Why not? Once you get the free stadium, why would you continue to pretend to try? Well, it's worked wonders for Philly. The Pittsburgh model is to wait 2-3 years before stopping to pretend. Did you dictate this post to hardcore? Is it that incomprehensible? Philly pretended to try when the stadium was coming and that actually led to being really good for a long time. Pittsburgh pretended for a couple years then dumped everybody. I wouldn't call what Philly was doing, "pretending to try." More along the lines of "Having Ed Wade as a GM"