NFL team owners collect millions in revenue. They wield outsized power over their organizations and in their communities. They point to the bottom line, wins and losses, when firing coaches and executives, sometimes without giving them much time. But their own won-lost records appear nowhere.

Even people who follow the NFL closely might not know whether Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross owns a better record than New York Giants owner John Mara (he does).

They might not know whether female owners account for two of the five highest winning percentages since taking over their teams (they do).

They might not know that the only team without a traditional owner could lose 200 games overnight without dipping below .500 (the Green Bay Packers could).

They might not know that five of the last six owners to buy (rather than inherit) a team make up the bottom five in win percentage (they do — the lone exception is the Buffalo Bills’ Terry Pegula).

Some of these ownership situations are difficult to evaluate for reasons such as owners allowing their offspring to operate their teams. I’ve used simple criteria in ranking owners from worst to best win rates below. For our purposes, wins and losses are counted for owners after the NFL has approved their purchases; after an owner…

The retired professor set his laptop aside and reached for the remote. For more than an hour, Chris Pionke had paid little attention to the NFL game on the television in front of him. The teams moved back and forth across the screen and the announcers provided analysis, but Pionke was scrolling mindlessly on his laptop. That changed when he heard the name.

Josh Dobbs.

Pionke, who taught engineering at the University of Tennessee for nearly three decades, perked up and increased the volume. He wondered if the announcers were just mentioning the former Volunteers quarterback, or if Dobbs was actually in the game. He squinted at the screen and spotted a tall, lanky, familiar-looking player wearing the No. 15 in Minnesota Vikings white and purple.

Pionke hollered to his wife who had been sitting over in the kitchen.

“Cindy!” Pionke said. “Josh is in!”

Their Knoxville, Tenn., home livened immediately with football noises. Dobbs barked the pre-snap cadence. Linemen crashed into one another. Announcers yelled, astonished at what they were watching. Pionke listened intently while Dobbs orchestrated a thriller of a victory in relief of rookie Jaren Hall despite having fewer than five days of preparation with his new team.

TOUCHDOWN VIKINGS! TOUCHDOWN VIKINGS!

JOSH DOBBS TAKE OVER…

Scrolling through Julie Cousins’ Instagram this week was a heartbreaking experience. The wife of Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins shared the emotional aftermath of the 35-year-old’s season-ending Achilles tendon tear suffered Sunday against the Green Bay Packers. On Monday, dozens of cards made out of construction paper were stacked up on their kitchen counter. Their sons’ classmates scribbled with crayons the words “feel better” along with drawings of rainbows, hearts and clouds.

No card posted had the words Vikings or SKOL. Yes, Cousins is the quarterback of the Vikings and one of the most famous people in the state, but he’s also just Turner and Cooper’s dad. The next day, Julie posted a picture from their patient room at the Twin Cities Orthopedic office where Cousins was getting his surgery. The window faced a player meeting room at the Vikings facility, which is less than 30 yards away. They could clearly see Cousins’ teammates sitting in chairs, looking at a big screen with film of the Falcons as they prepared for their game against Atlanta. Cousins wasn’t technically with the team, but he was close by.

Cousins is out for the season and will be a free agent in 2024. Though his future is unclear, conversations I’ve had with sources over the…