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Inside the NFL
Posted: Tuesday October 19, 1999 03:40 PM Damon Huard's Heroics | Dispatches The Buzz | Dr. Z's Forecast Jerry Jones looks at the Internet and sees more profits for his Cowboys By Peter King
En route to what was for them a so-so year on the field in 1998,
the Cowboys may have set a record for single-season profits by
an American sports franchise. A source close to the club's
ownership told SI last week that the Cowboys netted $57 million
on revenue approaching $180 million.
So much for the last vestiges of the Arkansas hillbilly image Jones brought with him when he bought the Cowboys in 1989. Even fellow owners who still dislike him have to admit that Jones has raised the value of their franchises with his aggressive marketing tactics. One longtime executive with another NFL club who has quietly talked about the evils of Jones's rebellion against the NFL's revenue-sharing plan nevertheless calls Jones a genius for his marketing acumen. There are 12 Cowboys merchandise shops in the Dallas area. The Dallas Cowboys Golf Course, on the site of a major conference center near the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, is in the planning stages. The team will soon become a player in auto racing, sponsoring a total of five cars on the stock car, Indy and drag racing circuits. To boost the team's burgeoning fan base in Mexico, Jones is about to close a deal to move his Texas training camp just north of the Mexican border, in McAllen. Looking long term, the Dallas owner is fascinated with the idea of turning his Texas Stadium site into a theme park of sorts, with a Cowboys Hall of Fame, an interactive play area and rides on the grounds. "Disney replicates the Alamo on a back lot of a movie studio," Jones said last week. "We don't have to replicate the Alamo. We are the Alamo. We're authentic, and we're where the battles are being fought. I want to bring our fans more of what our product is all about." As the next century dawns, the best way to do that might be through the Internet. Thirty-eight years ago NFL owners agreed to pool all network TV money and split it equally among the teams. This form of socialism helped make the league a capitalist triumph, rich and powerful. (The league is in the middle of an eight-year TV contract that pays each of its 31 teams an average of about $70 million annually.) Now, in addition to the NFL's official Web site, every team has its own site. Down the road the league sees a tremendous opportunity to generate revenue that would most likely come in the form of subscriber fees and advertising dollars. "The Internet will be as critical to the future of the NFL as television was in the 1960s," commissioner Paul Tagliabue wrote in an NFL newsletter last month. Jones, of course, would prefer that each franchise fight for -- and keep -- its Internet dollars. "Each team should have the incentive to make the most it can out of the Internet," he says. Jones follows pay sites like jennicam.com, in which a twentysomething woman in Washington, D.C., has put cameras all over her apartment, including one focused on her ferret. She gets up to 5 million hits a day while charging $15 a year for unlimited viewing. Jones sees a day not far off when he has cameras in his office, in the coaches' offices, in the locker room, in meeting rooms, in the cheerleaders' studios (and maybe inside a cheerleader's house) and on the practice fields. "It's one thing to hear about a major team decision after it's been made," Jones says. "But can you imagine watching the steps that led to a decision? Some of this, and we'd have to be careful about it, could be like a soap opera. Some of it's going to be controversial. But it'd be authentic." Jones would be on the cutting edge of fan involvement if he ever goes ahead with this plan to offer live peeks into the Cowboys' world. He could also run into revenue-sharing roadblocks from other owners on this issue and on his intention to opt out of the NFL Properties revenue-sharing plan when the league's agreement with the teams expires in March 2004. "We've put everyone in the league on notice that we will be controlling our own logos starting in 2004," Jones says. A league spokesman says that if three quarters of the teams vote to continue splitting proceeds, the Cowboys will have to go along with the crowd. Lawsuits would probably not be too far behind. The Patriots' Web-savvy owner, Bob Kraft, favors funneling all Internet pay sites through one NFL portal and splitting the revenue, with teams that generate the most traffic getting a proportionately larger number of dollars. "A camera in Jerry's place might be more valuable as part of an aggregation of sites," Kraft said on Monday. "In the short run the Cowboys and the Patriots might make less money, but in the long run it will be better for all of us." So expect some wrangling over what revenue goes where. "If I owned a team," says Jonathan Weber, editor of the Internet magazine The Industry Standard, "I'd be very reluctant to cede control of the Internet. Appealing to rabid sports fans, in theory, would be the kind of thing that could work as a paid model on the Internet." Adds David Fiedler, editor of WebDeveloper.com, "If I were [Jones], I'd get ready for a lot of traffic on a lot of servers. He could have a hot site." Most traditional family owners who are in the game primarily to win football games don't like to see Jones continuing to build his financial empire, figuring he has an unfair advantage when it comes to pursuing marquee free agents. "The thing I fear, for football and the league, is that the money keeps influencing everything," says Steelers owner Dan Rooney. But consider this: Since the Steelers and the Cowboys met in the Super Bowl in January 1996, Pittsburgh is 31-23 with two playoff appearances. Dallas is 29-24 with two playoff appearances.
