The Way I See It

In this The Way I See It, the NFL begins anew, Aaron Rodgers gets hurt, NBA nonsense, free markets, and more.

The NFL is Back!

It’s that time of year again, when thoughts turn to slot receivers, edge rushers, and clock management. Of course, for my wife, it’s the beginning of her five-month trial as a widow. Equally important, it’s the time of year where I get to enjoy myself for one day a week.

For readers unfamiliar with my work, I used to be what’s known as a “fantasy football expert.” I built a company and earned a living by telling people how to manage their imaginary football teams. Additionally, it means that I grew to hate the thing I had always loved: pro football. I haven’t conducted a poll, but I feel that most of the true fantasy experts, the guys who do their jobs correctly, have lost their love for the game. In addition to the incredible grind of the job, the industry itself is full of back-stabbing hacks. To this day, people are ripping off my original work and passing it off as their own.

Now, free of the bonds of fantasy football slavery, I actually enjoy pro football again… and I couldn’t be happier. Well, I could be happier, but that would likely involve a lot of morally and legally questionable activity. So… pizza and The Red Zone it is!

Aaron Rodgers Injured, NFL Shudders

Let me be clear about something: I hate Aaron Rodgers. I’ve never been a fan of his, both as a player and as a person. In fact, the only positive thing I can say about him is that he has good taste in girlfriends. I mean, Olivia Munn? Respect on that front.

Combining my dislike of Rodgers with my general misanthropy, it is easy to see why Rodgers suffering a torn Achilles tendon on the fourth play of the game brought me joy. When you think about how the Jets bent over backward to acquire this self-absorbed 39-year-old playoff failure, only to be stuck with Zach Wilson for the season… well, it made me smile. There’s a reason why the Jets are one of the worst-performing franchises in the NFL. At least Jets fans can be happy that Rodgers’ injury means they get to keep their 2024 first-round pick so that they can draft another bust to put under center.

Apparently, Rodgers’ last round of plunging into darkness didn’t involve getting immunized against Leonard Floyd.

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NBA Nonsense

I’ve learned in recent years that anything labeled “PPP” will be a colossal failure. As evidence, I present the Paycheck Protection Program (“original PPP”) and the NBA’s Player Participation Policy (“latest PPP”).

As we all know, the original PPP was a response of Democrats and Republicans to the COVID-19 pandemic. Consequently, the original PPP was a colossal failure that resulted in increasing debt and inflation, further devaluing the U.S. dollar, as well as lining the pockets of the politically connected. In other words, standard statist nonsense.

Similarly, the latest PPP is the NBA’s response to an already tangled web of sports, money, and politics. This horribly constructed policy, whereby the NBA is dictating how teams deploy their players, will be the latest example of a central authority (the NBA Board of Governors) trying to direct a market’s results (the NBA season). From the NBA press release:

Under the policy, unless a team demonstrates an approved reason for a star player not to participate in a game, then, among other things, the team must:

• Manage its roster to ensure that no more than one star player is unavailable for the same game.
• Ensure that star players are available for all national television and NBA In-Season Tournament games.
• Maintain a balance between the number of one-game absences for a star player in home and road games.
• Refrain from any long-term “shutdowns” in which a star player stops playing games.
• If resting a healthy player, ensure that the player is present at the games and visible to fans.

The policy includes exceptions for injuries, personal reasons and pre-approved back-to-back restrictions based on a player’s age, career workload or serious injury history.

WTF?!

Of course, if we carefully thought out this policy, we shouldn’t expect any negative consequences, either intended or unintended, right?

When will people learn? There has never been a person, or group of persons, that can steer a market better than the market can steer itself. The only thing markets require to be efficient and sustainable is to be free from coercion. That’s it, regardless of the market you’re talking about.

The sooner we all learn this lesson, the better off we’ll all be.