinction on Weaver’s gross overestimate of the potential growth of Jacksonville’s economy, his refusal to admit that the team’s for sale despite knowledge to the contrary, and his indifference to anything but his own bottom line. And sure, that’s a pretty bad rap sheet, but worst owner in the league?
What about Tom Benson? All smiles, handshakes, and puppy dogs aside, let’s not forget that if it weren’t for Paul Tagliabue, Benson would have ripped the Saints from New Orleans right after Hurricane Katrina. The smiles he displays now are plastic, because his hand was forced.
Or what about William Clay Ford, who has let his team turn into such a joke that Lions fans are a beaten mass of resignation to the point that most wouldn’t even care if the team was sold and moved because of the prospect of lower blood pressure? Or Al Davis, for so, so, so many things?
At least Jaguars fans have had a successful franchise to follow. And they’ll probably continue to have one. They just might have to move to L.A. to keep up with it.
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July 23rd, 2008 at 11:39 am
It’s not his fault that some of Jacksonville economy tanked after the tech bust.
I think Wayne is doing his darndest to keep it all afloat.
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Rating: 3.5 / 5 with 2 rating(s)
July 23rd, 2008 at 11:47 am
Yes, Weaver’s so awful for looking to sell a partial stake of his team.
Because every other owner on the list holds 100% of their team, right? … Right?
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July 23rd, 2008 at 11:51 am
And let’s not forget the oldie but moldy…Arthur Model.
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July 23rd, 2008 at 12:08 pm
I have to give an honorable mention to Red McCombs, even though he hasn’t owned the Vikings in three years.
He has a history of treating sports franchises as pure commodities (i.e. if it’s in his best interest that the team loses, folds, or relocates, he’ll run the franchise into the ground to make it happen).
He walked a tightrope between cutting every corner possible (Vikings HQ was falling apart with the AC shut down/broke in every room but his office, his head coach made less than most coordinators and his coordinators were paid like position coaches) then threatening the legislature to fund a new stadium because he was shopping the team to other cities (San Antonio, Los Angeles).
And he made between $200-$300 million when he sold the team after about 5 years.
The reason Wilf is on this list is because of McCombs. After McCombs, people still aren’t sure if Wilf is trying to the same thing without being as brash or if Wilf really is trying to build a winning team with intent on staying in Minnesota.
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Rating: 4.5 / 5 with 2 rating(s)
July 23rd, 2008 at 12:09 pm
How about the Brown family in Cincinnati. They held the city hostage and threatened a move to LA if a stadium wasn’t built. They promised the increased revenue would be used to improve the product on the field.
Now that they have their palace, the Browns continue to refuse to hire a GM or a real scouting department. Mike Brown has to have the worst win/loss record of any GM in any sport over the last 15 years. He could care less about anything but the bottom line.
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Rating: 4 / 5 with 2 rating(s)
July 23rd, 2008 at 12:10 pm
Al Davis is the worst owner in The League. The rest aren’t even close. Davis is the worst franchise owner in pro sports period.
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Rating: 2.35 / 5 with 3 rating(s)
July 23rd, 2008 at 12:14 pm
Michael Silver is a complete idiot. Just because Jacksonville isn’t a huge market, doesn’t make Weaver worse than Al Davis or Ford, or Brown or any team with perennial losers. Jacksonville has been the most successful expansion team in recent history. Along with all the good media attention comes the bad.
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Rating: 3.65 / 5 with 3 rating(s)
July 23rd, 2008 at 12:15 pm
He ranked John and Denise York too high. They’ve taken the team I love and made them one of the laughingstocks of the league. I hate them for that.
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Rating: 4.35 / 5 with 3 rating(s)
July 23rd, 2008 at 12:17 pm
“if it weren’t for Paul Tagliabue, Benson would have ripped the Saints from New Orleans right after Hurricane Katrina. The smiles he displays now are plastic, because his hand was forced.”
Yet you keep advancing your belief that Tags does not deserve to go to the HOF.
Best, smartest, most revolutionary mind in the Sports business ever.
