Louisville Law Dean Jim Chen weighs in on moneyball hiring, credentials, and … football

      

Louisville Law School Dean and Moneylaw Blogger Jim Chen follows up on some of the recent discussion regarding academic hiring here. He uses a recent statement by an ESPN commentator regarding freshman sensation running back Adrian Peterson’s relative placement in the hierarchy of NFL running backs to make a point on performance based (as opposed to credential based) hiring in academia.

Commentators on ESPN’s halftime show debated whether Adrian Peterson, rookie halfback for the Minnesota Vikings, is already the best running back in the National Football League. One of the commentators (whose name I neither knew nor caught) said, “No,” reasoning thus: “If he’s so good, how come six teams in the NFL passed on him during the draft?”

No, no, no, a thousand times no. This sort of reasoning reveals more about those six teams than it does about the player at issue, Adrian Peterson. Worse, it exposes the commentator as football’s equivalent of law professors who evaluate any given faculty candidate according to her alma mater, class rank, law review position, and/or clerkship.

Unfortunately, the Peterson highlight clip video offered on Moneylaw is no longer available on Youtube. However, Peterson’s stats speak volumes – 158 carries for 1,036 yards with a 6.6 yards per carry average and 8 touchdowns – with half a season left to play.

To be fair, critics of performance based evaluation may reasonably argue that in assessing running backs we should not be so concerned with the number of yards rushed, touchdowns, or yards per carry – rather, we should seriously consider whether the yards gained by the running back are of a “high quality”. In similar vein, critics might astutely point out that in assessing the value of running backs we should not focus on actual performance – but rather, we should be asking ourselves whether a running back has received “good training” and whether they bring “raw leg power” to the game.