For Fail By Owner

Three once proud franchises.

Three egomaniacal owners.

This sounds like a trailer for a bad movie starring Al Pacino, Jon Voight and Samuel L. Jackson. I can see it now, Jon Voight absolutely demoralizing some young assistant followed by a flurry of tears and objects thrown around the room. The vein in Al Pacino’s neck popping out to new levels while he accentuates random words, “where the HELL is my chocolate CAKE? Let’s not forget Samuel L calling everyone under the sun a Mofo.

Check that, this movie is starting to get me fired up…

Any who, the three egomaniacal owners I am actually referring to are Al Davis of the Oakland Raiders, Peter Angelos of the Baltimore Orioles and Daniel Synder of the Washington Redskins. Let’s start from the bottom and work our way up.

To be brutally honest, the Oakland Raiders are the laughing stock of the NFL . The former super bowl champions from 1976, 80 and 83 have been the worst run franchise in sports for the last decade. From the drafting of Jamarcus Russell to Tom Cable potentially dropping the soap with Plax, the Raiders have made countless terrible decisions.

This decade of Raider debauchery is now known as the “Curse of Chucky”. Since trading young prodigy head coach Jon Gruden to the Bucs in 2001(where he won a Super Bowl against the Raiders) the Raiders have been through the likes of Bill Callahan, Norv Turner, Art Shell, Lane Kiffin and the aforementioned future inmate Tom Cable. The Raiders will never be successful as long as Al Davis is alive and trading.

A successful lawyer made famous for defending asbestos cases, Peter Angelos has made the Baltimore Orioles a regular visitor to the basement of the American League East. The Orioles won titles in 1970 and 1983 with all time greats such as Brooks Robinson, Frank Robinson and Jim Palmer. Angelos purchased the Orioles with a group of investors in 1993. It only took 4 years for Angelos to infect the orange birds with his own type of asbestos.

The Orioles have not had a winning season since 1997 and Angelos has started his own Cal Ripken type streak of losing. The brilliant signings of past their prime Albert Belle and Bobby Bonilla type players was just the beginning for Petey. Angelos is on his 4th different manager in the last 7 years. The American League East is a powerhouse division with the Yankees, Red Sox, Tampa Bay Rays and even the Blue Jays ahead of them. The only intelligent move he has made of late was to hire Andy McPhail in 2007. McPhail was the architect of the Twins championship teams in the late 80s into the early 90s. If McPhail can’t right the ship, then the Orioles will be in the cellar longer then a red headed step child.

Last but certainly not least is Mr. Daniel Snyder.  Snyder struck it rich as the chairman of Six Flag’s amusement parks and as owner of the Johnny Rocket’s food chain. No one could ever question Snyder as a business man. The Redskins are currently the wealthiest franchise in all of sports, valued at 1.3 billion dollars. If only this lofty place atop a Forbes List could translate onto the field.

Danny boy grew up idolizing the Redskins and their championship teams of 1982, 87 and 91. Unfortunately, these former players still have the ear of the wonder boy owner. Snyder constantly undermines his coaching staff to the point where he has hired/fired 6 different coaches since 2000. Snyder is also notorious for throwing Paula Abdul type money at big name free agents. Ultimately this upsets team chemistry and the players don’t perform to their net worth. Maybe he should hire that old guy with the huge glasses from the Six Flags commercial.  I bet he has some insight on how to better run the West Coast. Hey, it’s worth a shot…SIX FLAGS!

The common theme amongst these great businessmen is the place of blame. Apparently none of these losing seasons are ever the fault of the owner. The players obviously are the ones who win or lose games. But, the owner and his staff put the bunch together. Often is the case with these type of owners is they have too much input. Leave the decision making to the football people that you hired and stop making a fool out of your organization and yourselves.