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Rating: 3 / 5 with 1 rating(s)
July 23rd, 2008 at 12:39 pm
With all the hate Dan Snyder receives in the media for some reason I am surprised to not see him mentioned.
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Rating: 5 / 5 with 3 rating(s)
July 23rd, 2008 at 12:39 pm
I agree that there are much worse things an owner can be accused of. At least Al Davis is second to last place. He should be a DISTANT worst, however. I imagine that the inside of that man’s skull looks like a 2 month old jack-o-lantern left in the sun.
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Rating: 3 / 5 with 2 rating(s)
July 23rd, 2008 at 12:40 pm
Silver’s list has been a joke for years. The very fact that he has Dan Snyder in the top five shows Silver’s lack of judgement. Evidently if you overspend for below average free agents, but fly them around on a fancy jet, you get to be at the top of the list. Finally, Jerry Jones’s team hasn’t won a playoff game in 10 years. It’s interesting that Silver does not take performance into consideration. It’s interesting that Yahoo doesn’t take performance into consideration.
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Rating: 4 / 5 with 4 rating(s)
July 23rd, 2008 at 12:49 pm
The guy seems personally offended that Jacksonville has a team, and Los Angeles doesn’t. He ranks Weaver 32nd because, get this, he isn’t selling the team and moving it to LA. Well, tough titty. The guy is a model small market owner — certainly compared to the tool that owns the Bengals. Luckily, Michael Silver really pops up once a year to spew this garbage, then pops back into his hole, kind of like Michael Vick’s herpes.
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Rating: 5 / 5 with 2 rating(s)
July 23rd, 2008 at 12:52 pm
Michael Silver is a douche. He wears Gloria Vanderbilt frames and thinks he’s cool because he quotes the Grateful Dead. I’m eternally grateful he left SI for yahoo, which I never read.
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Rating: 5 / 5 with 4 rating(s)
July 23rd, 2008 at 1:03 pm
L.A IS THE BEST CITY FOR THE JAGS.
The L.A. Jags. not bad.
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Rating: 3.2 / 5 with 5 rating(s)
July 23rd, 2008 at 1:15 pm
Yeah, Silver certainly is a big-time dick from the look of that article. “What really irks me” is the fact that the guy denies that he’s trying to sell the team? That’s the worst thing an NFL owner can do? How about the owners who refuse to sell naming rights to their stadium, and then cry poor-mouth? There are franchises that haven’t won a championship since God was in diapers - is there a problem here? This is another sports-hack who has some kind of grudge, and is using this article to smear a guy.
For the ultimate sports-writer scumbag writing, read this excerpt from an old-time Boston writer:
http://www.bostonsportsmedia.com/2008/07/infamous-moments-in-boston-sports-media-history
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Rating: 1 / 5 with 1 rating(s)
July 23rd, 2008 at 1:19 pm
Silver:
32. Jacksonville Jaguars – Wayne Weaver: It was bad enough when moaned his way into hosting a Super Bowl, citing the need to help to finance renovations to a stadium in which he would later cover up nearly 10,000 seats to give the team a prayer of selling out on Sundays. What truly irks me, however, is Weaver’s stubborn insistence that he’s not trying to sell the franchise – “The team is not for sale,” he said earlier this month, “and I cannot say it any more clearly than that” – when it is common knowledge among his peers that he has discussed such a transaction with at least three prospective buyers. “He’s a sick puppy,” one owner says of Weaver. “He’s totally and completely out for his bottom line, and the league’s best interest is not in his mind at all.” Echoed a second owner: “He’s been actively trying to sell for a year-and-a-half, and he’s totally checked out. He knows it won’t work in Jacksonville.” The only way I see Whine escaping the bottom of this list in the foreseeable future? Sell the team – and I cannot say it any more clearly than that.
It is hard to argue with the case Silver has made, especially considering one of Silver’s criteria is fom a fan’s perspective. If I were a Jags fans and believed he was trying to sell the team to someone who might want to move the team to LA, I’d be pissed too and put him as worst owner. You can also bet that Jacksonville won’t appear as a serious candidate to host another Super Bowl for quite some time.
