Friday, January 13, 2006

Old Age and NFL Coaching

A week after taking over as the Buffalo Bills' general manager, 80-year-old Marv Levy has emerged as a possible replacement for Mike Mularkey, who resigned earlier this week as the Bills' head coach. Levy, a Hall of Fame coach for the Bills back in the 80s and 90s, would become the oldest coach in NFL history. That distinction currently belongs to . . . Marv Levy, who was 72-years-old when he last coached the Bills in 1997 (George Halas was also 72 when he coached the Chicago Bears in 1967).

Is an 80-year-old Levy "too old" to be an NFL head coach?

By mere virtue of his age, absolutely not. A blanket categorization of "80-year-old persons" would reflect stereotypical thinking and naiveté. There are productive and energetic 80-year-olds just as there are incapable and lazy 40-year olds. In part for that reason, age discrimination laws would likely prevent the NFL (or any pro sports league) from imposing an "age ceiling" on coaches. Though Levy serving as both GM and Head Coach would be challenging and perhaps regrettable, that may be true regardless of his age. Moreover, whether Levy is the right person for the job is a decision that Bills' owner Ralph Wilson should make and not the NFL through imposition of an arbitrary age ceiling.

It is interesting, though, that we have age restrictions on entry as a player, yet coaches and staff can presumably be of any age. Granted, player age restrictions more precisely reflect "age floors," but the same underlying premise remains: leagues would rather use age proxies than to allow players and teams to make their own decisions, presumably because leagues would rather engage in stereotypical thinking than analytical thinking.

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