Catch a glimpse of your favorite NFL teams logo re-designed and inspired from European soccer badges. You’ll probably never see these logos ever actually hit circulation in the NFL, but it might be kind of neat if any of these teams ever designed alternate logos or uniforms with this type of inspiration. See all 32 alternative logos here, you may have even found your newest twitter avatar of Facebook profile picture by clicking here.
Eat your heart out GoPro, Google Glass is making its way onto the scene. Patriots wide receiver and the NFL’s second leader in receptions, Julian Edelman gives us a whole new perspective on what it really looks like while returning a punt while wearing this nifty new device. Edelman is joined by rookie punter Ryan Allen, who also wears the glasses while punting Edelman the rock. After Edelman’s early production, it’s safe to say the Pats should make a solid effort in re-signing the new slot man who’s filled in admirably for the departed Wes Welker. Take a look and enjoy the ride.
Guest-writer Dave Myerson is back for his second appearance on The Meat Locker. Time for some in-depth analysis on the shady operations the lie behind America’s favorite game.
Why Stripping The NFL Of Their Tax-Exempt Status Is A Pipe Dream
By: Dave Myerson
There has been some recent pressure from the public and congress to strip the NFL of their tax-exempt status. This is a futile effort, and a colossal waste of time. The NFL, through a series of extremely clever maneuvers, has ensured that this won’t ever happen. They continually operate in a grey area, which allows them to take advantage of how the tax code is written. Quite simply put, the way the NFL runs its business could be considered shady. However, they don’t break any laws, but call into question how a tax-exempt organization is supposed to act.
One thing about the NFL’s tax exempt status needs to be clarified right off the bat. They are not a 501(c)(3). In other words, they are not a public charity. The IRS actually has over 29 designations for category 501(c), which is their tax-exempt category. The NFL falls under section 501(c)(6), which:
Provides for the exemption of business leagues, chambers of commerce, real estate boards, boards of trade and professional football leagues, which are not organized for profit and no part of the net earnings of which insures to the benefit of any private shareholder or individual.
What’s interesting is just professional football leagues are mentioned. Nothing about other professional sports leagues, which are also tax-exempt. The NHL, PGA, ATP, WTA, are all tax-exempt organizations. Why is just football listed? In 1966, then NFL commissioner, Pete Rozelle, used his lobbying power to obtain an antitrust exemption for the NFL-AFL merger. The antitrust and tax exemption were shrewdly attached to a bill whose purpose was to “suspend the investment credit and the allowance of accelerated depreciation in the case of certain real property.” The NFL-AFL merger language was incorporated into the bill at the very end, which had nothing else to do with football.
According to the IRS, the purpose of a 501(c)(6) is:
A business league is an association of persons having some common business interest, the purpose of which is to promote such common interest and not to engage in a regular business of a kind ordinarily carried on for profit. Trade associations and professional associations are business leagues. To be exempt, a business league’s activities must be devoted to improving business conditions of one or more lines of business as distinguished from performing particular services for individual persons. No part of a business league’s net earnings may inure to the benefit of any private shareholder or individual and it may not be organized for profit to engage in an activity ordinarily carried on for profit (even if the business is operated on a cooperative basis or produces only enough income to be self-sustaining). The term line of business generally refers either to an entire industry or to all components of an industry within a geographic area. It does not include a group composed of businesses that market a particular brand within an industry.
After reading through this definition from the IRS, the NFL doesn’t break any rules to be stripped of their tax-exempt status, but we can start to see where the NFL takes advantage of the way the laws are written. Let’s take a look inside the numbers to see just how the NFL is doing this.
