'How the NFL fleeces taxpayers'

I forgot my Kindle today, which turned out to be fortuitous as I pulled out an old magazine from my bag to read instead. Outstanding piece here - apparently a book excerpt - by Gregg Easterbrook on how the NFL gets fat off the public teat:

http://m.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/10/how-the-nfl-fleeces-taxpayers/309448/

"Public handouts for modern professional football never end and are never repaid. In return the NFL creates nothing of social value - while setting bad example, despite its protests to the contrary, regarding concussions, painkiller misuse, weight gain, and cheating, among other issues."

At one point, the writer flays the league for its self-congratulatory support of the military, those donations representing an almost imperceptible fraction of the money the NFL raids public coffers for each year.

Cliff's Notes on this article: "Man, fuck the NFL."

 

Re: 'How the NFL fleeces taxpayers,

Is there anything more stereotypically Dick than his pulling an old magazine from his bag, and it being the Atlantic? (The only possible exception would have been his pulling the New Yorker from his bag.)

Oh, and fuck the NFL.

 

Easterbrook used to fleece my precious time with his long-winded TMQ articles back in the day.

 

On a related note, Chuck Todd is interviewing Reid Wilson right now about his article in yesterday's Post about corporate subsidies:

 

Re: 'How the NFL fleeces taxpayers,

"Nothing of social value..."

I have a bit of a problem with that terminology. Who gets to determine what has social value? I know people who think American Hoggers or Here Comes Honey Boo Boo has social value.

 

Yes, that's why I bolded that passage. It would seem that entertainment is of social value. It would also seem that bringing people together has some social value. I think that he should have gone with "limited" or "questionable."

 

Yes, but Slate does not put out a print edition.

 

Oh, I know those were his words, not yours, but what a fucking snobby way to put it.

Those NFL teams bring in a shitload of money to the cities where they are, and that's not limited to the smaller markets.

 

That's bullshit.

Argue the definition of "social value" if you like, but NFL teams are a complete non-starter as investments. They don't do anything.

 

I'm guessing there's no way to accurately gauge that, either way.