What gave you the idea to do this book . What connection does it have with politics . Of a quirky paid hobby for 15 years. I have written a weekly football column for espn. Me tohers have asked write a book about football and i was flattered, but i thought, what could i add . There have been plenty of good books about teams and coaches and players. I realize the book that had not been written was a book assessing the role of football in american society. Young boys, teaching them how to be men, a lot of positives, public enthusiasm. There are a lot of negatives. Corrupting effect on publication education, public subsidies and so on. I wanted to seek an answer to the question, is football fundamentally good or bad for us . Secondarily, how should it be reform . Book, i noticed to get some strong personal opinions. I want to read one. This is in the middle of a paragraph. Today, most politicians are hacks what brought all that on in one paragraph . Wax congratulations for being able to pronounce that word. , a chaptera section where i ask whether football has become a cult. You see some evidence of this resented in the book. , am talking about coaches coaches who have become revered figures in american life. Werenstance, if all men like tony, the world would be a better place. I think coaches have become father figures for a lot of american society. We dont believe in politicians anymore, businessmen, clergy, intellectuals, etc. Still seem like people who practice tough love. They seem like a good father would be. I think that has a lot to do with their high standing in society. You start out talking about a coach that you seem to like a lot. Frank beamer of Virginia Tech. Portions of this book would be very critical of football. I wanted to give a constructive example to do too. I spent the 2011 football season with the Virginia Tech program. I traveled with them and so on. The point is not to recount the season. But to explain how it is that frank beamer has been able to have 20 consecutive winning seasons and yet graduate 70 of his players. If all big College Programs their players,f College Football would not be notorious. We got interested in this book for the connection to the taxpayer. I want to show you video from 2006 of an economics professor from stanford and get you to explain what he is talking about. In order for it to be an antitrust violation for the nfl to negotiate as a league for broadcasting rights, one has to prove that televised Football Games are a separate relevant market. Every time that issue has been litigated, it has been determined to be a separate relevant market. In that case, without the antitrust exemption, not only the nfl but Major League Baseball and the nba all would be in violation of the antitrust laws if they sold their broadcasting rights nationally. Is one part of the discussion about antitrust laws. First of all, what is an antitrust law . Your viewers probably remember from back in the gilded antitrust act banned certain types of price collusion. It bans businesses from using forming unified fronts. Sports leagues clearly do that. They do it legally. Got aneague baseball antitrust exhaustion from the Supreme Court in 1922. Professional football got an antitrust exemption directly from congress as legislation in 1966. At that time, there were two leagues. The antitrust exempt and allow them to merge and negotiate with Television Network said was as one single entity. One reason the nfl was so successful is that they were exempt from antitrust law. Imagine what apple would pay to the exempt from antitrust law. Why . Why does congress do that . Footballk a lover of i am one, i love the sport i think you can argue that the antitrust exemption was good for football as a sport. It allowed the league to distribute revenues evenly, which the nfl now does, and insured quality of competition. The gains are much better games than they would be without antitrust exempt in. Maybe you can rationalize it on those grounds. Congress got essentially nothing from the nfl in return. Congress should either revoke the nfl antitrust exemption or auction it off and see what the nfl is willing to pay for it. Thehat is the motivation on part of congress to make a special case out of some sports team . I think congress is cowed by football. Football being the king of sports has the greatest cowing effect. Football is so popular but there is so much money involved, public subsidies for most of the stadiums and so on, you would think that some populist champion would rise up in congress and say, yes, i love football 20 but lets make these wealthy owners pay their way. That doesnt happen. I think congress is cowed. They provide Campaign Donations and photo ops. Members of Congress Love to have their pictures taken sitting in the owners box of the hometown teams. That is why we dont see a populist Champion Rise up. I would always want the nfl to exist and play great games but i want them to stop using public subsidies and show more concern with safety. You talk in your book about one of your childhood heroes, the former senator from new york. Charles caddell, yes. Politicsinvolvement in living in kenmore new york, not far from jamestown was to knock on doors for Charles Caddell gooddell when i was 17. He was renowned as a man of conscience. The first prominent republican to favor environmental protection, one of the first members of congress to come out opposed to the vietnam war. He is rogers dad. Who is roger . The commissioner of the nfl. What does that mean . People think it means that he is in charge of the league. He is really not. He is an employee of the owners. He is a very highly paid employee of the owners. 