To understand the contrast between the two teams chasing football immortality on Sunday, the Los Angeles Rams and the Cincinnati Bengals, look no further than their owners.
The Rams are the glitzy $4.8 billion crown jewel of billionaire Stan Kroenke’s $10.5 billion sports empire, set to play on Sunday in the palatial SoFi Stadium he built for his team. Kroenke—whose wife, Ann Walton, is an heir to the Walmart fortune—also owns the Denver Nuggets and Arsenal FC and is seen as one of the most powerful people in sports. Meanwhile, the Bengals—the NFL’s second-least-valuable franchise, at an estimated $2.3 billion—are a family business, cofounded by coaching legend Paul Brown half a century ago and tightly controlled by his 86-year-old son Mike, who is a relative unknown outside of football.
“The Brown family, as long as I’ve been around the league, has never been focused on making the most money,” says Marc Ganis, president of the consulting firm Sportscorp, who has worked with numerous NFL teams and owners. “They’ve been focused on operating in a professional, solid manner and trying to put a good product on the field.”