Looking over the NFL’s form 990, the first thing that pops out is the low revenue totals. In their last fiscal year, they brought in $254,564,343. The majority of this being dues paid by the member organizations (all 32 teams), and about 500 thousand dollars in player/coaches fines (thank you James Harrison). Why such low numbers? All you hear about is how the NFL is a 9 billion dollar organization. Where is the TV contracts, sponsorships, merchandise, and intellectual property? Technically the NFL doesn’t own any of that. There is a separate, for profit company, that takes in that money and distributes it evenly to all 32 teams, which many of you know as revenue sharing. The teams then pay back a portion of this cash in the form of dues to the NFL, which by the way are tax-deductible for the teams. Don’t be mistaken, somewhere along the line, teams are paying taxes on all this revenue, but being able to clear millions of dollars off their balance sheets, and taking a deduction at the same time is a huge break. Is this illegal? No. Is this questionable? Hells yes it is!
Digging deeper into the NFL’s expenses, and we discover that they operate at a loss every single year! How is this possible? The NFL pays an extraordinary amount of money to their top 8 executives. In fact, they pay over 55 million dollars to their top 8 employees, which is about 52% of their total salary. The remaining 1538 employees for the NFL make 48% of the total salaries. Interestingly enough, this seems eerily similar to the salary structure of a large for profit company…
The NFL gets away with this because there is no law against extravagant salaries for top executives. However, the industry standard is to look at the average of other tax-exempt companies with similar sized budgets, and pay your executives “fair and reasonable” salaries based off what the rest of the industry is doing. According to Guidestar’s 2012 tax-exempt compensation report the average salary for a CEO with a budget similar to the NFL’s is 650 thousand dollars. Roger Goodell, the CEO for the NFL had total compensation of nearly 30 million dollars last year. That’s over 46 times the average!
When looking at Part II of schedule J, we can see that the executive’s salaries are not as high as everyone is making them out to be. Goodell’s salary is actually 3.1 million dollars, which is high, but not 46 times the average. What the NFL does is ingenious. They give their executives enormous amounts of compensation in the form of bonuses, to operate at a loss. Companies that don’t make money aren’t taxed, so even if the NFL loses their tax-exempt status, they wouldn’t be taxed! It’s a brilliant maneuver by the NFL’s lead council, who ironically makes over 8 million dollars a year, about 6 million of which is bonus money.
Here’s a mind-boggling statistic, the NFL spends only $2,363,515 on gifting and grants to help promote the game of football, which comes out to being .9% of their total revenue. They have tax-exempt status because they are supposed to help promote football as a whole, not just their brand and 32 members. Of that $2,363,515, 89% of it went to the NFL Hall of Fame for a new Super Bowl exhibit. So in essence the NFL is spending around .1% of their revenues on programs to promote football. I find this to be disgraceful. The NFL could do so much good for the game at all levels with their vast resources, but instead they choose to pad the pockets of their executives.
Recently Senator Tom Coburn from Oklahoma introduced legislation to strip the NFL of their tax-exempt status, based on this issue. He has no co-signers on his legislation, and the NFL spends more than any other sports league on lobbying efforts (i.e. Rozelle, Pete in 1966). At a time when the government is facing serious budget issues, and currently in the mist of a shutdown, why is Senator Coburn wasting his, and everyone else’s time on this? The only thing anyone can do is stop watching the NFL on TV, and stop attending the games. This would force the NFL to change the way they do business. Unfortunately, everyone, including the NFL knows this won’t ever happen, which gives them all the leverage to continue exactly what they have been doing.
Raise your hand, or comment on this post (I can’t see if you raised your hand or not. The internet just isn’t there yet) if you’re like me and your fantasy football team just got “Julio-Ed.” ESPN is reporting that after a second opinion today in Charlotte, Falcons All-Pro wide receiver Julio Jones is in fact out for the year with a foot injury. It’s rumored to be the same foot injury that Jones suffered at the NFL Combine. While Falcons fans are in mourning, fantasy football owners are equally feeling the pain. Luckily for me, I just traded Wes Welker, Stevan Ridley and Stevie Johnson for Jones and David Wilson. Timing couldn’t have been worse. The panic button has been pushed.
Although Saturday Night Live has dropped off in recent years, there is a bright spot. That bright spot comes in the form of Jay Pharoah and his masterful impression of CBS NFL analyst and hall of fame tight end Shannon Sharpe.
