David Rosenthal

Yeah, this is like a kind of critical sleight of hand in making the whole thing work.

But this is kind of like camouflaging.

If there is a competitive balance problem underlying everything, this is only camouflaging it.

How do you fix it?

Well, there's no free agency at this point.

I know, which is ridiculous.

And so the NFL and Burt come up with the idea of having a draft of college players and not just any draft, but a draft in reverse order of where you ended up in the standings in the previous season so that the worst teams in the league get the first picks for the next season's draft.

And it's incredible the artifice that grows up around this.

Oh, 50 million people watch this thing today.

I mean, we were watching YouTube videos and research of like Taylor Swift was at the NFL draft a few years ago when it was in Nashville.

Like it's a huge event.

It was actually the first big coup for ESPN when ESPN started in 1979 and 1980 was televising the NFL draft.

Genius.

So these two elements, stacking the schedule and then the reverse order amateur draft are

Formed the nucleus of Burt Bell and the NFL strategy that it's had ever since, which comes down to league first.

League first, team second.

So, as we said, the AAFC only operates for four years.

The Browns are too dominant.

The AAFC folds after four years.

Only three teams of the AFC's eight come over to the NFL.