I admit it\u2014I am putty in the hands of the mind-shaping juggernaut that is ESPN. By the time I wake up in the morning, the same episode of SportsCenter has been burned into my subconscious three times. (Thank goodness I don’t sleep late, or it would be twelve times.)<\/p>\n
So, like millions of Americans, I followed the recent NFL Draft with bated breath, as if the fortunes of Jadeveon Clowney, Johnny Manziel, and Michael Sam have any significant impact on my life.<\/p>\n
Nonetheless, my American sense of justice, market efficiency, and winning underdogs had me rooting for Michael Sam to get drafted, and I felt a sense of relief when he was, but disappointment that he went so late.<\/p>\n
Now, NFL defenders will defend the late pick by arguing that Sam is a 7th-round-level player, based on his poor showing at the NFL Combine, and game tape that indicates that his style may not translate well to the NFL. That may in fact be true, but I wholeheartedly agree with Steven A. Smith on ESPN’s “First Take,” who argues that even with a poor Combine showing, an SEC Defensive Player of the Year whose sexual orientation is unknown would undoubtedly get drafted higher, probably in the 3rd or 4th round at worst. So, while a 7th-round pick may be appropriate for Sam, the point is that he still got drafted lower than the inflated position that he would have scored if he had followed the de facto “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. (In a regression model predicting how high a player will go in the draft, the coefficient on the isGay dummy variable is negative, not zero as the NFL would like you to believe.)<\/p>\n
Many observers will anoint professional sports as the models of meritocracy, where job performance trumps lifestyle, character, and criminal background. Ha! Sports, big business, and academia can all be as political as government. Do you realize what career is in fact a true meritocracy? Professional gambling.<\/p>\n
In gambling, skill and hard work are sufficient to succeed. A player does not need political connections, social acumen, good looks, or prior wealth. The professional gambler can succeed without having to answer to an idiotic boss whose position was acquired through nepotism.<\/p>\n
What’s special about gambling is that it’s a two-way meritocracy. While the skilled succeed as we would expect, the unskilled inevitably fail. Lady Luck makes no Type I errors nor does she make any Type II errors. The cards don’t care if you’re ugly, or if you’re beautiful.<\/p>\n
Have you ever watched professional athletes gamble in a casino? They seem to think that their athletic prowess makes them immune to probabilities, that career success automatically translates to other unrelated activities. This stubborn, ignorant attitude costs them millions. Ask Charles Barkley, Dennis Rodman, Michael Jordan, and Tiger Woods (all of whom I’ve seen in the wild) how much they’ve lost gambling. The Vegas hotties have the same attitude, somehow thinking that they can bend the cards to their will as easily as they can turn heads in a room.<\/p>\n
On occasion, Internet posters will refute my claim, citing some supposedly skilled friend of theirs who had a losing year. Guess what\u2014your friend isn’t skilled! (Or he’s being skimmed, but we’ll discuss that in another post.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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