NFL Business, Organizational Structure, & a CHIEFS Game Recap

Josh Kingsley

This was an interesting NFL week for me, but not for football reasons. Fair warning up front: this column is light on the actual CHIEFS/Bills game. I do have thoughts to share regarding last Sunday, but I have much more about the topic of organizational behavior. Organizational behavior is of great interest to me for a few reasons:

I live life as an observer. It is interesting to see how people act given circumstances, and to apply theory to potentially change the effects and possibly cause.
I am exploring the possibilities of a doctorate in business with a eye toward joining higher education as a professor.
My career is nearing a couple decades and is quite diverse.

To bluntly expand on the last point: I’ve had a ton of jobs. In my almost 20 years in the post college work force I have been with Fortune 100, Fortune 500, startup and private firms. I’ve had specific positions, and I’ve been around every marketing block that exists, multiple sales roles in various formats, and have led teams of people. As a business owner I have dozens of employees. In short, I have spent countless hours considering organizational culture, behavior, and how it all forms.

Business is Business

I have one principle theory that I’ve personally formed regarding business: it’s all the same. Let me further explain my obvious simplification of complex dynamics. I believe all business is the same process and exercise, but the stakes and players are fluid. Every business (and organization that operates like one – looking at the social clubs that collect dues and plan events) is a group of people working toward group and personal goals with money involved. This is as true for the lemonade stand your kids put in the yard as it is for the Fortune 500 manufacturing company. Both of these organizations have leaders tasked with growing the business and taking care of the people involved. The lemonade stand may be a single kid, but they most likely get help from a parent. This can come in the form of buying supplies, helping organize, or simply providing encouragement.

The parent in the lemonade stand example is a vendor in the first two points and a mentor in the third. This small scale example covers all of these dynamics:

The stand proprietor must balance work and personal life in the forms of forgoing play time to sell, managing working relationships with parents and involved friends, and finding motivation for all of this.
Management of cost of goods, selling price and profit margin.
Planning for growth and sustainability.

The largest organizations in the world deal with the same things, but on a monumental scale by comparison. All of the goals are the same: effectively manage relationships, keep everyone motivated, and grow business. The main difference across business types and sizes is scale. Larger companies have more people, risk and overall stakes to consider.

Growth vs Maintenance

The oversimplification continues: I also believe every business is in one of these modes. My belief is these are the only real paths with the exception of working towards ending a business via shutdown/closure… even then someone is trying to maintain max assets. I have worked for both types of companies. The real X factor here is words vs actions. Almost every company says they are in growth mode, but actually behave in maintenance mode. Here are the ways I describe growth mentality:

Focus on sales growth above all else
Constant innovation of products and services
New offerings often
Heavy focus on sales and promotion
Loose focus on expenses (within reason)
Every good idea/project receives funding
Failures are learning experiences

Any company that speaks growth, but avoids these activities is not being honest with itself. They are maintaining their position by doing things like:

Focusing on the bottom line profit above all else
Long budget process
Intense financial scrutiny
Laser focus review of expenses
Planned and approved projects receive funding
Avoid failure like the plague

There is nothing wrong with either of these approaches. The maintaining companies drive our retirement plans. Risk averse investors wanting things like dividends and security flock to them. Incredibly smart people runs these organizations. They comprise the vast majority of businesses and I’ve worked for many.

My personal belief: growth is more fun. The risk is much higher, but so is the reward. I like it because of the ride. Growth minded companies try more “crazy” things. I find motivation much easier in this scenario.

My NFL Business Review

I bring all 700+ words above up to explain my philosophy as I discuss the business that is the NFL.

Two things happened this week that caught my eye, and ignited a thoughtful review. The first one goes to our old friend Tyreek Hill. Please don’t check out on me, I promise this is not another “we should have kept him” thingy. My focus is on the ping pong table. The players removed their ping pong table from the team facility. Coach Mike McDaniel lauded the removal as a greater focus on work, patting himself on the back for increasing the accountability culture. Hill corrected the situation by confirming the table only left for a replacement.

This situation made me laugh for multiple reasons:

The first, reason is the disconnect. It is both funny and sad that a coach and captain are either misaligned on this topic, or airing a disagreement publicly.
The second laugh comes from the act itself. I think things like ping pong tables are good. A table and tournaments naturally foster getting the team together, which is good for culture.

