Why public ownership matters.

Here is Matt LaFleur, not simply the owner of the most finely trimmed facial hair in Christendom, but also coach and resident genius of the Green Bay Packers.

As you may know, I'm a lifelong Packers fan for complicated, person reasons. 

The Packers, just like the Yankees, own the most championships and the best, all-time winning percentage in the history of their respective sports.  (I know, I know: I do penance the rest of the year with the Knicks and the Rangers.)

For many years, roughly 1992-2018, the Packers had one of the very best quarterbacks in the history of the NFL, first in Brett Favre, then even more so, in Aaron Rodgers. Sure, each of them was, well, kind of a dick. But still, they were damned good.

Somehow, though, the Pack only reached three Super Bowls during this time, winning two of them. Frustration mounted amongst the fans, particularly those of us who remembered the Lombardi era.

As a result, the Packers' front office brought in Matt LaFleur, widely known as an offensive genius. This seemed strange just on the face of it. If you have a great quarterback and regularly score a ton of points...why bring in a guy who knows offense? 

But many figured LaFleur would be just the sort of young, dynamic coach to take us over the top. We looked forward to him shoring up the generally under-performing defense and special teams with some great trades and draft picks. 

Instead, LaFleur acted like he was taking over a floundering college program, looking to remake it according to his ideas. He feuded with Rodgers, even as he won two more of his four MVP awards, and soon drafted Jordan Love, a quarterback nobody had ever much heard of.

We fans were...perplexed. Still, LaFleur had his advocates, mostly in the press. People who early on would point out that his regular-season winning percentage was better than Lombardi's.

Well, the Packers went from winning 13 games and the division title, three years in a row, to slipping further and further away from the Super Bowl, losing two conference title games and then a division game. 

Rodgers, the other resident ass, was finally pushed out. The LaFleur Packers kept winning—but fewer and fewer games, barely scraping into the playoffs in some low, wild card slot. This was always blamed on injuries and bad luck.

Hmm, sound familiar?

Last season the Pack actually looked as though it might have a shot at winning it all...only to lose the last four games of the regular season and their wild-card playoff game against their arch-rivals—often in humiliating fashion, blowing big, seeming insurmountable leads.

People stopped saying how LaFleur's record was better than Vince Lombardi's (because it wasn't). 

A proud franchise once known for winning and sustained excellence had become synonymous with choking and collapse. 

Again, sound familiar?

Calls for LaFleur's head rang throughout the land of milk and honey. For some reason, though, the Packers' management decided to double down, re-signing LaFleur to a new, multi-year contract.

So far, the Packers have looked so terrific after this vote of confidence that...they barely managed to beat the Jets.

I shrug. 

I shrug because I know that, sooner or later, as the Packers sink through the standings, people will be held accountable. The Genius of the Goatee, now in his ninth season leading the team (hmm, who does that remind me of?)...will be fired. 

The Packers are owned by the public, as all professional sports teams in America should be. As such, they are accountable, and some day the genius will ride off into the sunset, and we can begin again.

Not so much with the New York Yankees.

The Yankees' brainrust, uh, trust is younger than many of us. Brian Cashman is 59, Hal, 56; Boone a mere stripling of 53. Chances are, they will still be running the team when we die. 

And if they are not, no doubt another Steinbrenner nepo baby—crazy stupid like George, or coolly indifferent, like Hal—will take over the franchise, and surround himself with another bunch of flatterers and office politicians dedicated to maximizing...just how much money the Yankees make for their owner.

If they do manage to blow up the greatest sport that ever was this off-season, mayors across the nation should insist that any new baseball league be owned by the people who root for them.