Eagles and NFL flying high after Super Bowl LII
Patriots panned for benching Butler and assistant coach reneging on Colts deal
BULLS OF THE WEEK
It was a week in which former New England Patriots secondround pick Jimmy Garoppolo — he of the seven career starts — became the highest-paid player in the NFL, negotiating a five-year contract at US$27.5 million per season with the San Francisco 49ers.
Meanwhile, the NBA had another head-turning week with the Cleveland Cavaliers tying a record for most active trade deadline day by moving six regular roster players in an effort to get LeBron James to the NBA Finals for the eighth straight year.
Forbes Magazine also released its annual list of NBA franchise valuations and it reflected the bull market the league has enjoyed since Adam Silver became commissioner four years ago this month. All 30 clubs are now members of the billion-dollar club, the average enterprise value being US$1.65 billion and, thanks to a record nine-year, US$24-billion television contract with ESPN and TNT, aggregate franchise valuation has gone from US$19 billion to US$50 billion since February of 2014.
Yet there was no city and no team that realized its upside more this week than Philadelphia and its Eagles, winners of an extraordinary Super Bowl LII against the dynastic, defending champion New England Patriots on Sunday. It was sweetness for owner Jeff Lurie, who bought the Eagles for US$185 million in 1994 and now holds a valuation of US$2.65 billion, according to Forbes. That’s a growth of 14-fold and a return on investment of 62.3 per cent per annum.
The merchandiser Fanatics epitomized what the win meant to long-suffering Eagles fans when it reported apparel sales this week that were second only to the record-setting reaction to the Chicago Cubs World Series win in 2016.
More than US$4.76 billion changed hands in U.S. betting in a week in which the Eagles were five-point underdogs. And despite double-digit declines in NFL TV audiences the past two regular seasons and in nine of 10 previous playoff games this year, the Eagles and Super Bowl LII generated respectable ratings of 103.4 million Americans in household viewing, 12 million at bars and restaurants and a new record of 2.8 million in digital streaming. That total audience delivery of 118.2 million is about twice what a great year of Game 7s would generate in the NBA Finals, Major League Baseball’s World Series and the NHL’s Stanley Cup … combined!
BEARS OF THE WEEK
For the first time in almost two decades, there are rumblings of discord and labour unrest in baseball, with the MLBPA — the strongest union in North American professional sport — questioning roster moves and free agent spending by many of MLB’s 30 clubs. Is it just a shortterm glitch as many big-name free agents remain unsigned with spring training beginning Feb. 23?
The biggest bears of the week, however, were New England head coach Bill Belichick and offensive co-ordinator Josh McDaniels. The typically brilliant Belichick weakened his team on the cusp of a sixth Super Bowl victory in eight tries by benching starting safety Mal- colm Butler for highly questionable reasons.
And make no mistake, Philadelphia took advantage.
Then McDaniels walked away from the Indianapolis Colts the day before a press conference that he authorized to introduce him as their new head coach. He’s now a bearish commodity everywhere but in Boston.