Did we just witness the fall of the Evil Empire?

[*Nately120*]

(01-18-2018, 04:27 PM)Tomkat Wrote: OH COME ON, you're not REALLY that naive, are you?
Sure, if you look at Pittsburgh and it's surrounding area in terms of population and geography, it's pretty small.
However, if you add in the HORDES of "bandwagon" fans around the country - their "market" is HUGE!

But then isn't it a chicken and egg argument?  The NFL has financial interest in the Steelers being good because the Steelers have lots of fans, but the Steelers have lots of fans because they're good.  So which came first?

The Rooneys just put a better product out there that attracts more consumers than Mike Brown does.  If it really is true that the NFL looks to prop up an support popular teams, then it just goes back to Mike Brown's fault for not doing what it takes to attract enough fans to become one of those golden teams that aren't allowed to fail.

Remember, the Patriots were a pretty sorry team for a while before they were purchased by a guy who actually gives a crap about winning.  They went from an unpopular crap team to being too popular to fail because of their own actions.  

The Bengals sort of remind me of that mom 'n' pop restaurant you feel inclined to support because you're sick of seeing the same old chains get all the money. You go in and the place sucks and the food is awful and you realize that it's a sad situation but the owner has to at least try a bit harder if people want to feel bad that he's being pushed into the shadows.