The NFL and Revenue Sharing

The NFL announced it's cutting a $100 million revenue sharing plan, a small chunk of the $8 billion or so in revenue shared between all 32 teams. Although it's a small piece of the pie I'm a little worried. One of the biggest selling points of the NFL is the distribution of talent and the competitiveness of even categorically bad teams from small markets. Yesterday we saw the Louis Murphy and the perennially mismanaged Oakland Raiders upset reigning champion Pittsburgh, who is now in danger of missing the playoffs. That's exciting stuff and great for every football fan - no one except Yankees fans likes a team that wins all the time. (conversely, no one except Mets fans likes a team that collapses all the time) And entirely not coincidentally, I believe the lack of salary cap is responsible for the MLB's decline in popularity, although I'm pretty sure Brett would just blame "boringness." For reference, here are 2009 rankings of NFL teams by value, you can click the thumbnail for the full version.