The unseemly side of the NFL: Business is about to rear its ugly head

The LA Rams are just one of 32 teams in the NFL. And for many years, there is a boogeyman in the closet of each NFL team that few like to talk about. It’s always there, waiting in the darkness. Of course, days and even weeks can go by without it rearing its ugly head. Sometimes no beast from the NFL’s darkest and deepest cellars and sewers sees the light of day for months. When that happens it’s easy to forget that one dark truth about the NFL.

It’s just a business, after all.

And much like the normal business transaction of buying and selling stocks, or bonds, or even real estate, there are two fundamental business questions behind each transaction that must be answered. First – How much will this cost me?  Second – How much will this make for me? Even the most philanthropic of billionaires understand that generous donations that get good media coverage which sells goods and services that much faster.

The NFL is like that. A business entity with hundreds of decisions, each tied to that fundamental pair of tag-along questions.

This type of unfortunate set of circumstances places an NFL to the test. Will the team show good business sense? Or will the team show compassion and generosity? (queue one of my favorite Christmas songs: Thank you very much!)

The way NFL rules are constructed, the NFL only obligates itself to take responsibility for injuries that take place on NFL property or during NFL guided activities. That means that the Denver Broncos have no obligation to pay Ja’Wuan James for any time that he misses due to injury incurred while working out privately in preparation for the upcoming 2021 NFL season.  As many as 21 teams have decided that they will not be participating in voluntary Organized Team Activities.

However, this turns out is not really the point here. When the business is about player’s lives, there is something greater at stake here. Not upon an NFL team owner, but upon the entire NFL league. This is a moment and a matter when the NFL can take the lead on caring for players. In the end, it’s just a business because that is all the more investment that stakeholders place into it.

What a refreshing change of pace this would be to seize the opportunity to make it about family and friendship instead.