The fixation on "big market" vs. "small market" in pro football (and most sports) is disingenuous, because it is based on a distinction that doesn't stand up to close scrutiny. How is it that the Dallas Cowboys are a "big market" team, while the Texas Rangers -- who play in the same damn city -- are a "small market" team? And how is it that the Washington Redskins are a "big market" team, while the Washington Nationals are not? You can run through all of the major sports and find similar cases of clear inconsistency in the definition of these markets (Miami Dolphins and Florida Marlins, Oakland Raiders and Oakland Athletics, Denver Broncos and Colorado Rockies, the Montreal Canadiens and the old Montreal Expos, etc.).
I have said here on any number of occasions that the NFL's salary cap is not the problem. The problem is the way the cap is applied -- which effectively fails to reward teams that draft well and fails to punish teams that draft poorly . . . and results in the kind of massive player movement from one roster to another that makes it impossible to build a team to be a strong contender over time (and results in this fan losing interest in his team -- and eventually the NFL).
There was a time when a strong NFL team was built through wise scouting and drafting, good player development, and (occasionally) prudent trades. Nowadays, an NFL general manager simply drafts as well as he can (without losing much sleep over it, mind you), and then looks to sign good players from other rosters whose teams "can't afford" them due to the league's salary cap rules. The result is a league where continuity is non-existent, chemistry is meaningless (you see this especially among offensive linemen and defensive backfields), and the quality of play has fallen off dramatically. The abject mediocrity of the NFL is perfectly illustrated by the fact that cap-era Super Bowls have been contested by teams with quarterbacks like Chris Chandler, Trent Dilfer, Kerry Collins, Rich Gannon, Brad Johnson, and Rex Grossman. Most of these guys would have struggled to even start on an NFL team 20 years ago -- let alone lead a team to a conference title.
If you really want to get a sense of just how bad the NFL has become, just take a look at the quarterbacks in the league today. After 15 regular-season games this year, many fans of the NY Giants were wondering whether Eli Manning even belonged on the field -- and were suggesting that perhaps the team should be looking to sign or draft a new one next year. And even then he was still in the top half of the NFL among quarterbacks -- which shows you just how weak the league has become in that regard (even with all of the rules that are supposed to make it easier to pass the ball these days).
In the freewheelin free agency days it took two things to make a good team: money and smarts. Now in the cap days it just takes smarts. That’s why now is better, well run teams can actually succeed because the money field has evened out (the TV contracts divide up to pay the salary for all teams, so there’s no excuse anymore). Part of what makes a big market team is the popularity of the sport in the area, the Cowboys are in a big market while the Rangers aren’t because Texas is a football place not a baseball place, the Giants are more popular than the Jets so even though they both have the NYC market the Giants make a lot more money.
The 70s don’t matter, the era of big money free agency is the 80s through the early 90s. 70s payrolls were much smaller, so the market size didn’t matter. And no the Broncos were not a dominant team in the 80s, they were in the AFC’s perpetual also rans killed by the dynasties.
And you’re 100% wrong about how the cap works, you’ve got it backwards, the cap is ALL ABOUT drafting well, finding the roll players at every position in every round. Especially now. This year’s cap is $109 million, for a 53 man roster, that averages to over $2 a player, more than enough if a team doesn’t over spend. What the cap does is prevent the Cowboys from throwing $10 million a year at their 6 top drawer players and not have to worry about other parts of the team suffering. The cap does a great job at punishing teams that draft poorly, look at what it did to the Falcons, they bet the farm on Vick and lost the farm because Vick was never that good.
This IS the time when a good NFL team is built on smart scouting and drafting. Every single team has a key player that was either a second day draft or completely undrafted, EVERY TEAM. From Tom Brady (2nd day) to Tony Romo (undrafted) to Willie Parker (undrafted) to Ryan Grant (undrafted), the list goes on and on. In the cap days if you can’t spot that 2nd day and post 2nd day talent you will not have a good team, period. Just as much sniping from other rosters happened in the pre-cap days as now, actually a lot more, because back then there were just the handful of teams that could afford ALL the talent, now all the teams can afford all the talent IF they spend wisely.
You really want to get a sense of just how dumb that remark about Eli is? While Eli has deserved a lot of criticism it’s really for being annoying during draft time and being a first pick. Eli has belonged in the league his entire career, he’s been a perfectly acceptable middle tier QB for 4 years. The complaints came in because: A - he’s a Giant and the NY media only knows how to overhype and over criticize, players there are either tauted more than they deserve or hit more than the deserve; and B - he was a petulant first pick and wasn’t playing well enough for either his pick or his petulance. Now there might be fewer amazing QBs around now than there were in the dynasty days, but that’s genetics and coincidence not the cap. With or without the cap an era when you get Montana, Marino, Elway, Aikman, Young and Favre all playing the game at the same time just doesn’t happen all the time.
But to prove once again how the cap does exactly the opposite of what you say look at how much better the Giants are this year with Brandon Jacobs (2nd day) at RB instead of Tiki (1st day). See it really is ALL about the smart drafting. Successful teams now are built on the 2nd day, and in the supplemental, and with undrafted free agents.
And the best part is at the beginning of the season most teams, and therefore most fans, actually have a shot. That’s what really sucked about the dynasty era, most teams never had a shot and most of their fans knew it. The season is more engaging to more fans for a longer time now. Yes I do occasionally miss the beauty of the dynasty era Niners, Giants, or Cowboys, they were amazing teams to behold. But I watch more games now because I know that somebody besides those three teams is likely to win the SB, there are actually now important games played that DON’T involve the super teams, because there are no more super teams. Even the Pats at 18-0 have had their tough outs and clearly shown they aren’t one of the super teams, which made their games much more interesting to watch.