There’s plenty of talk that Peyton Manning could become part of the next ownership group of the Broncos. But Manning, alone or with his family members, doesn’t have the capital both to purchase 30 percent of an NFL team and to operate the franchise. Eventually, Manning’s top on-field nemesis may.
Freshly-retired quarterback Tom Brady gradually has been building an empire. His wife, Gisele Bundchen, has built her own. They eventually could have enough between them to buy controlling interest in a franchise. (Maybe they already do.)
Consider the contents of a Sunday item from Liam Killingstad of FrontOfficeSports.com. With $450 million in football and sponsorship earnings (pre-tax, of course), Brady has other business interests that could grow and grow and grow.
Cryptocurrency. NFTs. Clothing line. TB12. Production company. Maybe more. Maybe much more.
He’ll need more to eventually reach oligarch status. If he does, it would be interesting to see whether someone who knows the sport as well as he does would do a better job as an owner than someone who made a ton of money in some other industry and bought a football team -- or someone who 23-and-me’d their way into inheriting a franchise.
One of the unspoken realities for those NFL owners who know how to properly manage a team is that they love to welcome really rich bozos into the club. The presence of poorly-run football organizations makes it a lot easier to win football games. Brady would potentially be a formidable presence, channeling his uber-competitiveness and his intimate, detailed understanding of the sport into an operation that could become as successful as the franchise with which he won six of his Super Bowls.
In other words, fans who have no choice but to accept the owners of their favorite teams perhaps should start hoping that their favorite team will be for sale right at the time Brady is ready to buy one. Plenty of fan bases could do a lot worse -- and are doing a lot worse -- than having someone like Brady in charge of the organization.