... those four words beaten into our heads? A huge part of the business is marketing and merchandising. Even though some teams do better than others in terms of victories, postseason, and even Super Bowl wins, it doesn't flat-out mean their merchandise sells any better than a team who goes 4-12. Case in point: Go to any Wal-Mart outside of Ohio and look for an NFL hat. Good luck finding any Browns or Bengals hats, but I guarantee you picking up a Raiders hat will be an easy task. That's an example of merchandising at its finest. Its main objective is to target mainstream America. Of course Cleveland's fan base is going to buy a Browns hat. But that fringe NFL fan will get the Raiders or Patriots, why? Because simply, it looks cooler. About on...

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