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After this season can we please stop talking about parity in the NFL? In 1993, the last NFL season without a salary cap, there were five teams with at least eleven wins and only eight teams with six or fewer wins. Fifteen teams had between seven and ten wins. The institution of the salary cap in 1994 was supposed to bring parity to the league and make the traditionally bad teams competitive. It worked for about ten years. However, we found out that in the end, salary cap or no the better run organizations will out perform the poorly run teams.

Coming into the last week of the season we have nine teams that have five or fewer wins and five teams that still have at least eleven wins. Of the teams that have less than six wins one team, the Detroit Lions did not win a single game. The Rams, Chiefs, and Bengals have only three wins. Never have I seen a league where this large a disparity between the haves and have nots. What do the the good teams have? It’s not always money. The good teams have solid management and good coaching staffs. The bad teams have poor ownership, management, and coaching. Teams like the Raiders, Bengals, and Lions have terrible ownership. San Diego made a horrible coaching move in hiring Norv Turner as head coach. Poor drafting and free agent pickups made the Chiefs and Rams what they are today. Poor coaching and a lack of player leadership made a talented Cincinnati team into a four win team.

One aspect of the NFL that keeps bad teams down is the salary of high draft picks. A bad football team can ill afford to make the wrong pick in the draft because not only does the team pickup a player who doesn’t help them but they also pick up a huge salary and signing bonus. Teams like San Fransisco and Detroit are almost devoid of talent due to early round draft busts. A rookie salary cap would go a long way towards helping bad teams get better but even a cap cannot prevent bad draft choices.

In the end it always comes down to competence. Smart people generally do better than people who are not as intelligent. Owners who pick great management and let them run the team almost always do better than hands on owners (Jerry Jones, Al Davis). Also, managers who choose good football coaches who have a system or fit into the philosophy of management will always win games. Here’s to the downfall of parity and the rise of meritocracy. Let the inept fail and the great prosper… as long as your team prospers.