30 million per year . Yes, nfl types headquarters is taxexempt and it is Roger Goodell 30 million a year. That legislation we were just talking about that granted the classicaiver also example of the lobbyist art nfl lobbyists stuck the phrase professional football leagues into the description of a not forprofit charitable enterprise. When congress voted in 1966, they said that museums, philanthropy, art institutions, opera houses and the professional football leagues are exempt from federal taxes. The headquarters of the nfl in new york city, the individual clubs pay corporate taxes we assume. Since they dont disclose anything, we dont know. How does he earn that money . People have said that he is worth that because the free market shows that the nfl is successful and it certainly is successful. The gains are consistently terrific. The lead roles in money, almost 10 million 10 billion per year in revenues this year. It is not the free market. Stadiums are built largely at public expense. The central operation is tax free. It is not a free market at all. Why does he pay himself 30 million . Because you can get away with it. That is the difference between him and his father. Is it fair to ask his son to be a good as men the son to be a good a man as the father . Man his ownnd of father used to oppose. Why would he oppose him . His father was a great man of conscience. I think he would view his own son as an insider using his position to take it vantage take advantage of average people. Didnt charles change parties from being a republican to a democrat . He ran for the senate as a republican. Hat was a threeway race to go back to what you felt in those days, couldnt you also make a case that the public had turned against the vietnam war and charles decided to go against it . You could make that argument about anybody who turned against the war. I think he was ahead of the wave. He was a republican when he did both of those strings things. Let me go back to this paragraph. What is an oleaginous hack . Think of a wayto to describe the kind of people you see on tv every day. You see politicians of both parties hopefully by the time this interview theres airs, the budget standoff will be over. Right now we are in the middle of the budget standoff. Where is the great figure of conscience on either side . To be moreo me concerned with pleasing their constituents and raising money at the moment. What is oleaginous mean . It means oily. Did you know that word or did you have to look it up . I actually did know that word. Business executives seem greedy and antisocial. Let me go back to Roger Goodell. Couldnt he just see this as a great opportunity to make a lot of money, why not . Everything that Roger Goodell does is legal. No one is accusing him of impropriety. As Michael Kinzer famously said, the scandal is what is legal . For Roger Goodell to call his call hissian organization a nonprofit is legal and it seems oily to me. The nonprofit status should not used as a substantive huge subterfuge for personal enrichment. As you said earlier, this whole area has to do with the coaches and the cult of coaches. But coaches, you talk about money, you talk about the kind of money that the coach of alabama gets a year. How much does he may . Make . He makes 16 million a year. That is not that money either. What that equates to is 66,000 per year per scholarship player under his supervision. That is pretty good money. How does that happen . Does alabama make money for education . All of the big football alabama comerida, ohio state and so on, they all clear 30 million to 50 million a year on football. The number has gone up because Television Rights for College Football are currently increasing at a faster pace than the rights fees for professional football. Where the big growth is in money terms. The last 10 years, the amount of money that College Football programs clear has gone from 5 million, 6 million a year to 30 million a year. The figure for alabama, they cleared 43 million after paying and assistant coaches. What do they do with the extra money . Lsu which won the National Championship made a big announcement last summer that since they were clearing 50 million a year on football, from now on, they would give 15 of what they cleared to the schools academic endowment. You have got lots of figures in here about college activities. How did you get those figures . Where are they published . The department of education began collecting that data about five years ago. I can tell you the website if you would like to go look at it. Is it the u. S. Education department . Those very long chains of letters and numbers. It is in the references to the book. I will point it out to you. Go back to College Football. What is wrong with any of this . What is the loss . When you talk about College Sports, i dont think anything at all is wrong with College Sports rolling in money. That is fine with me. A lot of parents and students would object to the fact that many schools charge athletic fees to their regular students even though their Football Programs are rolling in money. We are a few miles from the College Park Campus at the university of maryland. An undergraduate student there ans 398 her year for athletic feat. It all goes to the Football Program even though the Football Program roles in money. That is a minor objection to the status of College Football. The quality of the games is consistently fabulous. Every week, there are 50 fabulous College Football games. I players,ivision only 55 graduate. There is a lot of money in the system but the players are not paid i dont think that is the big problem. The big problem is they are not graduating because i College Diploma would be worth more to them than any amount that could be paid under a possible scheme. What difference does it make if you are a young man and you can go into College Football and get a scholarship and then go right into the pros and make what is the average Football Player making . 