The best lie the NFL ever told is that the league is a meritocracy.
For the players? Sure, most of them at least. But anyone else? Heck no. Not for head coaches, unless you think it's just a happy coincidence nearly a third of this year's group is of blood relation to another current or former coach. Not for assistant coaches, who usually get their jobs because of who they're related to or whose father they married or who they worked with two or three stops previous.
And it absolutely, positively is not a meritocracy for franchise owners, the 31 people who like to fancy themselves the smartest ones in every room they enter.