# Conflicts of interest and NFL team ownership

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conflicts-of-interest-and-nfl-team-ownership/629924>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 31, 2012, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conflicts-of-interest-and-nfl-team-ownership/629924 "2012-07-31T04:18:49Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\
**Post date:** [July 31, 2012, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conflicts-of-interest-and-nfl-team-ownership/629924/1 "2012-07-31T04:18:49Z")

</div>

> **[If the Browns change owners, continuity has be the top priority: editorial](https://www.cleveland.com/opinion/2012/07/if_the_browns_change_owners_co.html)**
>
> If a new ownership group buys the Cleveland Browns, it must decide what kind of team the Browns are going to be, put the personnel in place to make it happen, and stick with the plan, The Plain Dealer editorial board writes.

The Cleveland Browns are on the market. One of the prospective owners is already a part-owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Would he have to give up his share of the Steelers if he landed the Browns? Couldn’t he otherwise learn things while dealing with one team that might give him an undue advantage in his work with the other?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![fiddlesticks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddlesticks/32/18129_2.png) [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)\
**Post date:** [July 31, 2012, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conflicts-of-interest-and-nfl-team-ownership/629924/2 "2012-07-31T18:41:30Z")

</div>

> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#):
>
> [If the Browns change owners, continuity has be the top priority: editorial - cleveland.com](http://www.cleveland.com/opinion/index.ssf/2012/07/if_the_browns_change_owners_co.html#incart_river_default)
> 
> The Cleveland Browns are on the market. One of the prospective owners is already a part-owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Would he have to give up his share of the Steelers if he landed the Browns? Couldn’t he otherwise learn things while dealing with one team that might give him an undue advantage in his work with the other?

I’m sure conflict-of-interest rules are written into the NFL by-laws, so he’d have to sell his Steelers share to buy into the Browns.

Baseball learned this lesson in the late 1800s, the owners of the Cleveland Spiders, the Robison brothers, bought the St. Louis franchise while keeping their control of Cleveland as well in 1899. They transferred all the good players to St. Louis. The result was a 20-134 season for Cleveland. The National League contracted the following year and the Spiders were history.

Somewhat similarly, the Athletics were a de facto Yankee farm club in the 1950s after the Mack family sold the team, but there were no direct ownership connections between the Yanks and the A’s.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\
**Post date:** [August 10, 2012, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conflicts-of-interest-and-nfl-team-ownership/629924/3 "2012-08-10T20:35:29Z")

</div>

Looks like he’ll sell his stake in the Steelers - and maybe not a moment too soon:

> **[NFL Concerned About The Browns Incoming Owner's Investment In Steelers](https://www.forbes.com/sites/mikeozanian/2012/08/04/nfl-concerned-about-browns-incoming-owner-ownership-in-steelers/)**
>
> The NFL has circulated a memo to its 32 teams about the pending sale of the Cleveland Browns in which commissioner Roger Goodell expresses concern over the buyer currently being an investor in the Pittsburgh Steelers, according to a team...