1. 9 Million Dollars is the current average. Is there a minimum . The minimum is 425,000. You set the question up, there is no problem. If i knew that i was going to be a number one draft choice in the nfl a huge contract, i wouldnt need a College Diploma. I could always go back and get it later. The trouble is, this happens to her the anyone. At the big College Level, the best teams, one player in 35 ever receives an nfl play check. 90 stays in the nfl long enough to have a career. I call this the grand illusion of College Football. These handsome, muscular, hard say, imoung men going to go to the pros and i am going to drive a mercedes and my life will be set. They dont graduate from college except for a handful. None of those things will ever happen. Have gottenwould into college in the first place if they were an athlete . Question. A good there are two things High School Football can do for you. One is get you a College Scholarship. It can also get you an athletic admission to a college that you wouldnt have otherwise been able to get into. This year, i will give you the ivy league statistics. The football coaches of all the Ivy League Schools have 14 athletic admits that they can use. The football coaches can essentially admit 14 boys who wouldnt have qualified for cornell or brown or other greats goals like that. You can either get a scholarship or an athletic admission. The smart kids use the athletic admission and instead of going to a big football factory school, they go to yale and get in and graduate and put their lives on a solid footing. If you use football or any High School Sport to get yourself a College Scholarship or athletic admission, you have done the smart thing as long as you go on and graduate. 800ould i, if i had only points on my sat and the yellow coach wanted meter there to play football, could i go . Not with 800. Use andleague schools academic index that requires you to get, i think this year it is 26 on the sat. They require you to be in the top third of scores. Go back to the fact the state schools are there any different rules for state schools and how much money they can either collect or use for the Athletic Program or the number of scholarships they can give . Division i limits scholarships to 85 per year. The university of alabama has 85 scholarships for football. 85 is the maximum they can use. Most of the big programs use their maximum. The smaller programs that have money problems dont use their maximum. The maximum is 63 for division does not allowi athletic scholarships it does allow athletic admission. When did the coaches salaries in college skyrocket . It started about 20 years ago. You may remember the big money skyrocketed about 20 years ago. In 1984, the Supreme Court deregulated College Football. , the ncaa could control how many games were on. When College Football was deregulated in 1984, the number of games on tv shot way up. Area, 46, and the d c College Football games are going to be aired. This led to a huge increase in payments to college teams. I have no problem at all, i think it is great that College Football teams are getting lots of money. But the money has gone mainly to building fantastic facilities. The university of oregon now has a football facility that looks like a modern art museum. Million dollars, tax deductible, so taxpayers paid about a third of it. Go back to the taxdeductible thing. Who gets to deduct the taxes . The donor. In the case of the university of whoon, phil knight, the guy founded nike, donated the 87 million. That is the reported figure. He could do duct that, i assume that he did, i dont know because i havent seen his taxes. If he used a Tax Deduction on that, taxpayers would have paid about a third of the cost of building that building. Almost all donations to academia are taxdeductible, including two football. Them we we want want donations to the Academic Institution to be taxdeductible because it serves a higher purpose of society. If i give 70 million to ohio states Football Program, that money is also taxdeductible and football is fabulous but it does not serve any larger purpose for society. How did it develop in this country that coaches make 6 million or 3 million and the president of the school makes half 1 million . Not only the coaches but the assistant coaches. There are 30 or 40 assistant coaches at the College Level who make more than the president of the college or any faculty member including the faculty members of the medical school. It is the same reason that Roger Goodell pays himself 30 million because he can. Colleges pay huge amount to their coaches because they can. When money is rolling in, the Athletic Departments want to spend it on themselves, not on the larger academic missions. We just mentioned ohio state. Currently, ohio states Athletic Department staff is twice as large as the English Department staff. Even though roughly one percent of ohio state students have any role in the Athletic Department. They are spending the money on themselves. Kids that go to ohio state, alumni from ohio state love the fact that they have such a hot Football Team or basketball team. Doesnt that draw students . In my chapter on college economics, i say one of the good things you can say for football is it makes people excited about going to college is. Big Public University expansion just after world war ii football excitement began roughly around the same time. Before world war ii, the ivy , university of chicago, those were the football powers. After the g. I. Bill, the power in College Football shifted to big Public