Saturday, March 03, 2012

In light of my last post...

...and further expounding on the simple truth of highly competitive systems creating massive incentives for, shall we say, the aggressive pursuit of comparative advantage, my new adopted city receives some "disturbing" news:

After a lengthy investigation conducted by the NFL's security department, the league announced Friday that 22 to 27 defensive players on the New Orleans Saints maintained a "pay for performance" program that included "bounty" payments administered by then-defensive coordinator Gregg Williams during the 2009, 2010 and 2011 seasons.

This, or similar programs, are not an isolated incident. I would think they are endemic within the NFL. Just as highly competitive Fund Managers are incentivized (and encouraged, in may cases) to gain any advantage, so are NFL teams required to maintain the most competitive environments possible in order to win.

Football remains interesting to me only because of its convergence to "real" competitive systems such as military applications, and its no wonder many financial heavyweights have moved into professional sports ownership.

As for this:

The NFL said its findings were corroborated by multiple, independent sources. Asked about potential criminal charges, NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said:

“We believe that any violation of league rules should and will be handled by the commissioner.”


A very interesting comment on accountability and the place and role of sport in society.

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