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Rating: 3.25 / 5 with 4 rating(s)
July 23rd, 2008 at 1:22 pm
Zygi Wilf at #23, because the big changes he promised are hard to see? He may deserve to be at #23 for other reasons, but he has been working on fulfilling his promises, big and small. Red McCombs was so cheap that he let the Viking longship rot; Wilf had it restored. Wilf also paid for a badly needed renovation to the training facility. McCombs chose to ignore former Vikings players, many of whom live in Minnesota. That changed after Wilf took over. Look at the free agent acquisitions and their contracts. McCombs only agreed to spend money on free agents when he knew Wilf would have to pay for them. Minnesotans want value for their money. Wilf has to continue to undo the ill will McCombs generated and show that he is there to stay and committed to winning before there will be a new stadium. It didn’t seem likely that the Twins would get a stadium after their near-death by contraction, but it happened. To paraphrase Colinito, Michael Silver is an ignorant douche.
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Rating: 5 / 5 with 1 rating(s)
July 23rd, 2008 at 1:39 pm
Silver has a hate boner for the Raiders and Al Davis ever since Al threw him out of the locker room in Denver after a game about 10 years ago.
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Rating: 3 / 5 with 2 rating(s)
July 23rd, 2008 at 1:49 pm
I don’t know what’s more useless… Michael Silver or this bullsh*t list he puts out each year. Silver is an elitist pig who caters to the wine and cheese crowd. His target audience is not the average fan, but the box seat holder. This is why Huizenga will be in the top 10 again despite posting a 1-15 record and hiring Cam Cameron who drafted Ted Ginn instead of Brady Quin and traded away the only WRs they had left. I’d rather have Weaver who decides NOT to sell the team for $100s of millions more than he paid to keep his team in a community tha would suffer in its absence. I’d rather have an owner who understands how to build through the draft to create a high performance team. I’d rather have an owner who cares more about charity work and helping the community than bleeding fans dry at every turn (see Dan Snyder: also a top 10 guy, I’m sure). But of course, I’m not Michael Silver.
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Rating: 3.65 / 5 with 3 rating(s)
July 23rd, 2008 at 2:21 pm
Am I missing something? Jacksonville always fields a competitive team. If they weren’t in the same division as the Colts, he’d be ranked halfway up that list (at least). Not to mention, he’s handicapped by a city and state, that simply isn’t that into sports. Florida sports franchises simply don’t draw the kinds of numbers that you see elsewhere. I disagree with this. Al Davis is the worst owner in the league, how many coachs has he gone through, how many losing seasons, etc. Al Davis got a step up because of past achievements, haven’t seen him do anything productive in the last five years.
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Rating: 3 / 5 with 1 rating(s)
July 23rd, 2008 at 2:22 pm
Mike, you need to repost the article with Kraft named best owner in the NFL. Guarantee 100 hits plus. Best owner,head coach,QB &WR all reside in New England. Let the stupid comments begin.
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Rating: 1 / 5 with 4 rating(s)
July 23rd, 2008 at 2:49 pm
and seriously, wtf, why aren’t the bidwills at the bottom? One playoff appearance in the past what, 40 years? Silver and his ilk seem to forget that without Al Davis, there would be NO national football league as we know it! The AFL would have collapsed, and the merger (if there was one) would have failed entirely.
Though the franchise, and Al Davis have faded in the past few years (as opposed to not making the playoffs for 10, like the Cowboys, or 40, like the Cards), rest assured that the Raiders will be back (eventually).
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Rating: 3.65 / 5 with 3 rating(s)
July 23rd, 2008 at 2:57 pm
“Yet you keep advancing your belief that Tags does not deserve to go to the HOF.”
Jolly- Don’t forget to look at who wrote the article before posting something like this. I’ve made the same mistake.
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July 23rd, 2008 at 3:03 pm
Al Davis… how can there be any doubt that he’s the worst owner in the league?
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Rating: 5 / 5 with 1 rating(s)