NFL Owners: The 5 worst in professional football

What is the value of a good NFL owner? Can it be quantified by the net worth of a franchise? Is it his or her ability to hire competent people? Or is NFL ownership one of the rare places in life where no standard can be used to determine quality?

It’s difficult to say. Truth be told there may not be any good metric for evaluating who the best NFL owners are, but a bad owner? They stand out like sore thumbs.

While a good owner won’t win a franchise any extra games, bad NFL owners can crater entire seasons — or entire decades in some cases.

You can usually spot bad NFL owners because after purchasing the team, they just can’t keep their hands off it. Owners acting as GM’s, owners putting their two cents in about draft picks, owners getting too involved in free agency — all of these are indications that your team might have a bad owner.

But, on the opposite end of the spectrum, an apathetic owner can be just as harmful. Owners who only seem to have a financial interest in their team are often inclined to just let things ride, no matter how broken, as long as the bottom line looks OK.

Either way, nobody feels the effects of poor ownership more than the fans. The players get paid, the coaches get paid, the owner gets paid. For them, losing is a professional issue and can be remedied a number of different ways.

For fans, the ones who fund a large part of this enterprise, your options are limited. Your football experience is held hostage by a rich owner that may be more interested in making money than winning.

If you’re one of the lucky ones who follows a team with good ownership, the start of a new season feels magical and full of possibilities.

If you’re unfortunate enough to root for a team saddled with bad ownership — well the preseason is filled with some mixture of anger, disappointment and dread.

Here are the five worst owners in professional football.