Ranking all 32 NFL owners by likability

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10. Mark Davis, Oakland Raiders

• Seasons owned:      56 (8^th)
• Win percentage:      0.528 (12^th)
• Playoff rate:              37.5% (10^th)
• Championship rate: 5.4% (10^th)
• Net worth ($bn):       0.5 (31^st)
• Franchise growth:    8^th
• Investment Factor:   28^th
• Gut check:                 8^th

Oh, Mark Davis.

This incredible Tim Keown ESPN.com profile of Davis reveals him as the amazing man-child we all wish we could be. A not-quite-billionaire who always uses OpenTable to score reservations at P.F. Chang’s. A team owner who eschews suits for team T-shirts. A guy who unironically rocks a conversion van.

He’d be No. 1 with a bullet if he had, you know, the wealth to keep the team in Oakland, or any kind of on-field success.

 

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9. Steve Bisciotti, Baltimore Ravens

• Seasons owned:      15 (25^th)
• Win percentage:      0.588(3^rd)
• Playoff rate:              66.7% (2^nd)
• Championship rate: 13.3% (3^rd)
• Net worth ($bn):       3.3 (13^th)
• Franchise growth:    28^th
• Investment Factor:   15^th
• Gut check:                 23^rd

These rankings are giving Bisciotti credit for ownership starting in 2000, when he purchased 49% of the team from Art Modell with the intent of buying the whole thing soon after (he did in 2004). As Mike Preston of The Baltimore Sun recently wrote, many then-Ravens credit Bisciotti with turning the organization around with his wealth, drive and professionalism.

As such, he has two Super Bowl victories to his credit, and two long stretches of perennial postseason play in just 15 seasons. The only factors holding him back are a relatively low value growth rate since his relatively recent purchase, and a Gut check rank of 23^rd.

Why so low?

Bisciotti’s performance during the Ray Rice scandal—for most NFL fans, the first time they’d heard him speak—was awful on many levels. Somehow, he handled it even worse in private than he did in public.

 

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8. Virginia Halas McCaskey, Chicago Bears

• Seasons owned:      95 (3^rd)
• Win percentage:      0.571 (5^th)
• Playoff rate:              28.4% (20^th)
• Championship rate: 9.5% (6^th)
• Net worth ($bn):       1.3 (23^rd)
• Franchise growth:    1^st
• Investment Factor:  32^nd
• Gut check:                 9^th

There’s a reason why our rankings factor in longevity: Tradition is important, and it’s great that one of the NFL’s oldest teams is still controlled by the original family. Virginia McCaskey, whom Bowlen once called an “icon,” per Business Insider’s Adam Fusfeld, is understandably withdrawn from public life at age 92—but is no less in control of her team and her family.

Though she’s not a dot-com billionaire, the Bears are doing just fine financially. Best of all, across the sweep of 95 years of Halas ownership, generations of Bears fans have had plenty to cheer about.

 

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7. Dan/Art Rooney, Pittsburgh Steelers

• Seasons owned:      83 (5^th)
• Win percentage:      0.526 (13^th)
• Playoff rate:              33.7% (15^th)
• Championship rate: 7.2% (8^th)
• Net worth ($bn):       1.2 (26^th)
• Franchise growth:    5^th
• Investment Factor:   30^th
• Gut check:                  2^nd

Art Rooney II is president and co-owner of the Steelers, but his father, Dan, still serves as chairman—and like his legendary father, Art Rooney, Sr, Dan is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Art II, if he keeps this up, might make it an unprecedented three generations in a row.

It’s hard to encapsulate the Rooneys’ lasting legacy in a few paragraphs—but let’s just it’s impossible to not love a family who got rich at the horsetracks, bought a football team (and some horsetracks), and became the classiest organization in the biz.

This old-school group of horsemen and statesmen (Dan recently served as U.S. embassador to Ireland) aren’t just the league’s most loyal, patient franchise, they also led the charge for hiring equality and diversity in the NFL.

It’s no surprise just about every NFL fanbase would ditch their owners for the Rooneys, if they could.

 

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6. Jerry Jones, Dallas Cowboys

• Seasons owned:      27 (16^th)
• Win percentage:      0.536 (10^th)
• Playoff rate:              48.1% (7^th)
• Championship rate: 11.1% (5^th)
• Net worth ($bn):       5 (7^th)
• Franchise growth:    14^th
• Investment Factor:   10^th
• Gut check:                  28^th

It’s only fitting that one of the least-liked owners in sports ends up this high on the likeability rankings. After all, success in the NFL is a zero-sum game, and few teams have been more financially successful that the Cowboys.

Because Jones paid a somewhat modern $150 million for his squad in 1989, the rise to $4 billion in just under three decades isn’t as statistically impressive as the older franchise’s growths to multiple billions from the NFL’s original franchise fee of $100.

That said, Jerry’s done just about everything right—even if his over-the-top ways rub many the wrong way.

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