Every business runs with a group of people, and for the Dolphins that includes a group of 53 roster players. It is statistically impossible for them to all be friends. Work tension has a way of amplifying the dislike situations, ping pong games have a way of diffusing.

The final funny point is –> the idea that a ping pong table affects game preparation in any way. This is a nonsensical, old school thought process revolving around total focus at work. The idea is a sham that overlooks personal conversations at the water cooler, bathroom time, etc. If an hour of ping pong spells the difference between being prepared or not, it’s already over.

The NFL’s Worst Run Division

Company emails to large groups are a constant thing. We all have jobs and we all get them. Most of them give us a relevant update and we move forward. However, sometimes we receive infuriating non-updates with the implication to bite the tongue and get in line. My favorite moment of the week was the public call out of one such sham email. Apparently the NFL sends a weekly email with video regarding the officiating to all GM and coaches. This is not a surprise as it sounds like standard operating procedure. The difference is, this week a coach took it upon himself to speak for the collective via reply all. I will start with my sincerest “cheers” to Mike Vrabel for his move.

Hitting reply all is the most infuriating move in a company setting. We all get too much email as it is, and no one wants to see their co-workers thoughts and feelings. Management squirms at the lack of alignment and basic decorum. The difference here is management took the only annoyance. Vrabel spoke for every coach, GM, player and fan that is sick and tired of the lack of officiating consistency and clarity, and the message was poetry. His message effectively said, “Hey NFL, you guys try really hard, which is cool, but you suck out loud on a fundamental task. Get better yesterday.” It was/is poetry.

“I appreciate the time and energy that goes into these videos, but I suggest we devote every minute of our officiating departments’ time ensuring our officiating crews are as well trained in the clarifications we worked to create in the off season and that each crew is as consistent as possible. Thank you.” –Mike Vrabel

The Implications

The email was the NFL equivalent of a big companies weekly recap of financials that calls out areas for improvement. Vrabel’s reply all was the equivalent of a sales leader replying back to say “how about we provide more inventory and better customer service instead of running with skeleton crews and shoestring operational budgets.”

I consider the officiating organization as a division of the NFL. The league as a whole is in aggressive growth mode. They are growing revenue, taking risks (international games, streaming Thursday Night, etc.), promoting heavily, and making sure every good idea (new stadiums, new promo programs) receive funding. Yes, I know where some of this funding comes from, but it does not change the fact or my point of things receiving funding.

The officiating organization is the division that can’t afford pens. Execs appear to view it as a non-value-add cost center that legally must exist. It has known problems and clear solutions, but they are expensive and no one wants to take the criticism from investors. If this was a manufacturing company the solutions are domestic plants, more customer service and more inventory.

Management wants to protect financials –> while customers — fans — are suffering. Vrabel’s email is an indication of a frustrated staff ready to quit.

My Solution

I believe the NFL has two potential solutions, but one common thread. The common thread is investment. I generally cringe at people telling companies how to run their financials, but this is ridiculous. The NFL does not invest in this and I find it as obvious as it is offensive. Read these two links about operations and pay scale.

By my basic math the NFL has an official payroll around $24M and pays an additional $250K to the Super Bowl team. The NFL spends 1.4% of it’s $17.2B revenue on what they call the 3rd team? Get. The. <insert your own “F” word of choice here>. Out. Of. Here.

The league minimum salary is $705K, but officials average less than a 1/3 of that? It’s insulting. My belief is that the average NFL official salary should be closer to $500K. The next step is the training and prep program enhancement. All officials required to physically meet for a full day each week to review specific situations seems reasonable. Weekly notes to players about how to handle situations (like tackling a QB in the pocket) required. Make these guys and gals high paid, completely accountable professionals of their field. I understand the ridiculous nature of commenting on a $205K salary this way, but the current NFL position is barely a real job. Fix it, Goodell and NFL.

Editor’s Note: the Lowest NFL salary for a player is $430,000 (that’s a rookie or UDFA who is on the Inactive Roster). It’s $705,000 for a rookie/UDFA on the Active Roster.

There is another option if the NFL doesn’t want to invest in people like this: technology. The biggest problem with officiating in all sports is the fact that technology has outpaced human eyes. Live officials will always be a level of subjective. They can always harness robotics, cameras and AI technology to remove the human element and become truly objective. It probably costs significantly more that my first proposal, but it’s a real thing.

Pick your poison, NFL: people or tech.