Schools. People should be excited about going to university. One reason why the United States has marked College Graduates per capita than any nation is that we have really exciting College Campuses because we have big deal football, basketball, volleyball and other sports. Young people, especially young men want to go to college because it is exciting to be in college. I want to show you some 1999 video of the late senator Arlen Specter on the floor of the senate. I have sought recognition to introduce the stadium financing and franchise relocation act of 1999. This legislation would require that the National Football baseballd major league act to provide financing for 50 of new stadium Construction Costs. And that the National Football league the given a limited antitrust exemption to regulate franchise moves. This legislation is necessary because baseball and football have for too long had a public be dammed attitude. At the present time, Major League Sports is out of control on franchise moves for Football Teams and the mans demands upon cities and states for exorbitant Construction Cost which is a form of legalized extortion. He comes from philadelphia, big sports town. What would be his motivation . What success did he have with that . Senator specter i knew him a little bit he was the closest thing to a populist champion who was critical of the National Sports subsidies. You just heard him say he wanted the nfl to pay 50 of the cost of its stadiums. The figure is currently that the public has paid 70 of the cost of building and operating nfl stadiums. Give us an example of a stadium that was built with taxpayer money. Lucas oil field in indianapolis where the super bowl was a year and a half ago. Fantastic game, giants versus patriots, a game that ended on the crazy play where the new york giants player tried to stop himself from scoring a touchdown in order to make the clock run out. That was a wonderful game and the taxpayers of indiana pay the entire cost of that stadium. The ownership of the colts didnt pay anything. Stadium foruilt the them. Says keep all the revenue. Give us another example. Paul allen, one of the richest people in the world, the former microsoft executive owns the seattle seahawks. They are playing well. The stadium that they play in , ach is a beautiful field gorgeous place to watch a Football Game, taxpayers of Washington State paid for that stadium. Paul allen, net worth north of 15 billion and yet the public paid for the stadium and paul allen keeps almost all the revenues generated by it. He pays a token rent of about 1 million per year. That is the kind of thing that made Arlen Specter met. Who built the Dallas Stadium . Ie new Dallas Stadium have been there for the super bowl and nba allstar game. It is a wonderful facility. It is very futuristic looking. There are clubs at all levels, gogo dancers at all levels. Jerry jones paid most of the cost. On the other hand, his facility operates taxfree. He doesnt pay any property taxes. Why not . He got a special deal from the texas state legislature. If cspan build a building there, you would have to pay property taxes. Jerry jones doesnt pay any property taxes. Based on other comparable businesses in the same county, he should be paying 6 million to 8 million a year in property taxes. Here is a clip from 1996 with senator john mccain talking about another aspect of taxpayer money. Million dollars to repair the anaheim stadium scoreboard. Im sure that the good people of anaheim appreciate this federal largess and will enjoy watching this new scoreboard but i dont believe that such a repair is a federal responsibility. Anaheim stadium is an entity that charges admission. I would assume it strives to make a profit. Yet i have heard of no one offering to pay back the federal government for its investment in the scoreboard. This is a democracy, a republic where the voter has something to say about who is in office. Isnt this what the taxpayer once . A. B. , if taxpayers want to be bled dry for sports. Lets give another example. Senator mccain mentions federal Construction Funds to repair a stadium. The place that is now called the Mercedesbenz Superdome in new built entirely at , after hurricane katrina, badly damaged. When it hosted Football Games again, thats was a national feelgood story. The public paid for all the repairs. The league put in a token amount. The public has invested about 1 billion in the construction of the Mercedesbenz Superdome. The man who owns the new Orleans Saints keeps almost all the revenue generated there. Why dont people rebel against this . Manynk one reason is that people in the public dont understand this is taking place. I think the second reason is they feel like there is nothing they can do about it. It is largely based on insider deals. The most recent time there was a vote in miami, there was a vote and the citizens of miami voted strongly against doing that. Usually, people dont get to vote. Goinghere is also back, you remember the sociology of the sport. The antitrusthen waiver was first granted, there was a paltry amount of money in all professional sports compared to today. Nfl owners at that period could not have afforded to build pitiful stadiums. That amption arose stadium was like a public library, something the public should contribute to and the public would get to jews by coming in. That was 50 years ago get to use by coming in. That was 50 years ago. It costs a hundred and 50 to comment and the game is blacked out if the city and is not sold out. The idea of public funding and a stadium did have a logical reason when it started. It just outlived its usefulness. Any National Professional not have the antitrust exempt in . I know football and baseball both do. Has