Pro football provides the circus for the hordes.
~~ Congressman Emanuel Celler

In 1969, the National Football League (NFL) was in the biggest developmental stage in its history. It was merging with its rival, the American Football League (AFL), and fans of the NFL weren't accepting the new competition. In both Super Bowl I and II, the NFL (represented by the Green Bay Packers) had proven their dominance over the younger, weaker AFL. Now, with Super Bowl III looming and the merger and the resultant television contracts hanging in the balance, something had to be done.

This time, the AFL would be represented by the New York Jets, led by the highest paid player of the time, quarterback Joe Namath. Representing the NFL were one of its oldest franchises, the Baltimore Colts, who were made 18-point favorites by the bookmakers to win the game. Yet, just a few days prior to the game, Joe Namath brashly guaranteed the Jets would win.

He was proven correct when the Jets beat the Colts 16-7 in one of the biggest upsets in NFL history. More than an upset, it was a turning point for the NFL. Not only did it give credibility to the AFL teams in the fans' eyes, it further opened the NFL's doors to the TV networks, whose deep pockets finance football to this day.

The question remains, however, why was Namath so sure of victory? I believe Joe Namath is the "smoking gun" of the NFL, and that Super Bowl III was the first -- but definitely not the last time -- that the NFL fixed the outcome of one of its own games.

"Namath and his teammates' performance secured the two Leagues at the very least $100,000,000 in future TV revenue. The game was almost too good to be true," commented former NFL player Bernie Parrish in 1971. "Considering other devices imposed by TV's needs to lift fan interest and raise the advertisers' prices, perhaps it was too good to be true." [1] Football great Bubba Smith, who played for the Colts in Super Bowl III, wrote in his autobiography that the game had been "set up" for the Jets in order to boost the AFL's credibility. [2] In a later Playboy interview, Smith elaborated, "That Super Bowl game, which we lost by nine points, was the critical year. The game just seemed odd to me. Everything was out of place. I tried to rationalize that our coach, Don Shula, got out-coached, but that wasn't the case. I don't know if any of my teammates were in on the fix."

Fixes and Tweaks

The NFL is a business, first and foremost. In 1996, Financial World magazine valued the worth of the average NFL franchise at $174 million. Consumers spent $3 billion dollars on NFL team related merchandise. On average, more than 12 million viewers watch a regular telecasted game. [3] And it is television that feeds the most money to this ever hungry beast.

Originally, each NFL team sold its broadcast right individually. However in 1961, thanks in part to President John F. Kennedy, Congress passed the Sports Antitrust Broadcast Act, which paved the way for the NFL to market its games as a package. This first "package" was sold to CBS for $4.65 million. Three years later it was up to $14.1 million. By 1974, with the addition of Monday Night Football, it was a robust $57.6 million. A 1978 poll showed that 70% of the nation's sports fans followed football, compared to 54% pursuing baseball. [4] The prices escalated accordingly. By 1984, the networks were paying the NFL $434 million. In 1998, the last time the networks purchased the rights to the NFL’s games, CBS paid $4 billion dollars for eight years, with ESPN shelling out $600 million and ABC adding an additional $550 million a year. That doesn't include the over $1 billion the FOX network paid just a few years earlier.

The only way these numbers can be recouped is the ratings, and the resulting advertising revenue. But how has football become America's #1 spectator sport? Certainly, it offers drama, violence, and raw emotion for 12 hours every Sunday in the fall. Cinderella stories, remarkable comebacks, and unabashed tragedies in every play, game and season. However, to develop these stories and keep those ratings soaring higher, I believe the NFL fixes/tweaks/scripts its games to get the maximum output from its product.

Super Bowls are not won, they are awarded. Some because of the stories they provide, others as rewards, but each for a reason: Green Bay for bringing tradition back to the game; Denver and John Elway in 1997 for their long suffering seasons (perhaps at the League's insistence); St. Louis and Tennessee in 1999 for their willingness to relocate for the League; and most recently, the re-located Baltimore Ravens and their long time owner Art Modell, whose commitment to the NFL reaches back to the 1960s.

Profit Driven

Like any CEO, the NFL owners are profit driven. The fan is secondary in their scheme. Why else would they pull teams like the Baltimore Colts and the Cleveland Browns out of their respective cities when these teams constantly played to sell out crowds? Both moves were made because the new city (Indianapolis and Baltimore) offered the owners better stadium deals, and more cash in the owner's pockets. The media may label such moves "tragedies," yet according to author Jon Morgan in his book Glory for Sale: Fans, Dollars, and the New NFL, "Television network executives said they didn't care where teams were based. The NFL had become a national broadcast product. It would garner high viewership wherever the games were played." [5]

Another huge source of revenue for the League comes from expansion teams. New teams are asked to pay an "initiation" fee of $150 million or more just to join the League. What, exactly, is this money for? Nothing. It is simply "profit divided up among the other rich kids that got there first." [6] Expansion is always on the NFL's mind. In fact, I believe it accounts for the success of the Carolina Panthers and the Jacksonville Jaguars in 1995. Both teams, in just their second year of existence, managed to reach their respective conference championship, just one win shy of the Super Bowl. Neither won, yet they were each hailed as success stories. This justified further expansion, with the addition of the new Cleveland Browns as well as the coming Houston Texans.