Owners need to take a step back

When I am watching a sporting event on television, one of the things that irks me the most is when the camera will zoom in specifically on a player's family. This especially upsets me during the actual play of the game. I like seeing interviews and spotlights on a player's background and family, but do it during halftime or a prolonged break in the action, not just when the ball goes out of bounds or the clock is stopped for a brief moment.\nOne of the few things worse than showing players' family members though, might just be showing an overbearing owner or team executive who likes to gleam in all the spotlight they can get. You know who I am talking about -- the George Steinbrenners and Mark Cubans of the world.\nThe action is on the field, not up in the owners, suites or entrenched near the sidelines where the Dallas Mavericks' Cuban and Dallas Cowboys' Jerry Jones like to mingle during a game. Keep the cameras on the people who matter during the game (that would be the players on the field). I do not care how much money these owners put forward or what antics they pull to get attention. When the game is being played, they mean about as much to the outcome as me sitting in my chair watching from home.\nThe New York Yankees' Steinbrenner, Oakland Raiders' Al Davis, Jones and Cuban are a few of the more outspoken owners in this crowd, but they are by no means the solo perpetrators in the overbearing owner category. I would likely bet that most sports fans could name the owners of these four franchises faster than they could name their coaches.\nWhile the overbearing factor can create success, it is often the money these owners flaunt that creates the on-the-field success that gets their teams and them as individuals in the spotlight. Take Steinbrenner for instance. Year after year, the Yankees seemingly try to buy another World Series Championship. Yes, they do have quality players they brought up from within their organization (Derek Jeter, Bernie Williams and Andy Pettitte to name a few). But for every homegrown player, they have traded or signed another from free agency to a big-time contract that a smaller market team could not afford.\nYankees Manager Joe Torre has had great success with four World Series rings in the last seven seasons and is the only manager in Yankees history to lead the team to seven consecutive postseason appearances. Despite this history and a current 87-56 record this season, Steinbrenner has been on Torre's case throughout the year. Most recently, Steinbrenner chastised and threatened jobs of his coaching staff and front office (whom I'll remind you he actually hires) for not performing as they should be in his utopian mind. These statements have routinely infuriated the usually calm Torre who may be on his last round of putting up with such antics from Steinbrenner.\nIn contrast to Steinbrenner is Cuban, who presents a more overbearing factor to the National Basketball Association than to his own team. He is constantly in the spotlight, but will fight to the end in support of his players and coaches, even when they may be in the wrong. This support for his franchise is much appreciated by his players and fans, but come game time, Cuban needs to take a back seat to his team on the floor and allow his players to execute as they are paid to do.\nSo the next time you are watching a game and the cameras glean in on one of these or other overbearing owners, just cringe, turn your head and hope the bone-headed media has not missed showing you a home run or touchdown in place of a big-mouthed team owner.