Don’t get me wrong, Shannon Sharpe was a brilliant tight end and his career numbers certainly warrant his Hall of Fame honors. However, CBS allowing that guy to be a regular commentator is bad enough to make you turn the channel and watch Fox Sports One’s NFL coverage. It might even be bad enough to make you flip over to NFL Network and watch Warren Sapp’s annoying ass commentate.
Let’s not take away from Pharoah’s emmy award-winning performance and embrace his comedic genius for the next three minutes.
When “E:60” aired on ESPN tonight, Baltimore Ravens linebacker Terrell Suggs spoke candidly with Lisa Salters and expressed his feelings about Roger Goodell and a conspiracy behind the blackout that took place during last years Super Bowl. Suggs also touched on a subject that leaves you scratching your head. Suggs has always made it known that he does not care for Tom Brady and the entire New England Patriots organization. Suggs went a little bit further and explained how he felt about Brady’s hair.
“I don’t think it’s appropriate for camera,” Suggs said. “I don’t like him. He don’t like me. I don’t like his hair. I don’t know. I don’t like his smug attitude. But then again he probably doesn’t like my a—— attitude. … Everybody just seems to worship the guy, not me though.”
So it raised a question for me. When somebody who carries a mug around like Terrell Suggs, who is he to call anybody out for anything regarding physical appearance. Let’s take a poll. What bothers you the most? Is it the ever-changing hairstyles of the All-Pro quarterback, or your inability eat a meal with Terrell Suggs’s face anywhere close to your TV set? VOTE!!
For all of those that join me in the “too cheap to spring for and XBOX One pool” take a moment to salivate over the first look at Madden 25 on the new console. This trailer also reflects how the popular game title will look on the new PS4. Personally, I own an XBOX 360 as well as Madden 25 and this trailer alone makes me want to save my pennies and buy one of these new consoles. The detail that’s revealed is incredible. It ranges from lighting changes on players, to individual blades of grass. Go ahead and drink it in.
We’d like to welcome Dave Myerson, a former 4-year starter on the offensive line for the Bates College Bobcats and current “Cut Man” for the promising Haymakers For Hope non-profit organization to The Meat Locker Sports. This is the first of Dave’s guest writing contributions for The Meat Locker. Dave takes an in-depth look at how the media is capable of skyrocketing a draft prospects draft postioning while other lesser known players, playing for smaller marketed schools have stronger statistics fall in the draft.
Every offseason we read about risers and fallers throughout the NFL Draft process, but what makes a prospect a riser or a faller? The answer is simple, the media. They affect player’s draft stock all the time based off their own assumptions, which can very often be extremely flawed.
For example, this past offseason saw two players, Dion Jordan and Barkevious Mingo, fly up draft boards and get drafted 3rd and 6th overall, respectively. For what reason though? They must have been elite players that dominated games at the college level. Not so fast, lets take a look at each player’s production from last season, which tells a different story.
| Name | Tackles | TFL | Sacks | PD | FF | FR |
| Jordan | 44 | 10.5 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 0 |
| Mingo | 38 | 8.5 | 4.5 | 3 | 1 | 0 |
Numbers don’t lie, and Jordan and Mingo’s numbers leave a lot to be desired. Compare this to the production of a guy like Jarvis Jones, who went 17th overall to the Steelers, we can see that players are not drafted based off production alone.
| Name | Tackles | TFL | Sacks | PD | FF | FR |
| Jones | 85 | 24.5 | 14.5 | 4 | 7 | 0 |
Jones statistics are equal to or better than both Jordan and Mingo’s combined! COMBINED! So why were Jordan and Mingo considered better prospects? Well, both players crushed the scouting combine, and the media fell in love with their athleticism. Jones, on the other hand, was recovering from a knee injury and ran a very pedestrian 40-yard dash. The slow forty, coupled with the fact Jones had an earlier scare with a neck injury while at USC, caused him to fall during the draft process.
