Originally Posted by PitDAWG
Originally Posted by MemphisBrownie
Originally Posted by bonefish
Every team that bid on DW had to agree to 3 first rounders. The four teams that submitted bids had to bid at least that.

And at least one wanted to be able to match/counter offer the guaranteed money.

They said they weren't given the opportunity to match the offer, not that they would. First one would have to question how many, if any of those NFL owners could just cough up 230 million and put it in a bank account on a moments notice.

Here's the bottom line in all of this. There are uber rich owners and some not so uber rich owners.

Just like with baseball owners. This unprecedented 230 million guarantee will make the NFL no different than MLB.

There will be the Steinbrenner's of the league who can put 230 million into an account and those who can't. Right now the NFL looks at Haslam as their Steinbrenner.

Talk about manipulating the cap. No wonder the NFL is fighting this tooth and nail.

Honestly, the Haslam's are middle of the pack as owners as far as their networth. Tepper in Carolina is around 4 times as "wealthy." The main guy that bought the Broncos is over 10 times as "wealthy." Bisciotti of the Ravens has a higher networth than the Haslams. Link: NFL's Richest Owners

It's not that the Haslams are Steinbrenner, its that the other owners prefer hoarding their money. They like being able to manipulate their effectively monopolized market to take advantage of their workers like most billionaires. Haslam signed Watson to a "free market" deal, as capitalism is supposed to work. The other owners seem committed to their "price fixing" ways.

We'll see how things shake out.