A rival team has an ambitious but craven assistant coach who, with a regime change, could be better controlled towards our interests.

Another team's key player couldn't be replaced on short notice, were they to be removed from the board, in a deniable 'gang-related' incident in front of the nightclub they frequent.

The roster of a favored team could be boosted with secret financial incentives to candidates, funded off-the-books by new gambling and prostitution operations.

>Funded off-the-books by new gambling and prostitution operations.

Nah.

These people don't like to share. They have to pay and/or payoff players, coaches, staff and so on.

But after that?

Yeah.. they're taking every nickel they can right down to the bottom line.

They're not letting anybody else in on that racket.

Small potatoes- more realistic: Les Wexner pumped tens of millions into the university to whitewash his reputation; keep them perennial favorites but grease some SEC refs as necessary to keep our guy out of the limelight

> Les Wexner pumped tens of millions into the university to whitewash his reputation;

The Henkel-Sika-3M lab for sustainable adhesives (I'm just making that up, one doesn't exist) would have a different name and a whole lot less funding if it didn't produce research indicating that whatever it's benefactors want to do is in fact sustainable.

It is crazy how vain donors are. It isn't enough to drop a 100m on a new building that everyone knows was done by you in the accounting records and press release. You have to get your name emblazoned on it until the end of time. And you are so vain that if they don't offer that, no money, doesn't matter what it's for. Oh yeah I'll donate a bunch to start a scholarship fund for disadvantaged youth, but only if you make it in my name.

The radio station chief is a con artist rainmaking the agency, he will cut us in if we squeeze him hard enough.

would that be rainmaking as in claiming credit for rain (others’ operational outcomes) or something else?

This team sounds fun

I grew up with a kid whose dad worked in security for the St. Louis Rams NFL team. I was shocked when he told me how many attempts there are to blackmail or otherwise extort money from players.

And then you have the Deshaun Watson situation where its like the exact opposite going on with the front office facilitating a disgusting predator. Just ridiculous stuff going in behind the scenes in major league sports.