Hot Take, Cold Take is a weekly column where Nevada Sagebrush Opinion Editor Vincent Rendon presents both a hot and cold take on a given subject. A hot take is a little outlandish and might not be a popular opinion. A cold take is something hopefully more people can agree with.

The Washington Redskins have the worst owner in the National Football League. Their owner, Dan Snyder, is arguably the worst owner in sports. Their field is terrible, their name is racist and his organization more or less sex trafficked a bunch of his cheerleaders to high-level supporters of the team (as detailed in The New York Times). Now they’ve fired their coach five games into a winless season. For D.C. sports fans, their only real hope is that Snyder either gets forcibly removed from the league or dies an early death: neither likely. Football plays such a big role in American life, yet the public has few ways to hold the owners accountable. Maybe it’s time for that to change. 

Hot Take: The NFL should be publicly owned

Reno can almost count itself lucky it doesn’t have a big sports team. NFL teams and their like need huge stadiums, which are often paid for by taxpayers. It’s just one of the many ways the fans of the sports teams ultimately pay for their operations. With that in mind, why should owners like Snyder rake in profits while running things into the ground? If the fans are going to pay for everything through taxes, then why not just let them own the team? The Green Bay Packers are owned by their fans, a practice that they were grandfathered into before the league banned it. Collectively the act as shareholders, pick the president and so forth, and get to have a say in how the team they support operates. Stretch that mentality to all the teams across the NFL and people in charge like Dan Snyder wouldn’t  last long. 

Cold Take: Something needs to change in the NFL

The NFL is controversy after controversy. Referees can’t get calls right, no one knows how to discipline players who break conduct for domestic violence or smoking marijuana and concussions are ruining lives. Plus, of course, the national anthem kerfuffle. All of these controversies ripple into the national conscious, impacting not just fans but the general public. Yet record profits mean no major shakeups ever occur, no significant reforms or leadership changes. The fans and the nation suffer as a result. 

Vincent Rendon can be reached at vrendon@sagebrush.unr.edu or on Twitter @Vince Sagebrush.