How to be as successful as the NFL

The Olympics reminded me again about the four guiding principles of sports organizations. No. 1: It's much easier to run a team sport than an individual sport.

No. 2: It's much easier to run a domestic sport than an international sport.

No. 3: Any sports organization that has the word "federation" in its title is probably a mess.

And No. 4: Any sports organization where volunteers have a lot of power over the professionals is really, really going to be screwed up.

The subset to No. 4 is: Beware of any sports organization where too many people in authority wear blue blazers.

The classic best sports organization in all the world is the National Football League. See, it is not only a team sport but it is completely domestic, all-American. It is so American that the NFL game is even called American football. I think it's the only sport in the world that's identified by a country. Nobody says Indonesian badminton or Scottish golf. Even better for the NFL, hardly anybody else anywhere in the world even plays American football, so there's no federation with lots of volunteers to get in the way of what the NFL wants to do. And, it's the last place in the English-language world where just about everybody speaks English as a first language.

The commissioner of the NFL, whose name doesn't matter since Pete Rozelle left, has the cushiest job in sport. It's sort of like running General Motors before the Japanese made cars. The most difficult decisions the commissioner of the NFL must make are along the lines of like, "Oh my, what in the world are we going to do about Brett Favre?" and "How can I keep Jerry Jones happy?" and "How long do I suspend players who shoot people in night clubs?"

By contrast, look at sports like boxing and tennis. They're all individuals and different countries, so nobody can ever take charge. Tennis is so confusing that it runs about 64 weeks a year. Also, as a general rule, the more genders you have competing in a sport, the more opportunity for cross-purposes. Tennis has two genders -- one more than the optimum. Tennis and boxing also have so many competing agencies that they are all just identified by their initials, so nobody even knows who anybody is. We have the ITF and the WBC and the WTA and the WBA and the ATP and the WBF. American professional football has the commissioner.

Team sports in all countries are invariably placed under more scrutiny because fans are so loyal to their teams, and thus they force management to try and keep things on the up-and-up. But the more spread out a sports organization, the more diffuse its charge, and the more individuals rather than teams are competing, the more inefficiency and, also, the more opportunity for chicanery. Do you really think the International Olympic Committee is capable of finding out how old those itty-bitty little Chinese gymnasts really are? Please.

But whatever you think about America in the 21st century, the NFL probably works better than anything else in the United States, and maybe even better than how Putin runs the Kremlin.

Published Aug 27, 2008 | Modified Aug 27, 2008

FRANK DEFORD

Frank Deford is among the most versatile of American writers. His work has appeared in virtually every medium, including print, where he has written eloquently for Sports Illustrated since 1962. Deford is currently the magazine's Senior Contributing Writer and contributes a weekly column to SI.com. Deford can be heard as a commentator each week on Morning Edition. On television he is a regular correspondent on the HBO show Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel. He is the author of 15 books, and his latest,The Enitled, a novel about celebrity, sex and baseball, was published in 2007 to exceptional reviews. He and Red Smith are the only writers with multiple features in The Best American Sports Writing of the Century. Editor David Halberstam selected Deford's 1981 Sports Illustrated profile on Bobby Knight (The Rabbit Hunter) and his 1985 SI profile of boxer Billy Conn (The Boxer and the Blonde) for that prestigious anthology. For Deford the comparison is meaningful. "Red Smith was the finest columnist, and I mean not just sports columnist," Deford told Powell's Books in 2007. "I've always said that Red is like Vermeer, with those tiny, priceless pieces. Five hundred words, perfectly chosen, crafted. Best literary columnist, in any newspaper, that I've ever seen." Deford was elected to the National Association of Sportscasters and Sportswriters Hall of Fame. Six times at Sports Illustrated Deford was voted by his peers as U.S. Sportswriter of The Year. The American Journalism Review has likewise cited him as the nation's finest sportswriter, and twice he was voted Magazine Writer of The Year by the Washington Journalism Review. Deford has also been presented with the National Magazine Award for profiles; a Christopher Award; and journalism honor awards from the University of Missouri and Northeastern University; and he has received many honorary degrees. The Sporting News has described Deford as "the most influential sports voice among members of the print media," and the magazine GQ has called him, simply, "The world's greatest sportswriter." In broadcast, Deford has won a Cable Ace award, an Emmy and a George Foster Peabody Award for his television work. In 2005 ESPN presented a television biography of Deford's life and work, You Write Better Than You Play. Deford has spoken at well over a hundred colleges, as well as at forums, conventions and on cruise ships around the world. He served as the editor-in-chief of The National Sports Daily in its brief but celebrated existence. Deford also wrote Sports Illustrated's first Point After column, in 1986. Two of Deford's books, the novel, Everybody's All-American, and Alex: The Life Of A Child, his memoir about his daughter who died of cystic fibrosis, have been made into movies. Two of his original screenplays have also been filmed. For 16 years Deford served as national chairman of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, and he remains chairman emeritus. He resides in Westport, CT, with his wife, Carol. They have two grown children – a son, Christian, and a daughter, Scarlet. A native of Baltimore, Deford is a graduate of Princeton University, where he has taught American Studies.

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