Bill Maher, the left’s court jester on HBO, seized on the occasion of the Super Bowl to pen an essay attributing the success of the National Football League and its annual championship game to one of his favorite causes: socialism.
In the past, I’ve also addressed the socialistic elements of professional sports, but I’ve done it ironically and in context. Maher is deadly serious when he declares that NFL socialism is “an economic lesson for America.” No it isn’t. It’s simply a marketing lesson.
It’s true that the NFL requires teams to communally share national television revenues even though more popular teams and those in bigger media markets could command a bigger cut.
There’s also a player draft for incoming college football talent whereby the worst teams are rewarded with the top picks and the best teams are penalized with lower choices.
And, of course, there’s a salary cap, imposing a uniform ceiling on total team payroll so that big-market teams and wealthy owners can’t outspend the competition.
Indeed, these practices smack of socialism. And other professional sports — Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association and the National Hockey League — do the same kind of things to a degree. The NFL just it does it better.
But there’s a perfectly logical reason for this, and it’s wholly compatible with private enterprise, capitalism and a market economy. Think of the NFL not as 32 individual companies competing with one another but as one company with 32 individual franchises and common interests. Yes, the Denver Broncos want to beat the Oakland Raiders every time they meet. But they don’t want to drive them out of business.
Conversely, independent companies in other industries do want to drive competitors out of business and take over their market share: Microsoft vs. Apple, Ford vs. GM, King Soopers vs. Albertson’s. Investment firms don’t cooperate in a draft, allowing the worst-performing ones to get first pick on the top Harvard MBAs.
“NFL, Inc.” and its 32 franchises are a single entity in the entertainment business, competing with other entertainment businesses for the finite dollars of spectators and advertisers who have many other choices. As a product, the NFL is more entertaining if its teams are competitive on the field. The more teams in the playoff hunt toward the end of the season, the greater the interest of fans. That’s why they added wild-card teams to the playoff mix. Policies and rules that promoted greater parity among the teams was the genius of former Commissioner Pete Rozelle, who paved the way for NFL super success.
In many other aspects of its model, however, the NFL is far from socialistic. Players aren’t all paid the same; the best performers make much more. Job security is tenuous; injuries cut careers short and inability to perform can void a contract. In spite of revenue sharing, some franchises are more profitable than others. Market values vary; when teams are sold, some are worth more than others. And at the end of the season, only one team wins the Lombardi Trophy.
No, the NFL isn’t socialist. It’s a business that seeks corporate profits and the enrichment of its franchisees. Maher’s socialist ideal is unsatisfied with mere equality of opportunity. Equality of outcome is its goal. If that were the case in the NFL, every game would end in a tie, the fans would tune out and the league would go broke.
Ironically, Bill Maher earns his living in an intensely competitive business where performers live or die by audience ratings. I doubt that he shares his revenue with competing TV shows. In which case, he’s only an armchair socialist — with other people’s income.
Mike Rosen’s radio show airs weekdays from 9 a.m. to noon on 850-KOA.
