Mike Renner@mikerenner_
Got word earlier that today is effectively the last day of PFF’s consumer product as we know it with mass layoffs amid their sale to Teamworks.
A couple weeks ago I walked through the PFF office one last time before it closed for good to reminisce with former coworkers and play one last game of beer die on the roof. I came across an item collecting dust on the wall that I found incredibly telling: the PFF MVP Belt that used to be given out every year but hadn’t been updated since 2021. That coincided with the year that Neil Hornsby was forced out of the company he founded. His departure was followed by Austin Gayle and Eric Eager leaving the following year - the leaders of PFF’s Consumer and Analytics products respectively.
I often think back to those times with equal parts nostalgia and regret. Nostalgia for when PFF was truly the most passionate football company in America. Say what you want about the grades and the stats, but there was no company outside of football teams that cared more about ball circa 2021. Unfortunately, PFF operated as if that was a given for the industry and made the common error of valuing outside talent and new revenue sources (i.e. the PFF app) as more important than the people that got them to where they were. It’s to my great shame that I didn’t advocate more forcefully for those guys in negotiations on their way out. To make things worse, I then proceeded to take the cowardly way out myself. After numerous disputes with management that spring, I left the week before the 2023 NFL draft with no job lined. Instead of rallying the troops and becoming a leader at the company, I ran away and I regret it to this day.
The passion I had felt only a couple years earlier was gone by then. The story of PFF is just that: a company that lost its passion. Instead of empowering those who cared the most, they often stifled them and took them for granted until they checked out or left. There’s no substitute in any organization for people who will do whatever it takes to get the job done and there was a time where that described every single employee at PFF. Even after seeing all the negative effects of their inability to retain employees that truly give a shit, they again showed even more guys that fit that description the door today.
I still believe in the ethos of PFF. Better analysis, smarter fans. It’s a brand that can very easily be revived if they started putting people first again. Until then, though, the half-decade long tailspin will only continue.
