The Sports Thinker

I t has been a remarkable NFL offseason and, as usual, all the action seems to revolve around the one position every football fan and pundit claims to know and understand above all others, the quarterback. And yet, the truth of the matter is that the value of a QB is over-estimated at almost every turn by everyone who matters (and almost all of those who don’t) in the world of college and pro football. There is not team sport in the world that boasts a larger number of players per team as football. A major league baseball team has a roster that is just under half the size of a football team. An MLS roster carries 30 players but not all dress for each game. NBA rosters have 12 dressed players per game. NHL teams dress 20 players per game. So why is the quarterback, who represents 1.8%  of the size of his respective roster, so generally regarded as the single most important player in any team sport?  That is a question that may not have an answer that can be found outside of the...