Down Without a Fight: Vikings quarterback Randall Cunningham stood solemnly in front of his locker following his team's 25-23 loss to the Lions on Sunday, speaking in soft, even tones about the tactical wisdom of Minnesota coach Dennis Green. In particular he lauded Green's halftime decision to bench his starting quarterback -- that would be Cunningham -- in favor of Jeff George. "I support the decision 100 percent," said Cunningham. "It's not my time anymore. It's Jeff's time now." With that, Cunningham teased George, who was dressing next to him, and, in relinquishing his job without so much as a raised eyebrow, seemed but a shadow of the man who just a year ago was a dynamic league MVP candidate. Cunningham's ceding of the starting job so easily seemed a strange way for a respected team leader to handle his demotion. It also spoke volumes about why Green made the switch: to provide a much-needed spark for a flat team that had lost its way. "We needed somebody to step up in the first half, and nobody did," said George, who completed 10 of 14 passes for 214 yards and two touchdowns, leading the Vikings to 20 unanswered points and the cusp of victory. "If Coach Green stays with me, I'm going to do my part." Green quashed any possible controversy when he tersely declared George his new starter. For George to succeed, the Vikings will have to overcome their puzzling ineffectiveness in the red zone. Last season, when Minnesota scored an NFL-record 556 points en route to a 15-1 regular-season record and a berth in the NFC Championship Game, Cunningham and Brad Johnson were highly productive inside their opponents' 20-yard line, completing 45 passes in 89 attempts for 301 yards and 21 touchdowns (with just two interceptions). This year, as defenses in the red zone have blitzed Cunningham less and dropped more defenders into coverage, Cunningham's struggles have been amplified -- he has completed six passes in 22 attempts for 45 yards, three touchdowns and two interceptions. Translation: During their 2-4 start the Vikings have yet to score 24 points in a game. Last season they never scored fewer than 24. The more conservative game plans of first-year offensive coordinator Ray Sherman have also frustrated Cunningham and may do in George as well. Consider Minnesota's final drive on Sunday: George took Minnesota to a first down at the Detroit 15 with 2:05 remaining, but Vikings coaches opted to keep the ball on the ground for three plays and settle for a field goal. Problem was, the Lions needed only a field goal to win and, having used their timeouts wisely, had 1:40 with which to work. Disgusted Minnesota wideout Randy Moss, who criticized Sherman's play-calling earlier in the season, fell just short of doing so again. "We've got a bunch of All-Pros, and they could've called any pass play," said Moss, whose 10-catch, 125-yard, one-touchdown day was wasted. "Now we might not even make the playoffs." —Josh Elliott
Damon Huard's Heroics: After the Dolphins' 31-30 upset of the Patriots at Foxboro on Sunday, Miami assistant head coach Dave Wannstedt wore a wide smile and joshingly said, "Hey -- quarterback controversy?" Damon Huard or Dan Marino? That's a good one. With an eight-yard completion to wideout Tony Martin in the first quarter Marino became the first player in NFL history to reach 60,000 career passing yards. Huard was undrafted out of Washington in 1996, cut by the Bengals as a rookie free agent, employed for a year as a lobbyist for the new stadium effort in Seattle and, before Sunday, a player whose only extended pro experience had come with the Frankfurt Galaxy of NFL Europe in 1998. By the time Marino departed from Sunday's game midway through the first quarter with neck spasms, he had already dug Miami a 7-0 hole on linebacker Andy Katzenmoyer's 57-yard interception return for a touchdown. Huard then got off to an inauspicious start when his first pass attempt was picked off by cornerback Ty Law and returned 27 yards for a score. Over the next 53 minutes Huard was sacked a Dolphins-record nine times. The Foxboro crowd, at its obnoxious best, made it difficult for his teammates to hear his signals. Yet Huard pulled off something Marino has done only once at Foxboro: He drove the Dolphins to the winning touchdown in the final two minutes, throwing a five-yard scoring pass in the flat to fullback Stanley Pritchett with 23 seconds left. "Dan was with me the whole day," Huard said after the game, while sipping a sports drink to combat dehydration. "He was there looking over the pictures on the sideline, telling me little things to keep in mind. He must have said a hundred times, 'Keep your head in it,' and he told me, 'This game's going to be decided in the fourth quarter. Be