Thursday, November 1, 2007

PERHAPS THE FOOTBALL GODS APPEASED THE ANTITRUST GODS, DID YOU EVER THINK OF THAT? There's chatter in these here parts about how (the tastefully-named) Gregg Easterbrook is off his Seventh-Circuit-Once-Removed rocker. I've always forgiven Easterbrook for (or just ignored, actually) his thousand-word parentheticals about the history of dirt or the hypothetical science of hyperspace travel and given him a pass for his counter-Bennettian self-semidenial (pro-cheesecake; anti-gambling). I was even amused by the fact that a guy whose job is to immerse himself in a giant tank full of think would not consider the possibility that criticizing two Hollywood executives for the crime of "worshipping money while engaged in the act of being Jewish" might rub some people -- er, most people -- the wrong way.

It tickles me a little that people are now saying that Easterbrook is batshit-insane because, like many of us, he says that the Patriots are evil, but unlike almost all of us, he actually means it literally. Yes, that position is batshit-insane, but folks, where have you been all these years? To wit: (1) he is a political scientist who thinks he is a football genius, based on his interesting theories that one should always run in short-yardage situations and never blitz -- two theories incontrovertibly proven, I suppose, by an anecdote per week; (2) his columns are Unabomberish in length, focus, and tone; and (3) despite being the brother of a prominent legal economist with a deep knowledge of antitrust law, he trots out his pet rant every year that the decision of one entity (the NFL) to distribute one product (the ability to view all games, instead of regionally-selected ones) through one distributor (DirecTV) violates the antitrust laws (and, presumably, is economically inefficient).

Which reminds me -- I used to read Easterbrook faithfully, but now I read him only occasionally, if ever. I still read most Simmons stuff, but not as enthusiastically. On the other hand, I look forward to Big Daddy Drew's Dick Joke Jambaroo and Potes's ANTM recap every week. What columnists have you dropped, and which ones do you look forward to now?

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