As a non-football ranking, this one is purely subjective, and really has little or no bearing on the game except for the fact that the owners decide who gets the money, and who doesn't. Let's take a look at the various owners of the game... 1. Most Annoying Owner. Tie: Al Davis, Dan Synder & Jerry Jones. All three have a tremendously annoying trait of getting up close & personal with the operations of their football team. Synder has lately backed off of being a hands-on manager of football, pulling back and letting his "football" people make the football decisions. Jones has likewise done some of the same. But that doesn't mean these 3 guys have just totally kicked the interference habit. But that's not the real reason why they are tied for the most annoying owners. Al Davis gets this title because of his litigious nature. It seems that he's not happy unless the Raiders have 3 or 4 on-going federal lawsuits against various defendants, including the NFL. It's no small secret that many owners merely tolerate Davis and his antics. But he has pushed the game forward, so its hard to really bash the guy for his lawsuits. It is far easier to bash the guy for demanding that the Raiders play a style of football that is difficult to maintain and harder to win with. Look, the vertical passing game is a great thing for the fans and the offense, if it works. But it puts tremendous pressure on the offense - the lineman have to block for a second or two longer, and blitz pick-ups are hugely important. It requires speedy receivers and a quarterback with an accurate long-range arm. If anything is missing there, the game breaks down and the offense can be exposed. This is what's happened over the past few years - the Raiders just don't have the right blend of talent to really put that vertical passing game into effective use. Jerry Jones turned the NFL on its ear when he became an owner, figuring out new and ingenious ways of collecting more money into his coffers. He then turned around and invested that into talent on the field, and in some ways is probably more responsible for anyone else for the NFL to feature a hard salary cap. Just throwing money at players was leading the NFL towards baseball's situation until cooler heads prevailed. But Jones always complains - being a big-money franchise - about having to pay the little guys. He hates it, and because he's always fretting about it, he goes on the annoying list. Dan Snyder hit the ground running and turned the whole NFL on its ear. He was a bigger spender than anyone, and treated the salary cap as an annoyance. As a result, he quickly got the Skins into salary cap hell. He's hired and fired players and coaches like no one else in the league, all in the name of purchasing a title for his beloved Washington Redskins. His over-the-top antics and personality mean he's in the annoying list, probably for all time to come. Granted, all three of these owners have tasted some level of success - Davis and Jones both savoring NFL titles. That's another reason to believe they are annoying, especially if your franchise is stuck in neutral or reverse...jealousy, after all, is a nasty little human sensation, isn't it? Cheapest Owners: Bidwells, Browns (not Cleveland...the family) and the Vikings ownership The Bidwell family - owners of the Arizona franchise - are well-known for being "conservative." Or, put into different context - CHEAP! He rarely pays big-time money even to big-time players. As a result, the Cardinals are nearly always behind the eight-ball for talent because they aren't paying for it. Mike Brown in Cincinnati is one of the game's all-time cheapest owners. The Bungles were the Bungles for over a decade because of his legendary skinflint ways. The smallest scounting staff in football has hurt them for years. He's finally started to open up the coffers, but not necessarily in all ways. Until the Brown family realizes that successful franchises spend money on football operations in far-reaching ways (like scouting), the Bengals will, like the Cardinals, always be behind the eight-ball. Ziggy Wulf has done some drastic cutting in Minnesota, and their lack of money in scouting and player development will soon come back to haunt them. It's only a matter of time before the Vikings sink into year-after-year mediocrity (or worse) and that will eventually fall back directly onto the man controlling the purse strings. Cheap owners often wonder why they cannot field competitive teams. Making matters worse, once you have started down that path, bad things are in front of you. You field a bad team. Season ticket sales go down. Other revenue streams dry up. You have less money than ever to spend, forcing you to cut. You cut, you spend less, and the team never has a chance to recover adequately. Sure, maybe you get an odd year here and there when the chips all fall correctly and you bask in some measure of glory for a season. But cheapness has its own cost, and most NFL owners would be wise to keep that in mind. Most despised owners of all time: Depends on the city. Clevelanders hope Art Modell dies tragically and painfully. And then he gets hell to look forward to, in their opinion. The same could be say of those in Baltimore regarding Jim Irsay. Funny, Irsay's now complaining about his low-revenue city in Indianapolis. Hmmm... Today's "best" owners are also the ones that have the most successful franchises over the long haul. In this list you could include the late Wellington Mara, the Rooney Family, Jerry Jones and Robert Kraft. They have all done the necessary things over the long haul to maintain a competitive football team most years. Jones hires great football minds, and makes sure that the Cowboys football staff is broad and well-paid. The same is true of the Pats, Steelers and Giants. They all seem to get it, that having a broad base of football minds ends up ensuring on-field success. Of course, it doesn't hurt that they all have good to great coaches, and great talent on the field. Many people point to both New England and Pittsburgh as "model" football franchises. They've been generally competitive for a long time. They have great coaches. Their staffs are routinely plundered year after year as assistant coaches move to coordinator gigs, and coordinators move to head coaching gigs. Yet, the team still manages to plug in the next coordinator, or the next position coach, and succeed. Executive talent (GMs, scouting directors) are paid well, and are kept. There is strong synergy between the GM and the head coach, so that the players chosen fit into the team's football concepts. When you have all of that, odds are you have a strong football team most years. All in all, the one thing you see in football that isn't quite as apparent in other team sports is the impact of solid ownership on the team's gameplay. The "good" owners (even if they are annoying) work tirelessly to make sure the executive and front-office staffs are manned by good to great people. The front office and the head coach are generally on the same page when it comes to talent evaluation. The scouting department is wide and far-flung, allowing the team to get better reads on potential new talent and how it might fit into their existing schemes. The owners allow the coach to coach, and the players to play (mostly), ensuring that the separation of duties does not create conflicts. Since it is football season, and preseason, its time to look far and wide to see how the business side of football impacts Sunday's games.