ready.' What a first-class guy. I value our friendship so much. If I can do anything to help him get his ring, I'll do it." That would include going back to clipboard duty as soon as Marino is ready to play; his availability for this Sunday's game against the Eagles is in doubt. "No controversy," said Miami coach Jimmy Johnson, who made headlines recently when he criticized Marino's play in a loss to the Bills. "Dan's our quarterback." But what Huard did on Sunday (24 completions in 42 attempts for 240 yards, two touchdowns and one interception) was prove to Dolphins fans that the post-Marino era might not be so hopeless after all. "If we played them tomorrow," Patriots strong safety Lawyer Milloy said afterward, "we wouldn't change our game plan. Damon just rose to the occasion." Huard looked particularly strong on the 14-play, 59-yard winning drive in which one play stood out. Facing third-and-nine at the New England 34 with 1:13 left and the crowd roaring, Huard took a shotgun snap. To his left was his primary target, Martin, working against a hard bump from Law. Martin cut across the middle exactly 10 yards downfield with Law in close coverage. Huard threw a strike to Martin for a first down and six plays later connected with Pritchett. "If you believe in yourself, all things are possible," said Huard. "I've watched guys like me -- Jon Kitna, Kurt Warner, Jeff Garcia -- win games this year in this league. It's pretty cool that I did it."
Dispatches: Though former Redskins general manager Charley Casserly has been mentioned most often as the potential architect of the new Houston franchise, Seattle senior vice president Mike Reinfeldt, who started 102 consecutive games at safety for the Oilers from the mid-1970s to early '80s, will get strong consideration. Owner Bob McNair's plan is to find a football man to pair with business associate Steve Patterson to run the franchise.... Ravens backup quarterback Tony Banks, acquired in an off-season trade with the Rams, is still struggling to learn the offense. Banks, who is eligible to become a free agent after this season, has fallen out of favor with coach Brian Billick and will probably be looking for a job in 2000.... The Titans, trying to build a statewide following, have come out firing. At 5-1 they're tied with the Jaguars for the best record in the AFC. Yet CBS affiliate WREG in Memphis, 210 miles west of the team's Nashville base, has passed on Tennessee's last two games, against the Ravens and the Saints, opting instead to televise the Dolphins-Colts and Dolphins-Patriots games.... Falcons quarterback Chris Chandler, who missed most of the first five weeks with a bad hamstring, left a 41-13 loss to the Rams with the flu. "People go to work with stuff like that all the time," Chandler admitted afterward.... Saints coach Mike Ditka gave fans at the Superdome the finger as they booed at halftime of Sunday's game, then grabbed his crotch upon hearing "Ditka sucks!" after a 24-21 loss to Tennessee. "It was wrong," Ditka said a couple of hours later. "I was wrong." On Monday the Saints slapped Iron Mike with a $20,000 fine.... Dating to his days as coach of the Eagles, Packers coach Ray Rhodes has a 19-game road losing streak, including Sunday's horrific 31-10 loss to the Broncos at Mile High Stadium. Rhodes hasn't won away from home since a 21-20 victory over the Jets on Dec. 14, 1996. The loss to Denver prompted Green Bay safety LeRoy Butler to remark, "The word pathetic is a little bit too nice. We're still tied for the division lead -- does that say our division is crappy or what?" 1. Hold Those Eulogies How about Broncos 31, Packers 10? Brian Griese outpassed Brett Favre, 363 yards to 120. Olandis Gary outrushed Dorsey Levens, 124 yards to 12 and had two more carries (37) than Green Bay had plays from scrimmage. Denver's finished? Not so fast. 2. Coming-Out Parties Redskins rookie cornerback Champ Bailey, 21, became the youngest NFL player ever to pick off three passes in a game in Washington's 24-10 win at Arizona. He returned the first interception 59 yards for a touchdown. Then there was the debut of 72-year-old Bill Arnsparger as a Redskins defensive coach. After watching his team give up 118 points in its first four games, coach Norv Turner summoned Arnsparger out of retirement. "There's nothing wrong with admitting to certain things you've come up short on," defensive coordinator Mike Nolan said. 3. Double Trouble The Falcons geared up to stop the Rams' vaunted passing attack, so all Marshall Faulk did was run for 181 yards in a 41-13 St. Louis victory. "It's a great feeling," said Rams free safety Keith Lyle. "Everything we're doing is working."
Issue date: October 25, 1999
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