It's more of an oligarchy: the owners get together and agree on policy for all.

I am, of course, ignoring the NFLPA in that assessment, but they almost function as de facto 33rd owner in that regard.

not to split hairs here, but after reading Marx's "Das Kapital" in my naive past, I really don't think you can make the point that the NFL is communist. What you could find is that it is closer to socialism, if you want to compare it to a political theory. The main components missing for comparing it to communism is that all property is publicly owned (and by public here i mean the NFL owners). While some monies like TV etc are distributed by certain rules, the marketing and merchandising revenue etc is not shared... And secondly, that the people working for them are paid according to their abilities and needs. I am not sure the lower paid players haven't the same or even higher needs than star players, and sometimes it really isn't the abilities the players are paid for...

But I agree with dobber, it really is an oligarchy, where the control of the whole organization is in the hands of a few people, namely the owners...

It sure seems like a much healthier enterprise than MLB.

Must be an election year.

if you dont like the NFL, be a baseball fan, no salary cap, the good players are often going to the same teams with the most money, it's a league, the teams belong to it, lots of money to go around

Oh well. Two seasons ago the Packers were less than three minutes from the SB; last year, the offense was crippled with the loss of Nelson, yet they took a very good Cardinal team into OT. Without Cook. I'd certainly would like to see what he could do with a HOF QB throwing him the ball, but he's an upgrade, not a necessity.

If the NFL were Communist (as defined by Marx), the workers would own the means of production.

Do any NFL players and office staff own teams?

Nope. (Except maybe the Packers, but Packer stock is not restricted exclusively to players and staff, so still not Commie.)

Id the NFL were Socialist (as defined by Lenin/Mao, et al), the state would own the means of production and administer it for the equal benefit of all.

Does the US government own the NFL? Nope. No state or city governments either. (Again the closest example would be our beloved Packers, but that only works if you ignore all the stockholders outside Brown County, and all the Brown County residents who don't own stock).

If the NFL were "Social Democratic" as defined by a whole bunch of people up to and including Bernie Sanders, There would be a strong labor union and some essential services would be owned by the general public (the whole population, whether directly as in Milwaukee's Water and Sewer utilities or by the government as a proxy.)

OK, you are halfway there, as the NFLPA is pretty strong. But 50% similar is not a score either. You need to be lots more than half right to make a claim stick.

If the NFL were capitalist...

Now here is where it gets interesting. There are a lot of varieties of Capitalism, something people don't seem to remember too often

Oligopoly comes close, but isn't quite right.

What the NFL really is is a business made up of cooperating franchises, where the wealthier franchisees have made the **business decision** to support franchises in smaller communities or with weaker finances, with the intent of growing the **total business** to be as large as it can possibly be.

(It's a fundamental mistake to think of NFL franchises as separate business that compete against each other economically. All of the owners understand they need the other teams so they can play games and sell tickets to their fans -- they compete on the field of play, and cooperate when it comes to money.)

Talent sharing (via the draft), Revenue sharing, "Labor peace" (by allowing a monopolistic players' union) and the salary cap revenue sharing are entirely subordinate to that business decision made originally in the 30's (with the draft) and renewed in the 60's (Rozelle) and the CBAs from 1992 through 2011 (which were marked as much by negotiations between the owners as they were between the League and the NFLPA).

Note that this business decision has faced every franchise-style organization since franchising was invented by monks in the hills of central France back in the mid 11th century.

And how has the NFL done? The more the franchises have cooperated, the bigger the business has grown, until it is the most valuable single sports league on the planet. (Soccer has more total net worth only if you count multiple leagues from multiple countries.)

Co-operating to grow the business as big as possible used to be a more common business model than it is in today's post-modern world where no-one seems capable of thinking beyond the next quarter's share price, but 'get rich big' businesses have always applied it, even though everyone else seems to have forgotten that there are more ways than one to be capitalist.

There is no way making a for profit enterprise the biggest and most profitable of its industry in the world even remotely qualifies as communist, socialist, or any other kind of 'ist' except for one: The NFL is as capitalist as its possible to be.

Thomas - you are breathlessly clueless:

"The Black Book of Communism" written by many European authors goes into the murder of over 100,000,000 people by Communist Regimes in the 20th century in gruesome detail. The NFL doesn't murder anyone - players are free to play or not. Concussions happen but now there are rules. The system fixes itself. Try PBR bull riding by comparison. Those guys are at much higher risk and they get paid zilch.

NFL punters gets $1 million a year. By comparison:

In the 1980's in the USSR the average medical doctor's monthly salary was 200 Rubles a month - that was $200 a month. Syringes were rationed - a few per hospital - the medical care was free but the workers knew not to go to a Soviet Hospital. It was as deadly as the Gulag. Only progressives and Harvard professors swallowed the Communist propaganda.

Lay off the Communism comparisons until you get a grasp of history. Incidentally I was a spy against them back in the good old days and their B.S. didn't fool us as the facts were readily apparent. That was 50 years ago.

Once the USSR fell the secret records were opened and the true stories came out for all to see. Anyone pushing the USSR "socialism" angle these days is one hateful P.O.S.

I watched people being brutally murdered trying to escape Eastern Europe back then so I saw it all. It is seared in my memory.

"The NFL Is Basically Communist" ....

The NFL is definitely something but not hardly communist. You chose the wrong word. A redo on this whole blog would be smart.

Go capitalism!

Not to pile on - but what?

I guess McDonalds is Communist also. The best burger flipper in the world still makes the same amount as the slacker that takes 19 breaks a day. Damn Commies

The NFL is the best (or worst depending on your point of view) of capitalism. You make the mistake of thinking Dallas and Green Bay are competitors and not just different branches of the same company. To make every team as competitive as possible the NFL has used revenue sharing, the draft, and salary caps in their efforts to maximize their profit potential. Pure capitalism.

I don't care how the League or the teams do it. The players can and do negotiate salaries very efficiently. That is Capitalism at its best. There is a QB south of Green Bay that is a shining example of Capitalism in the NFL. It is also my understanding that the teams and players get bonus money for making it to the playoffs and Superbowl so how is that Communist?

I was a little disappointed with the article.

In a horse race, Aren't the better horses weighed down to make the horse race a better race?