Someone in an NFL coach's office just said what everyone's been thinking, and they said it loud.
An anonymous current head coach sent a text message to Pro Football Talk that pulls exactly zero punches: "At this very moment, [this is] the worst collective of 32 owners in league history."
Read that again. The worst. In league history.
And you know what? Looking at the carnage of this offseason, it's hard to argue with him.
Ten teams - nearly one-third of the entire NFL - made coaching changes this year. Ten. Eight head coaching positions remained vacant as of Monday after the Buffalo Bills shocked the football world by firing Sean McDermott, a coach who's taken them to the playoffs six times in eight seasons.
Let that sink in for a second. The Bills just canned a coach with a .624 winning percentage. A guy who turned a laughingstock franchise into perennial contenders. And they showed him the door because - what? - they couldn't get over the hump and win a Super Bowl with one of the league's best quarterbacks?
This is the insanity the anonymous coach is talking about. This is the dysfunction eating the league from the inside out.
Here's the thing nobody wants to say out loud but everyone knows: there are no competence requirements to own an NFL team. You don't have to know football. You don't have to understand organizational management. You don't have to demonstrate any qualifications whatsoever.
You just need money. Either enough cash to buy your way in, or the good fortune to inherit a team from a family member who had enough cash. That's it. That's the barrier to entry for running a multi-billion dollar sports franchise that employs hundreds of people and shapes the lives and careers of players, coaches, and staff.
And what happens when unqualified owners make football decisions? Chaos. Impatience. Panic firings. The exact kind of dysfunction we're seeing right now.
