1. Tampa Bay Buccaneers - A family business that recovered Who is in charge? Joel Glazer and Bryan Glazer are co-chairmen, alongside Edward Glazer, who is also an owner and co-chairman. The family collectively retains control of the NFL franchise. The Buccaneers are an important counterexample to any argument that Malcolm's death caused all his businesses to deteriorate. Before his death, the family had already experienced its greatest sporting achievement with the team's first Super Bowl victory in January 2003. That success followed an aggressive decision to appoint Jon Gruden, who immediately led the team to the championship. But the years that followed were difficult. Tampa Bay went through a long period of poor results, missing the playoffs for 12 consecutive seasons between 2008 and 2019. The franchise struggled to reproduce its early-2000s success, and this downturn began while Malcolm was still alive. The turnaround came in 2020, when the Buccaneers signed Tom Brady and assembled a team that won Super Bowl LV in February 2021, after Malcolm's death. The franchise has since continued to make playoff appearances and won its division multiple times. The team's own historical account credits the family with two Super Bowl championships during its ownership. I find this comparison revealing. The Buccaneers endured a long sporting decline, but the family eventually made decisive recruitment choices that restored their competitiveness. At United, by contrast, repeated managerial changes and expensive recruitment mistakes prolonged the period of instability. That doesn't prove that one branch of the family is better at management than another. American football and European football operate under different financial and competitive structures. But it does demonstrate that the Glazer ownership model has not produced the same sporting outcome everywhere.

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