What do Mexican drug lords, Middle Eastern nations and South African diamond companies have in common with the National Football League? The answer is that they are all examples of cartels. Each of these groups engage in the same basic business practices. They all exercise exclusive control over a limited commodity. They also use patronage, extortion, intimidation and bribery to some degree. The irony is that one of these organizations is considered criminal whereas the others are seen as legitimate.
Cartels arise when a group of individuals share a common goal and access to a limited resource. Most of the time that common goal is increased profit. The resource in question could be anything from drugs to oil to professional sports. It doesn’t really matter, they all operate in the same manner. The individual actors in the cartel, people who would otherwise be competitors, find that they can cooperate in a way that benefits everyone in the group. Limiting outside competition and controlling the supply and price over an exclusive commodity has proven to be very lucrative. So long as everyone in the cartel benefits, the individual members are often willing to overlook some collateral damage to society.
Mexican drug cartels first formed in the 1980’s.They rose to power because they controlled an important resource, namely the land smuggling corridors that connect North and Central America. Cocaine is manufactured in places like Colombia and its primary market is the United States. The most obvious smuggling route between the two locales is through the Gulf of Mexico. During the early 1980’s, Florida was the main entry point for drugs coming into America.This phenomena was popularized with movies like “Scarface” and TV shows like “Miami Vice.” The problem for the smugglers was that the DEA and the Coast Guard got better at interdicting the flow of narcotics. By the start of the 1990’s, it had become increasingly challenging to reach U.S. shores via the Gulf. The drug traffickers were forced to look for alternatives.
The land smuggling routes through Mexico proved to be a good substitute. Mexico was a country replete with corrupt government officials and an honored tradition of bribery, the perfect environment for smuggling. The Mexican drug cartels essentially became the middlemen for the flow of cocaine and other narcotics into America. Each Cartel controlled its own particular smuggling route into the U.S. The result was a trail of mayhem and decapitated bodies stretching from Guatemala to California. Mexico was basically turned into a war zone as the cartels openly battled amongst themselves and against the government in an ever escalating-cycle of violence. Each side employed increasingly brutal tactics and lots of innocent Mexican people were caught in the crossfire.
Football and drugs have a lot in common. They are both highly addictive and they generate huge amounts of money. Professional football has existed in America for a long time. The sport however did not reach its current level of popularity until recently. The modern NFL cartel began in the year 1970 with the AFL/NFL merger and the start of the Super Bowl Era. From that point forward, the league has grown astronomically to eclipse all other professional sports. As it stands today, professional football is a multi-billion dollar enterprise with no sign of slowing down. With that kind of revenue, comes incredible power and leverage. There is also the potential to abuse that power, which the NFL does with regularity. The National Football League acts as many other Cartels do, they put their own self-interest and profits ahead of any other concerns.
Hostage-taking has a long legacy in Mexico and other Latin American countries. Kidnappings happen frequently, it is a lucrative business, they are rarely reported and almost nobody gets convicted. Given that context, it is no wonder that Mexican drug cartels have adopted and honed this practice to further their business interests. The cartels regularly kidnap those who stand in their way, be they politicians, ordinary citizens or members of opposing cartels. The NFL also engages in hostage taking, in fact they have taken it one step further. The NFL does not kidnap individuals, instead they will hold entire cities hostage.
NFL owners measure success not only by their respective teams’ win/loss records. They also measure success by the facilities those teams play in. A modern NFL stadium is worth at least $1 Billion and they feature all manner of luxuries and technological innovations. Every NFL franchise eventually comes under pressure to either upgrade, renovate or replace their existing stadium. Given the enormous revenue that the NFL generates, coupled with the fact that all of the owners are Billionaires, it would be logical to assume that they would pay for these exorbitant new stadiums on their own. That however is not the case. NFL owners often seek public assistance and taxpayer dollars to subsidize new stadiums. Whenever a local government balks at these requests, the NFL will then threaten to relocate the team to another city. Most of the time the local politicians will bend over backward to capitulate. Being the Mayor of a city that lost an NFL franchise is not very good for reelection.
One of the main tenets of a cartel is that they treat people as an expendable resource. The individuals at the bottom are valuable only as it relates to the overall profit of the cartel. For example, diamond mines in South Africa have a long history of deplorable labor standards. A diamond is forever, but the people who happen to mine those diamonds usually lead short, brutal lives in appalling working conditions. Mexican drug cartels are famous for their use of drug mules. These are the poor individuals they use to smuggle drugs across the border, often by ingesting them. They will recruit desperate people from the streets of border cities Tijuana or Juarez, pay them a few hundred dollars to to swallow a dozen balloons full of heroin or cocaine, and attempt to cross into the United States. Sometimes these balloons will rupture and the mule will die of an overdose. For the individual it will cost them their life, for the cartel that is just the cost of doing business.
