TAMPA, Fla. - Peter Angelos, step on up.
The deck has been reshuffled in the Worst Owner in Sports Contest. It's sad to say because the Orioles haven't played a game in nearly four months, but Angelos is somehow shooting to the top of the charts. With a bullet.
For years, owners like Angelos, James Dolan, David Glass, William Ford and Tom Benson have had the luxury of knowing they weren't a serious contender for this top spot among bottom feeders. Hey, as long as the Bidwill family owned an NFL team, they figured, No. 1 would always be unattainable.
A funny thing happened on the way to Tampa. Bill Bidwill's Arizona Cardinals stumbled their way into the Super Bowl.
Bidwill had a virtual headlock on the Worst Owner title for years. It was almost like a point of pride. You could see him making erroneous, cheapskate decisions and could almost hear owners like Angelos muttering, "Crafty Bill! Determined to stay No. 1. Thank you!"
But here we are in Tampa and the Cardinals are just a few days away from challenging the Pittsburgh Steelers for the championship. In the snap of a finger, Bidwill has somehow completely excused himself from the Bad Owner conversation.
Which leaves us debating the merits of guys like Angelos (ahem, 11 straight losing seasons and counting). But this week is about football, so let's not waste too much time taking stock of the Orioles' shortcomings. Rather, let's learn from the Cardinals. Let's - and who would have ever thought we would utter something like this? - see what we can learn from the Bidwill family.
The first NFL game I ever attended was in Phoenix. We bought tickets outside the stadium for $5 apiece, if memory serves correctly. I remember the crowd was smaller than my homeroom algebra class.
The Bidwill family moved the team from Chicago to St. Louis to Phoenix, seemingly determined to hide it from the rest of the country. This is a franchise that until this season posted just one winning campaign in the past 23 seasons. They haven't played for an NFL title since 1948 and since that time had won just one playoff game until last month.
So how did they get from there to here? There's no precise science. I asked several players yesterday, and there seems to be a two-pronged formula:
1. You need a commitment from the owner. From the general manager to the head coach to the starting quarterback, everybody says he signed up because he was sold on the idea of an organization eager to turn the corner. Even if it took a half-century to even reach that point.
