What if football disappeared?

Tyler Cowen is an economist and publisher of the blog Marginal Revolution (tag line: "small steps to a much better world.") I read and follow Cowen not just because of his economics-driven insights and analysis, but also because he'll apply his thinking to surprising areas.

(Oh, and he's got excellent taste in food.)

Cowen (with co-writer Kevin Grier) regularly apply their thinking to sports at Grantland. In their most recent installment, Cowen & Grier propose a future where (American) football falls out of favor. (Hint: economic productivity might skyrocket.)

It's an intriguing thought, and jibes with what I've been wondering for years - who in the world would ever encourage their kid to play at a high level a sport notorious for intense and permanent physical and mental damage?

(Never mind that playing at that high level likely requires adopting a freakish physique and adopting a violent mindset where to be your best you have to accept maximum physical risk and celebrate imposing maximum physical violence on your opponent.)

Growing up, my parents forbade me from playing tackle football for all of these reasons. I didn't see the wisdom at the time, but seeing the toll that football can take on your head, heart, or joints really makes me appreciate my parents' decision. Seeing how violence on the football field has increased since my youth makes me wonder who would encourage playing the sport.

Strangely, though, I am a football fan and hold season tickets for my local team. My fanhood, though, has probably more to do with deep-seated allegiances (school, hometown).

I share Cowen and Grier's wonder at how long football may stay on top of fan interest. We already regularly see players permanently paralyzed during games, yet football popularity has never been higher. Will it take an on-field death to change opinion?

Steroids double standard?

Great point from Jayson Stark's most recent ESPN column:

"Suppose a prominent and popular All-Star player on a two-time World Series champion were to get suspended for a quarter of a season because he got nabbed obtaining HGH (human growth hormone, a performance enhancing drug) . And suppose, at the same time, a coach on one of last year's World Series teams was also suspended for the same offense. How gigantic would the headlines be on every front page in America? How scathing would the columns be from all your favorite writers?"


The above scenario has actually happened in the last 2 weeks - in football. (Rodney Harrison of the New England Patriots, and Wade Wilson of the Dallas Cowboys.)

Where's the outrage? Why isn't the press working feverishly to figure out who Wilson was buying HGH for? Why is nobody asking "if a defensive back like Harrison is taking HGH, what do you think the bigger guys are doing?"

The whole Baseball ecosystem deserves loads of criticism for how they handled the steroids issue, (in fact, how they exploited it, if you tie the '90s fascination with HRs with tacit steroid approval by the leagues) and has gotten it's fair share of negative press, but why is football virtually untouched?

My 4 best guesses are:

1) football has many other more sensational off-field stories stealing the headlines, like Michael Vick's dog-fighting case.

2) football is considered by fans more entertainment than sport, and much like WWE fans not really caring that wrestlers take steroids to look the part, football fans in effect just don't care what wardrobe the actors wear.

3) fans aren't dumb, and already realize that the average NFL player is already a steroid-fueled freak of nature. (Geez, if an NFL kicker like Todd Sauerbrun took steroids, how about the 350 pound linemen freaks?

4) so much of the media has bought into football, that a foundation-jarring issue like rampant steroid use is soft-pedaled, in order to protect the media's investment in the NFL. (At present, ESPN, NBC, and FOX each have multi-billion dollar contracts to broadcast the NFL.)

Any careful examination of the trend in size and strength of NFL players clearly indicates rampant performance enhancing drug use, much like the rise of home runs in baseball in the 1990's illustrates the growth of steroid use. With the similar trends in usage of performance enhancing drugs, why the double standard in the press?

Eagles fans

As I'm watching the Oakland game on TV with requisite shots of the crazy "Black Hole" fans, I'm reminded of this quote from Philadelphia Eagles coach Andy Reid, a request for the fans that you don’t hear in other NFL cities: “It’s also important that they’re there to watch a football game and not to be up there fighting … Cheer loudly, but please try not to kill or maim anyone.”"

I'm pretty sure that even in the Black Hole the head coach doesn't have to ask the fans not to kill anyone.

btw: the Eagles are alone at the top of the NFC East after one week, and GUARANTEED to be at least tied for first after next week. (The Giants, Cowboys, and Redskins all lost this week. Next week, the Redskins play the Cowboys (meaning one will be 0-2!) and the Eagles play the Giants. It's quite possible that the Eagles could have a 2 game lead on 2 NFC East teams next week!)