Last Rant Regarding Calls

I really mean it when I comment that complaining about calls bothers me. However, lack of progress bothers me more, and this is at a point that requires commentary. The current landscape is affecting the product and games, not my game and my team. We are in the realm of bad product and/or customer service, and I cannot tolerate those. The in play calls like roughing and pass interference are troubling, but the truly subject calls are downright infuriating.

All the unsportsmanlike stuff is out of control. Chris Jones got a flag for talking against Indy, and JuJu got one against the Bills for the same.

Editor’s Note: DL John Randall, who played from 1990 to 2003, was one of the biggest trash talkers of all time, and many time right in front of the ref (notice the bleeps in the video below).

For me, blatant racial slurs and direct threats of “I’ll kill you in the parking lot” nature are the only words that warrant a flag. The officials can choke on their flags otherwise. I also have no issues with QBs screaming at their linemen. The $705K league minimum is life changing money for about anyone and can require thick enough skin to absorb harsh commentary. NFL player is a big boy job in a boiler room atmosphere, which includes taunting and trash talking. Vanilla ice cream has enough flavor to tolerate this.

Last comments: make Tom Brady buy the tablets and let him break whatever he wants, and for the love of all things fun let them go over the top in the end zone.

Game Recap

I saw 3 things Sunday afternoon:

A game better suited for Prime Time than 2 of the 3 (pretty confident the NFL agrees)
Proof of Tony Romo’s clairvoyance
The best teams in the league

Buffalo and Kansas City are tops at the moment. The game was intense, entertaining even, and decided by the last drives. Josh Allen was essentially perfect and Patrick Mahomes was not. The other difference? The Bills won the turnover battle 2-1. This was a playoff game in every way, but the actual stakes. Does the AFC run through Buffalo? Yes, for now. The Bills can, and probably will, lose a game like we did to Indy. They host a ticked off Aaron Rodgers this weekend, and later travel to Detroit and Chicago. They can easily pay for an off day in any or all of those. This is still a 17 game season, so CHIEFS mission is to move forward.

Key Things for the Future

The virtual last play of the game was a Mahomes INT. This was an uncomfortable reprise of the AFC Championship game vs the Bengals. Patrick needs to be more willing to burn a play and chuck the ball out of harm. This will happen. However, I do want to throw a very minor amount of blame toward Skyy Moore on the last play Sunday. Please attack the ball in this tight window. This is a huge — and reasonable — ask, but the consciousness that will make you elite.

The other futures bet was the coverage scheme. Kansas City trotted two rookies out at CB with the assignment to stop Stephon Diggs and Gabe Davis. The combined 13 catches on 19 targets for 221 yards and 2 TD was big production, for the WR duo. On the surface this is a complete failure of both defensive scheme and CB effectiveness. However, I look at the positives. Two rookies held two elite veteran WR to 110 yards and a TD each. The longest catch was for 34, not 60+, yards. Buffalo ended with 24 points. The rookies held their own in my opinion. Kansas City’s coaching staff gave them a ridiculous assignment, and they almost finished it. This is a good thing.

A Crazy Fun Idea

I was sitting at a bar watching hockey earlier this week. Shockingly, a fight broke out after a play. Fighting is one of the odd calling cards for the sport. Some of these instances are legitimate fits of rage and dislike, but more are part of the game posture and flow. Hockey is a fast game on a slick surface. Fights sharpen the players and senses, break up the pace, and provide entertainment for fans. A friend and I came up with a cool twist: add points. The fact that we both wrestled in high school is an important note. Our idea is to award points for take-downs, reversals and putting guys on their backs. The only question after that was what the points mean? Our proposal is to accumulate for a team and award an extra goal to the higher total.

This is not happening, but now you know I thought about it.

Media of the Week

My song this week is “Valerie.” Amy Winehouse made the song famous before her unfortunate demise from addiction, and I love that song.

She had an all world voice and gave the song soul. However, my favorite version is the original by the Zutons.

The movie of the week is a newer one that most missed, “Nobody.” It stars Bob Odenkirk as a suburban, working family man coasting through life. Until he becomes a ruthless killing machine.

It reminds me of “Taken” in many ways. The tight 90 minute run time, which used to be a thing, was my first note. It probably has a heightened level of gore and brutality though. I will reiterate the movie is rough, but it does have a well defined bad guy as well. Overall, I left thoroughly entertained, and that is why I watch movies in the first place.

Josh Kingsley — ArrowheadOne and Arrowhead Kingdom