Motley Fool Hidden Gems Investing - Michael Lewis Saw Football’s Future

Episode Date: January 28, 2020

The NFL’s financial health is not in doubt. The health of its players, however, is getting more attention than ever. Back in 2011, when concussions were just beginning to become a topic of interest, best-selling author Michael Lewis saw a future in which star players would walk away from the game before it was too late.     Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With a Motley Fool Money Extra, I'm Chris Hill. We're just a few days away from Super Bowl 54, and while the business of professional football is financially strong, the NFL has had some high-profile retirements over the past year. All-pro talents like Rob Gronkowski from the Patriots, Andrew Luck from the Colts, and Luke Kuechly from the Carolina Panthers have all walked away from the game.

What's striking is not only the accolades they earned for their talents on the field, it's the fact that they retired before they turned 30 years old. Their careers were longer than that of the average guy in the NFL, sure, but these three were at or near the peak of their powers. People in and around the league were stunned by these early retirements. But nearly a decade ago, best-selling author Michael Lewis saw this coming. He's no stranger to the world of sports. He highlighted the importance of offensive linemen in his book, The Blind Side.

And he spent time with the Oakland Athletics doing research for a book that would introduce a new term to the world of both sports and business, moneyball. Michael Lewis has built his career in part on his interest in topics that are not getting a lot of attention. And when I talked with him back in 2011, the health of NFL players was just starting to become a mainstream topic. Concussions are becoming more and more of an issue for the NFL. Do you think the risk of head injuries and concussions is going to change the way professional football is played? Yes, now that the issue's been raised, yes. I think eventually it will change.

It's going to take a little time. I think it's already changed the way it's being played. The games are being refereed differently. What I find shocking, given the heightened awareness of what this game does to the players, especially as they age, is that the NFL owners are pushing for a longer season. You would have thought the natural conclusion for all this would be play fewer of these games. So I think something's going to give, whether it's they change the equipment so it's harder to have head-to-head hits,

or they change the rules and enforce them differently so that players are just dissuaded from that. Or, you know, the real thing, the thing that is clearly going on is the more players see what you become after you've played this game, that you won't remember anything when you're 45 years old and you'll be a virtual cripple when you're 55, the more I bet they adapt their behavior. Not completely, but a bit.