The NFL also treats people with impunity, the individual football players have value so long as they can contribute to the success of their teams. Once they reach the arc of their incredibly short career spans, they are cast aside. Although football players are paid handsomely for their services, many of these individuals will have sustained debilitating injuries and possible brain damage that could severely impact their quality of life in later years. There are countless horror stories of suicide, depression, painkiller addiction, homelessness and dementia amongst former NFL players.
Cartels like to make their own rules. They consider themselves to be extrajudicial entities. They do not necessarily feel bound by the laws of the nations in which they operate. Instead they create their own legal structure and system of justice. Mexican drug cartels are able to flaunt the laws of their respective country because they engage in the wholesale bribery of law enforcement. There are entire police jurisdictions in Mexico where every office is on the payroll of a drug cartel. In addition to the police, they will bribe prosecutors, judges, politicians, even the attorney general of Mexico was in their pocket at one time. Despite the widespread bribery in Mexico, occasionally the cartels do run afoul of uncorrupted law enforcement officials. In those rare instances when cartel leaders do end up in prison, they pull off these miraculous “Shawshank Redemption” type of jailbreaks. Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman is the head of the Sinaloa Cartel, arguably the largest drug trafficking organization in Mexico. He has escaped from prison not once, but twice. His most recent getaway involved escaping via motorcycle through a mile-long tunnel that his minions secretly excavated underneath a maximum security prison. The fact that he had the huevos (balls) to even attempt such a move speaks volumes to the far-reaching power of the Cartels and their contempt for law and order.
The NFL is just as arrogant as any Mexican drug cartel when it comes to the rule of law. They essentially pick and choose which rules they wish to follow and they enforce justice in their own draconian manner. Take drug laws for example. Marijuana is now legal in 3 states in America. However the NFL continues to suspend players if they test positive for it, even if they happen to reside in a state where it perfectly legal. At the same time, the NFL turns a blind eye to the rampant abuse of prescription painkillers amongst its players and training staff. NFL players are regularly pumped full of addictive opioid painkillers that allow them to play through excruciating injuries. Many of these players get hooked during their playing days and retire with serious addictions.
The NFL’s attitude towards concussions and brain damage is just as problematic and selective as their actions on drug use. It has been known for years that playing professional football can result in concussions. Repeated concussions can then lead to a condition known as CTE, a degenerative brain disease linked to violent mood swings and suicide. It has been speculated that CTE is what drove former NFL players Dave Duerson and Junior Seau to take their own lives. Not only has the NFL denied any link between football and CTE, they have done their utmost to suppress any medical research supporting a connection. The NFL also attempted to pay off their former players with $765 Million in hush money in order to avoid a costlier brain injury lawsuit down the road. While not entirely illegal, that kind of maneuver is definitely immoral. Furthermore, a Federal Judge saw through that ruse and declared the figure to be totally insufficient.
The final way in which the NFL makes its own laws concerns due process. In America we afford certain rights to those charged with crimes. They get legal representation, their cases have to be heard in a timely manner, Judges are supposed to be impartial, and trials are intended to be open and fair. However when the NFL disciplines one of its players, all of those rules are cast aside. Roger Goodell is the commissioner of the NFL and he acts as Judge, Jury and Executioner when handing out justice. In that role he has demonstrated little consistency when dealing with player infractions. If a player gets caught smoking weed or using under-inflated footballs, they receive a 4 game suspension. If a player knocks his fiancee out cold in a hotel elevator, well then they only have to miss 2 games. It’s inconsistent, it sends a horrible message about priorities, and it makes the commissioner look like a Banana Republic Dictator.
Despite what this article may suggest, I happen to love professional football. I consider myself to be a huge fan of the sport. I go to games, I enjoy watching it on TV, I own multiple jerseys and I follow my local team religiously. I tremendously enjoy the product, I just hate the way that things work behind the scenes. The NFL is a lot like bratwurst, it tastes great but you are better off not knowing how it is made. The kicker is that, the NFL has such a good on-field product that they really don’t need to be such dicks off the field. They make so much revenue that they could easily afford to run their business in a more socially conscious manner. They could adequately compensate their former players who suffer from lingering injuries and health issues. They could pay for their own facilities and not leave taxpayers on the hook. They could reform the disciplinary process that currently deems pot smoking or under-inflating footballs to be a more serious offense than domestic abuse. They could implement all of these measures without taking anything away from the popularity of the game. If anything, Professional Football would be even more popular, the league would be stronger in the long run, and society would be better off as a whole.
Congratulations Los Angeles! You now have two mediocre NFL teams that call your fair city home. I can imagine the excitement is overwhelming. Once the thrill wears off however, you are left with a choice. Which of these fine organizations am I going to choose to support? On the one hand you have the Rams, who posted an underwhelming 4 – 12 record last season. The other choice is the Chargers, who compiled a slightly more impressive yet equally dubious 5-11 mark for the 2016 season. So how does one even begin to make a choice between these two fabulous options?
You don't want to read this 