Could I Not Be the Worst GM in Sports

I want to start by saying that while I very much enjoy sports, I know I'm by no means an expert in them, and definitely nowhere close to being an expert in managing and building teams. It doesn't matter whether it's baseball, (American) football, or hockey, I'd be trounced by just about every other general manager (GM) in the league. But I then read about the NFL's New York Jets owner used Madden ratings to nix a trade and think that maybe I wouldn't be the worst GM in the league. After all, in the NFL, 31 out of 32 isn't last.

For those that aren't aware, Madden is a football video game released yearly by EA. It features among other things full rosters of the NFL teams. Each player has a rating based on how they play in real life. How fast they are, how good are they at throwing or catching the ball, etc. The higher the rating, the better the player tends to be in the game. There's a catch of course. Past performance does not equal future performance. In real life, players are constantly playing better than their rating would suggest, while others are playing worse than their rating suggests.

A real NFL owner nixed a trade based off these in some cases arbitrary ratings. I guess technically the GM knew how to make a good deal but was overridden by his boss, but even I'm not so stupid to think that ratings in a video game carry over to how a world class athlete will perform in real life.

Part of the reason for this post, is what's going on in Dallas. Micah Parsons is one of the best edge rushers in the NFL. He's a player you can build your defense around and is a sack machine. He's currently playing for the Dallas Cowboys and is looking for an extension as his rookie deal expires after this upcoming season.

The owner of the Dallas Cowboys, Jerry Jones also acts as the team's GM. Re-signing Parsons should be an absolute no-brainer. Lock up your biggest asset on defense. Instead, Jones is dragging things out, trying to talk to Parsons without Parson's agent present, and has already made Parsons want a trade out of Dallas. If this was the first time Jones had done something like this, one might be willing to forgive him or think that maybe the problem lies with Parsons.

Not to give too much away, but it's not the first time Jones has done this. He did it twice in the last several years with wide receiver CeeDee Lamb and quarterback Dak Prescott. As much as it pains me to say this as a Philly fan...CeeDee Lamb is one of the better receivers in the league and Dak Prescott is a solid QB when healthy. Given what they eventually signed for, it didn't appear either was asking for anything extreme, just what they were worth.

I see these boneheaded moves and sometimes wonder what these experts are thinking. Even good GMs will make some boneheaded signings, trades, and draft picks, but some GMs seem to excel at these boneheaded moves. I wonder how badly I'd do if given the chance and if just maybe, I might be able to do just a wee bit better than someone like Jones.

At the end of the day though, GMs are somewhat limited by what the team's owner is willing to do and spend. Your team could have the best GM in the game, but if he or she is being undermined or limited by the owner (who does control the purse strings), then any skill doesn't matter.

Either way, at the end of the day, I'll leave the managing of teams to the professionals.