Washington, D.C.’s Building Museum, a very cool, little-noticed institution near Chinatown, is selling its soul. The Museum is bestowing upon the National Football Leage its “Honor Award,” which apparently “is intended to salute ‘the important and positive role’ that an institution or individual has on the life of the American city.”

The decision is rankling some locals still peeved about the NFL’s kickoff show on the National Mall, which left a giant mess, and irked a few traditionalists who weren’t happy about the commercialization of hallowed ground. The NFL is also refusing to pay the city’s Metro subway system about $65,000 it cost to keep the system open an extra two hours to accomodate the crowds attracted by the kickoff event. Just to put that sum into perspective — my beloved Colts’ Peyton Manning makes $65,000 in about three minutes of on-field playing time. The NFL is sticking to its guns, sopping a city with a strained budget for what’s really chump change for the league.

I too found the kickoff rather crass, but that’s not the most insulting part of the award. The most insulting part is that the NFL has shown that it’s more than happy to abandon any city in the country the moment another city offers it a better package of corporate welfare and sweetheart tax deals. No other league has a worse track record of screwing its fans, soaking taxpayers, and shifting franchises all over the country.

Yes, I know, I’ve benefitted from this. In fact, the Colts pretty much started the trend, though I fear Indianpolis is about to experience firsthand the meaning of “the Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away.”

About the only thing an NFL franchise really brings to a city is that unquantifiable “civic pride,” which of course it revokes the minute it leaves for a better city. In his special on freeloaders several years ago, John Stossel debunked the idea that an NFL team brings any real jobs to a city, or adds all that much to a city’s economy.

So why would the Building Museum give the NFL award that’s so obviously farcical on its face? Why do you think?

NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue has said he will accept the award in person, along with Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig. They are the attractor flies in the museum’s effort to raise $1 million. Traditionally as many as 1,000 guests come from the ranks of culture, real estate and politics. For $300 a seat, or $50,000 for a VIP table, they’ll be able to schmooze over cocktails — sans Pepsi Vanilla, according to a museum spokeswoman — and dine in the magnificence of the multi-columned Great Hall.

That the Museum is honoring baseball is even odder. Baseball has been teasing D.C. with the prospect of a franchise for years, holding the dream just out of reach until city leaders capitulate to baseball’s demands. And of course, the only way D.C. is going to get one is if a team bolts from another city, in this case Montreal. Which I guess is technically okay with the letter of the award, since Montreal isn’t an American city.

(Disclosure: A friend of mine works for the Building Museum.)

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 13th, 2003 at 9:09 pm by Radley Balko and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.