| Name | Height | Weight | 40 | 10yrd split | Vertical | Broad Jump | Shuttle | Cone |
| Jordan | 6’6’’ | 248 | 4.54 | 1.61 | 32.5 | 10’2’’ | 4.35 | 7.02 |
| Mingo | 6’4’’ | 241 | 4.53 | 1.57 | 37 | 10’8’’ | 4.39 | 6.84 |
| Jones | 6’3’’ | 245 | 4.9 |
Jordan and Mingo established their superior athletic ability, which would lead us to believe that excellent testing numbers, and not production is the main reason for a prospects rise during the offseason. This isn’t the case though, and if it were, then a guy like Jamie Collins (taken 52nd overall) would have been a top 10 pick, easily. His testing numbers were through the roof, and clearly put him at the same level in terms of athleticism as Jordan and Mingo.
| Name | Height | Weight | 40 | 10yrd split | Vertical | Broad Jump | Shuttle | Cone |
| Collins | 6’4’’ | 250 | 4.59 | 1.58 | 41.5 | 11’7’’ | 4.32 | 7.1 |
Going more in depth into Collins numbers, his productivity on the field trumps both Jordan and Mingo as well.
| Name | Tackles | TFL | Sacks | PD | FF | FR |
| Collins | 92 | 20 | 10 | 5 | 0 | 4 |
Just like Jones, Collins surpasses the combined production of Jordan and Mingo in almost every statistical category. If Collins is on the same level athletically as Jordan and Mingo, and had better production, why was he taken over 40 picks later? Collins played for Southern Mississippi in Conference USA, and his team went 0-11 last year. Ahhh, well there’s our answer. Collins, playing in Conference USA against “inferior competition” helped him pad his stats. Again, we see this is not true. Collins outplayed both Jordan and Mingo against ranked opponents last year.
| Name | Tackles | TFL | Sacks | # of Games |
| Jordan | 8 | 2 | 0 | 3 |
| Mingo | 12 | 2.5 | 2 | 4 |
| Collins | 31 | 4 | 3 | 3 |
Wow, so what gives? Why did the media have Jordan and Mingo rated so high, but pegged Collins as a 2nd round pick? The two former players played for high profile teams, which were featured on national media outlets, and in contention for the crystal ball. Oregon played in 8 nationally televised games, and LSU played in 10. Southern Miss? They had 1, and that was their first game of the season against Nebraska, where they got beaten pretty soundly.
The fact of the matter is there was no pass rushing prospect that deserved to be taken in the top 10 of the 2013 NFL draft. Not one guy like Von Miller, who had the production and the testing numbers to back up justifying being, taken 2nd overall. So the media generated that prospect. Dion Jordan and Barkevious Mingo, had the testing numbers, and played for high profile teams, so they were natural candidates. However, they just didn’t have the production. The Dolphins and Browns would have been much better suited, not buying into the hype generated by the media, and taking players that actually deserved to be taken in the top 10.
Frank Caliendo is a man of many voices, his latest impression falls under the visor of the over zealous former head coach turned commentator, turned quarterback adviser, Jon Gruden. Gruden is known for his intense commentary, especially with the quarterbacks he hosts prior to the NFL Draft in his ESPN segment, “Jon Gruden’s Quarterback Camp.”
Caliendo puts a little spin on Gruden’s Camp by hosting some miniature quarterback prospects and analyzing their games.
Shortly after the Seahawks shellacked Colin Kaepernick and his 49ers 29-3, this video surfaced of Kaepernick owning up to the recently publicized friendly bet with Russell Wilson. Wilson and Kaepernick agreed that the loser of Sunday nights match up would have to shave off one eyebrow.
Here’s why this video is a fake. Clearly, the effect is digital and doesn’t look convincing at all in the fact that Kaepernick shaved his eyebrow. Second piece of evidence, in last night’s game, Kaepernick was rocking a beard. In this video he’s sporting his chin goatee. We all know the Kaepernick chin goat was sooooooo 2012.
As of right now… Kaepernick appears to have both eyebrows in tact. We’ll see if he owns up to this bet.
The Meat Locker Sports 