there been any effort in the last few years to take that away from them with all the money that is flying back and forth . I think senator specter was the last person who struggled with removing the antitrust exemption. When did you get interested in this . You can tell in your book that youre angry about it. Where does that come from . Rich people shouldnt be subsidized by the public. I dont like taxes, you know mike taxes, nobody like taxes. If rich people dont pay their fair share, than average people have to pay more. I want that to change. I am more concerned about the Health Damage that football does to young people and the corrupting effect on college education. These affect far larger numbers of americans. My own case, i started writing my football column for in 2000, 2001, somewhere in there. I thought i should take a look at some of the health research. I was shocked with what i saw. I had two boys who wanted to play football. I did not allow them to play football until they were in middle school because the research any parents who are wondering whether they should let their boy or girl play youth football, the answer is no. Your children should not play youth tackle football, not until the age of 13 or so. The Pediatric Research is ironclad on that point. With my own voice, i read the research. I got involved in coaching them in middle school. I didnt let either of them play until middle school. You can have a great coach football career without playing when youre 10 years old. It also made me think, i had been dealing football the way most of the networks do it, as a form of entertainment. It certainly is a form of entertainment. But it has health and social consequences that have to beat up with. That was the genesis of this book. Who do you think is going to read this book . I would like to think that people who like football but have second thoughts. I was at a social event a few weeks ago talking to a a Supreme Court justice and she asked me about the book. She said, i love to watch Football Games but i feel like it is a guilty pleasure. It is like watching boxing. Should i turn the tv off and not enjoy a Football Game . Anyone who has asked themselves that question should read this book. A person i know told me the other day that he was taking his son to a dallas game and the tickets were 1200 apiece. X that would be a good ticket, a low seat behind the sideline or something. Why would somebody spend that kind of money on a Football Game . You have asked a freemarket question. Why do people spend a lot of money on designer clothes . Is a bmw meaningfully better than a hyundai . If you have got the money and you want to spend it, i dont object to people spending a lot of money on Football Games. Taxpayerject to is the spending a lot of money on Football Games. What about the antitrust provisions . Does that allow the Dallas Cowboys to be the only game in town . The antitrust exemption has to do with the way the nfl negotiates with the broadcast networks. It also allows them to conduct a common draft which is important to making football a high quality sport. Mainly, it has to do with their broadcast negotiations. Otherwise, individual teams would negotiate individually with networks. Anyway that there could be competition, enough competition that those prices would come down for those teams . Does antitrust help them in any way their . Interstate commerce does not apply here because the entire game is played within one stadium and the stadium sits within the borders of one state. Oliver holmes, if you were to come back today, would see an entirely different economic landscape. The cost of walking into the canvas Kansas City Chiefs stadium is going to apply to you and only you. Somebody else isnt going to build a stadium next door and say, you can watch the Kansas City Chiefs play here and i will only charge you happens much. If they didnt have either the antitrust exemption or another , images created in publicly funded facilities can be copyrighted, that is how the nfl is able to bargain off. Starting next year, the nfl will get about 6 billion from the Television Networks. Division the reason the number is so high is that the images are copyrighted. If the images were not copyrighted, then anybody could go into the stadium and set up a camera and broadcast the game. The prices would decline extremely rapidly. In the Cable Television world, networks that you write for, espn, they get 5. 5 per month per customer. Gets six cents. Our number has gone not on a very much over the years. And they pay them these extraordinary rights to these teams. The players make extraordinary amount of money. Is espn protected in this business . Know. Ont it certainly is a beneficiary of everything we have just talked about. I think that works out to about 125 times per month what cspan is paid. Espn cant be that much more important to society. If people voluntarily made those choices, since i love sports and i also love cspan, i would voluntarily pay both of those fees. Most people would not voluntarily pay 5. 