The NFL announced last night their plan for the 2022/2023 playoff season after they were forced to cancel Monday night’s Bengals-Bills game. This was immediately pointed out by all sides as “not fair.” Bills fans are complaining that it’s not their favorite team’s fault that they couldn’t play that game and they might have won the top seed! Chiefs supporters complain in the same way that it is not their fault that the game was not played and that they expected the Bills to have lost. Some people will point to the complaints from both sides and point out that this means the NFL actually made as fair a choice as they could get. And, while they’re wrong about whether you can tell that from both sides complaining – both sides would also have complained if the NFL had banned both teams from the playoffs, for example – it probably as fair as they could get.
That doesn’t mean it’s fair.
Both sides are correct. It’s unfair that the Bills won’t know if they could have won that game and had the top seed outright. It’s equally unfair that the Chiefs won’t know if the Bills could have lost that game and then had the top seed all to themselves. It is also unfair that a young, healthy man named Damar Hamlin almost died on a football field during a fairly normal play.
I am reminded of the field of competitive video games where things are also forever unfair. Over the past month, Marvel Snap players have complained about the unfairness of certain cards. For years before that, Super Smash Bros players complained about the fairness of some characters over others. Destiny 2 devs are constantly tweaking stats and weapons in search of a fairer PvP environment even though that’s clearly not the main focus of that video game’s design. Despite the best efforts of everyone involved, none of those games have ever been fair. And neither has sports.
In baseball, people often talk about the unfairness of spending. Steve Cohen’s Mets have put that into great relief this offseason. However, if we look beyond that, I think it could be reasonable to argue that it’s unfair to the rest of the NFL that the Chiefs were able to draft Patrick Mahomes and sign him to a very team-friendly deal that should allow them to start. each season as the Super Bowl looms as a baseline for the next decade. Likewise, it’s not fair that the Broncos are paying Russell Wilson so much when he played so poorly this season.
Perfect fairness, of course, wouldn’t be very fun – or possible. It would take identical opponents with identical training and game plans to face each other. If all were truly fair, such a match would almost by definition have to result in a draw. But that does not mean that there is no value in seeking greater fairness.
In the field of video games, I already mentioned the balancing efforts that developers constantly make. However, tournament sponsors also usually try to insert more fairness as well. They will ban certain characters that have been deemed excessive. They will also try to remove randomness where possible. For example, Super Smash Bros tournaments often remove the random item drops from the game to keep things fairer. And so, looking at video games, I’ve designed a new model that we can use to make sports leagues fairer.
The fairest sports league of them all
To keep spending fair, sports leagues often implement salary caps and floors. However, I think we can become fairer than that. In the Fair Sports League (trademark pending,) all players will be paid according to draft order (more on that in a moment. This may interest you : NFL Week 4: Vikings-Saints, Chiefs-Cowboys, more top games.) Moreover, these salaries would be negotiated to be some a percentage of the gross income of the teams and the league. However, individual teams will not pay those salaries, the league will and all teams will be responsible for an identical share regardless of which players are on their rosters. What could be fairer than the same salary expectations?
Now you’re probably asking, “How would it be fair for the Royals to have to pay part of Aaron Judge’s huge salary when they don’t get to benefit from his play?” and that’s where the proposed massive equity change comes in. Players would no longer be under contract for multiple seasons to the same team. Instead, each off-season would result in a complete re-drafting of (and realignment of pay for) the entire player base.
For the sake of fairness, I originally thought that each team would have to draw a lot every off-season to decide the draft order and although that might be fairer to the teams it would less fair to the fan bases. So, instead, draft order could go back to what MLB had before – the reverse order of entry. Also, the draft would be a snake draft because those are inherently fairer than the standard draft order.
All minor league players in the season and free agents would be available to any team, but waiver wire priority would be in order of record. Trades would be allowed but somehow monitored for fairness; no teams in the cellar would throw away their best players to a better team in exchange for some future benefit. Not that future benefit would actually exist in this system.
Would this league be completely fair? Of course not. Human error and variance are still at work. And, of course, the possibility of player injury. An additional rule could be added preventing a team from playing a player drafted in the same round as an injured player on the other team but even that would not fully account for the difference as it is unlikely that the both players would perform at equal levels or be equally important to their teams. Imagine having to bench a starting pitcher whose turn was coming up in the rotation because the other team’s left fielder was hurt. In addition, the different stadium sizes would continue to create a lack of fairness unless we are willing to refurbish or rebuild them all to have the same dimensions.
There would be other disadvantages as well. It’s hard to develop fan favorites when players only spend a single year with a particular team. There may be guys who are consistently drafted to the same teams but I would expect that to be a fairly rare occurrence barring some sort of collusion. It is also unclear how player/team discontinuity might affect merchandise sales. Fans seem less likely to fork over money for a player’s jersey when he probably won’t be around next season, but they are more likely to buy merchandise in general for a winning team.
Ultimately, however, under this system, every team would have a real chance of being competitive if not every season then at least half the seasons. Every season would start excitingly for every team because the results of the previous years would have no effect whatsoever on what was to come. But I’m curious, if you could choose between what I’ve presented and just MLB as it is now, which would you prefer?
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Does estrogen affect athletic performance?
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How does estrogen affect athletes?
However, unlike bone and muscle where estrogen improves function, in tendons and ligaments estrogen reduces stiffness, and this directly affects performance and injury rates. To see also : The drop in bookings is another sign of slowing travel growth. High estrogen levels can reduce power and performance and make women more prone to catastrophic ligament injury.
Does estrogen make your muscles weak?
What hormones affect athletic performance? The main hormone responsible for these effects is testosterone, the main sex hormone in males. Testosterone is found in both men and women. This may interest you : Sports Digest: Russian players given permission to play NHL games in Czech Republic. Progesterone, estradiol, and cortisol are also important hormones in terms of athletic performance and must be balanced along with testosterone.
Is estrogen good for running?
Estrogen is believed to be another hormonal factor that modulates muscle strength, metabolism and stiffness [16]. Moreover, the testosterone / estrogen ratio (T / E ratio) has recently been considered as a predictor of overtraining syndrome in male athletes [17].
Do trans guys still have periods?
Current evidence indicates that estrogens have a role in maintaining muscle mass [23-25]. When estrogen is deficient, as occurs with advanced age in women, muscle atrophy follows and contributes to muscle weakness.
Although estrogen dominance can be a good thing for endurance and strength, when it goes high up, it can cause fatigue and lethargy, which can definitely have an impact on your training.
Is it possible for a trans to have a period?
Yes, transgender men can have periods. This happens when a man’s gender identity does not match the body parts he was born with. He may have even changed his appearance and social role to match his male identity, but he will still have a period if he retains his original female genitalia.
Does being trans affect sports?
Can you still get your period on testosterone? Taking testosterone will usually cause changes to the menstrual cycle, and after some time taking testosterone, many people find that their periods stop completely.
Transgender people who go through estrogen-based puberty usually get their first period between the ages of 9 and 14, although people who go on hormone blockers may never get a period. Menstruation can continue until menopause, which can occur between the ages of 44-55.
Why can trans athletes compete?
Testosterone, athletic ability and injury risks A 2021 literature review concluded that for trans women, even with testosterone suppression, “the data show that strength, body mass are only marginally affected lean, muscle mass and bone density.
