“As a team, trying to win and not have a distraction on the team, I just take that as a player — there’s certain players that could be on the team with big distractions, and there’s other players that it’s not good enough or not worth it. I think his situation is not good enough to have him [Colin Kaepernick] on the team with all the attention that comes along with it. I’m sure if a guy like [Tom] Brady or a guy like whoever is your favorite player — Odell Beckham or a guy like that — you’ll deal with that attention and play him,” said the Buffalo Bill.
This is from Amanda Prestigiacomo, “Bills’ LeSean McCoy Explains Why Kaepernick Hasn’t Been Signed. He’s Exactly Right.”
This is a beautiful application of marginal thinking, incentives, tradeoffs, and compensating differentials. If Colin Kaepernick were a better player, the team might be willing to deal with all the turmoil that comes with his not standing for the anthem. Thus McCoy’s examples of Tom Brady and Odell Beckham.
It’s like the case I’ve written about [I can’t find where] where my old friend Bob Barro, then at the University of Chicago and someone who hated cigarette smoke, had a sign on his door. This was at a time when people were allowed to smoke and it was up to the office occupant whether to allow it. Barry’s sign said: “No smoking, except for Bob Lucas.” Lucas was enough of a star, and Barro gained enough from his insights, to allow Lucas to smoke in his office. But no one else.
Or, on a more-personal level, here’s another application of the tradeoff insight. Here’s what I wrote about learning math from my father, a high-school teacher, during my last year of high school, a time when I hated his cigar smoke but I was desperate to learn math:
I learned math in school from teachers who were generally pretty good at it. In my last year of high school, though, we went through four math teachers, and my father, who was a public school teacher, taught me a pile of math at home, lying on his bed, smoking his cigar, while I gasped the fumes and grasped the concepts taught by a master.
The quote is from David R. Henderson, “Freedom and Education Versus ‘Public Schools,” in The Joy of Freedom: An Economist’s Odyssey.
READER COMMENTS
Michael Byrnes
Aug 25 2017 at 6:33pm
That is a plausible opinion as it goes, but “exactly right” is a stretch.
David R. Henderson
Aug 25 2017 at 6:36pm
@Michael Byrnes,
Sure, but it’s their stretch, not mine.
Michael Byrnes
Aug 25 2017 at 6:42pm
Point taken.
Tim M
Aug 25 2017 at 9:20pm
This is true, but it isn’t right.
I don’t think “turmoil that comes with his not standing for the anthem” is the way to characterize his actions, or their consequences. Kaepernick is not injecting politics into an apolitical space – the “stand for the anthem” ritual is a political gesture. Kaepernick silently takes a knee, and he didn’t even raise it in the press until he was asked about it.
The turmoil comes from fans and owners. In a better world, fans and owners wouldn’t mix their politics with sports, but here we are.
Jack Lavelle
Sep 3 2017 at 6:05pm
Disingenuity raiseth its head in Tim M’s comment. If Colin K didn’t want to be asked – and therefore extemporize about – his kneel-down, he wouldn’t have done it.
The turmoil is not generated from owners/fans. Unh-uh. The pregame patriotic moment is a time of respect for what has gone into sustaining the nation, not a time to kick off disputes.
Comments are closed.