5 per month for espn. If they could choose, they would say no, i will pay my six cents for cspan. But i am not going to pay that money for espn. Many people would voluntarily choose that. When you look at the landscape of health football live televised, espn is a broadcast partner of the nfl. Cbs, fox, nbc, they are all broadcast partners. Abc is not but abc and espn have common ownership. All the Big Broadcast networks are broadcast partners of the nfl. By the strangest and most amazing coincidence, none of them report very much on the things that were discussing today. Why not . It is bad for business. Can you write about it . Yes, i have written including on espn. Com about the economic ws and the system of said of professional sports. This book is full of the discussion of things that are wrong with espn, cbs, nbc, etc. All the networks that broadcast football share common faults. I read about them and talk about them all the time. The thing that goes out to prime time on monday night football or sunday night football, you dont hear a lot of concussions and public subsidies on those shows. Here is Sally Jenkins who writes for the Washington Post talking about this same issue. The bond issue that taxpayers past to help finance the stadiums, it means there is money not going to be spent on something else. It also means bigger deficits. Why should new jersey be strapped with 110 million debt on a stadium that no longer exists when they are laying off cost and firefighters and Public Schools dont have supplies for kids . These are questions we should be asking more frequently. When we talk about spending public money for this great cultural celebration we call football. That was in 2011. New is the story behind jersey taxpayers paying 110 million a year for a stadium that doesnt exist . It was torn down to build the current stadium. Sally jenkins raises a great point. They are funded with tax free bonds. You mentioned arlington, texas a moment ago. Jerry jones raise money using taxfree bonds. The bonds that the investors pay no taxes on nobody likes taxes but if jerry jones doesnt pay taxes on his business facility, that means average people have to pay more. In the case of new jersey, stadium authorities most nfl stadiums, the mechanism of their creation is a thing called a runium authority that is either by a county council or a state legislature. Those are the organizations that actually raise money. In the case of new jersey, the old stadium was torn down to build metlife three years ago. That was used as a cookie jar i a generation of corrupt new jersey politicians. The amount of indebtedness for the stadium increased rather than declined. The taxpayers of new jersey still owe money on the stadium that no longer exists. They may owe the stadium that now exist far into the future as well. Where is there a stadium in the United States that was not paid for in any way by taxpayers . Harvard is theof key researcher on the subject. Structure, parking lots, freeway rams, public transit, the only two stadiums in the country where the owners actually paid more than three quarters are metlife, the one in new jersey which is shared by the jets and giants and gillette field where the new England Patriots played. They are the only two that you could say the owners were fair with the public in the construction. Do you have any idea why they were fair with the public . Patriots,case of the i think robert is one of the best businessman in the league. He is a real sharp businessman. He loves the but he also has a public spirit. He gave 100 million to columbia. It wouldnt be right for the public to pay for his stadium. In the case of the owners of the jets and giants, they had heard very loudly from the legislatures of new jersey and new york that they werent going to be taken advantage of again. Ownerships,sets of they might argue that they are better off owning all or most of their stadium. It gives them more control. In the case of robert kraft, i think it was just public spiritedness. How would you describe your politics at this stage in your life . I am a centrist democrat. I always have been. I want to show you a clip. This was last year in 2012. I want you to explain this to the public. He wrote the forward, because there is one other name, one other judicial name associated principal theories of this book textualism and original as him it is easterbrook. Somebody topick replace me on the Supreme Court, it would be frank. Samed to see things the because we are both playing the same principles of textualism and original as him. Frank easterbrook, seventh circuit judge, chicago illinois, your brother. Chief judge. How does that happen . I assume you are very different in your thinking. Not so much. Politically, maybe a little bit different. I am very proud of my older brother. I am also proud of my younger brother who is a teacher in fort worth. Is, i would say more libertarian than conservative. That has a lot of appeal to me or anybody who thinks about it. I would probably be to the left of him on some issues. He is incredibly logical. He not only knows the Legal Profession backward and forward, but he uses the attached logic ched logic to arrive at conclusions. Having read emerson and thoreau, i think the attached logic detached logic is the best way. Frank just gave a wonderful memorial speech for robert a couple of months ago. You can imagine what our family conversations are like. What were your parents like . Mother whosay, my died when i was young was a Public School teacher, very intelligent, very high iq. Very left wing. She had been born in a different era. My father was sort of a self made man, born on a farm in ontario during the profession comedy came a dentist, put himself through dental school. I would say that he had middle oftheroad politics. Where did you grow up . Buffalo, new york. Where did you go to college . I put myself through college. Colorado college was a private liberal arts school that charged significantly less than the schools of the northeast. Where did you get interested in writing . I assume that has been most of your career. I spent almost all of my adulthood as a writer. I am still trying to make myself just a book writer. That would be my goal. Ambition, here you are in 1992. , the pieces on Global Warming to summarize as quickly as possible, i would say the science of Global Warming is very shaky. It is something that may happen someday but