Brown Economics

For those unfamiliar with the premise of the Mel Brooks play The Producers, let me summarize in order to draw an interesting parallel: basically, the producers of a play discover that they can actually make more money by putting out a flop than they can with a hit play.  It would appear that this is Mike Brown's favorite musical of all time, as he has apparently found a way to apply this economic stratagem to Professional Football. 

Should you think I am exaggerating, let me direct your attention to our "Bengals' Futility - By The Numbers" section on the right hand side of the page.  You will notice that, not only has Mike Brown NEVER won a playoff game in his 17 years of ownership, but he was also voted by Forbes magazine (they know a little bit about money management) as the second WORST owner in all of professional sports.  And yet, in all this time, the Cincinnati Bengals organization continues to turn a profit, including a reported operating income of nearly $21 million in 2005, as pointed out by Comrade Simon in his review of the Bengal's scouting department. 

The primary problem we have with Mike Brown--and this is no more apparent than right now given the Chad Johnson fiasco--is that he continues to look at football the way that a CFO would view a balance sheet.  And therein lies the problem.  Mike Brown is NOT a CFO; he is the owner, a position much more akin to being a CEO.  The job of a CEO, in addition to making fiscally responsible decisions, is to create a broad vision and growth strategy for an organization; to deliver a clear and concise mission and to ensure that all employs work towards the realization of that mission; in short, Mike Brown's job, as clearly stated in Manifesto Demand #1, is to make a public statement to us, the fans, “I will do everything in my power to help the Cincinnati Bengals win a Super Bowl."

There is no doubt that Mike Brown is a shrewd businessman (from a dollars and cents perspective) and would continue to have value at the negotiating table.  But as long as he continues to think of the Cincinnati Bengals as a collection of assests whose value he can assess like a P&L statement, we won't go anywhere.  Maybe you can calculate amortization and depreciation in Pro Football--although the assets, in this case, are football players, whose value is more volatile and ever-changing than any stock out there--but Brown appears to do this with such short-sightedness that he ends up recycling run-down players he thinks are a "bargain" (see Sam Adams, Dexter Jackson, etc.)  We'd like him to exercise a little more foresight and take a risk on young talent in the Draft, rather than obstinately sitting on his ass while Chad rots on the sidelines.  The only way to move a team forward is to have a long-term vision--we as fans could care less if you have healthy profit margins (which, we all know, will come if you put a better product on the field).

Comrade Pellegrino, a lawyer by trade, has laid out a great scenario by which we could trade Chad and take advantage of the great offer (potentially two First Round picks) from the Redskins.  I get a sinking feeling in my stomach every time I read a great article like this because I seriously question whether the Bengals' front office is even aware of these potential moves.  I mean, they already massively screwed up the Shawn Rogers trade this offseason, so how can we not question the abilities of this group?

I urge all the fans out there to join the WhoDeyRevolution here, and follow that up by creating as much buzz as possible to get the Bengals to execute a trade for Chad Johnson.  If the Bengals' front office can't figure out how to do it, send them our way.