there is no serious reason to believe it is happening already. Obviously we have a natural greenhouse effect that warms the climate. Nobody disputes that. In any rate, the short version is kind of shaky. Artificial greenhouse may happen someday. Most Research Continues to suggest it will be less fearsome than was earlier predicted. Given those things, what you would do to stave off the the caseffect for Energy Efficiency is very sound. Over 20 years ago, the magazine you were working for no longer exists. You have changed some since then. That handsome, slender guy no longer exist. What happened to your thinking about Global Warming . I follow that subject closely. I published a book about Environmental Issues which did pretty well. Year 2005, i switched sides on Global Warming because at that time, the National Academy of sciences issued a saying that the National Academy had become convinced that artificially triggered Global Warming was occurring. In 1992, that quote you have at that time, they would have issued the same degree of skepticism that i did. I dont claim to know more about science than the National Academy of sciences. When they switched sides, i switched sides. I did oped pieces and big newspapers saying that i had switched sides. I am now convinced that artificial Global Warming is occurring. I also agree with the 1992 version of myself in saying that it doesnt seem to be the calamity that was predicted. I dont think it will be the calamity that was predicted. It is just a real problem that we have to deal with. Lets go back to football. Heroes ur early hero pilot son testifying in 2009. We want to make sure our game is safe and we are doing everything we can for our players now. Engagedwhy we have progressively in making changes to our game. Things done some of the that have been discussed here on a variety of levels. Start with the fact that we have made significant rule changes to our game. Five rule changes this year alone have been made that are improving the safety and welfare of our players. They have had a positive impact in the short term that they have been in place. We will continue to evaluate rule changes to make our game safer. Many of those changes this year were specific to head injuries. How important is this issue . Healths the number one question in all of athletics right now. I will give the nfl some credit. They are saying the right things now. That is progress compared to where they were 10 years ago. They are trying to set a better example. The big concern with neurological damage from football is not nobody wants an nfl player to get hurt but there are only 2000 of them. There are 3 million youth players. 1. 1 Million High School players. That is where almost all concussions occur. Almost all neurological damage done by football is done to children. Youth players or High School Players are legally children. To 60,000 concussions per year at the high school level. In youth sports, it is harder to determine. It is in the tens of thousands. A lot of the Neurological Research is showing that it is not spectacular knockout hits that cause most neurological damage. It is the slow accumulation of lots of minor hit. Lasthas happened in the 10, 20 years, the number of kids playing youth football has gone way up. The number of states that allow yearround High School Football has gone way up. The slow accumulation of minor hits two people potheads has gone way up. Peoples heads has gone way up. It cant be good that more and more boys are spending more and more of their time bashing each other in the head. What about drugs . You write about opioids in your book. You write about tordol. How does that fit into the sports world . I think painkiller use is at a much higher level in the nfl than people realize. If people realized the level of painkiller use, they would be scandalized. Steroids are under control in football. Football has been testing for steroids for a while. I think it is not a big issue there. Toradol is a very strong injected version of the over thecounter painkiller aleve. It is ok to take it once in a while, that is fine. Pro Football Players, lots of them get injected with toradol before games, when they are feeling fine. An existing injury, but just so that they wont feel pain during the games. This allows them to play fearlessly. It makes for those knockout hits that sportscenter like so much. It sets a bad example for kids that play, through your body, lead with your head. See, it doesnt hurt. These nfl players dont look like they are hurt. They are fine. That is because they were injected with painkillers before the game. I tried to get the nfl to release data to me. They would not. I talked to the physician on their committee. He was very cagey on the use levels. All medical research is based on anonymous data. You dont need to know the statistic of what player got how many shots. Do need to know has many how many teens are using. The nfl will not release that information. As recently as 10 years ago, the drug plague in the United States was illegal street drugs that cause Overdose Deaths. Now, prescription pain killers that are legally issued to people cause more Overdose Deaths than street drugs do. Every locker room in the nfl is a small pharmacy. Guys are popping opioids which is vicodin, oxycontin and so on. They are popping them because they hurt. But they are popping them. The nfl wont release that data either. Why not . It would be so bad for business. They would be humiliated. Would anybody really care . Watch what some people think is violence on a football field . Some of it is violent. Football is an aggressive sport. I dont have any problem with that. Some people have made the argument that football is professional boxing and helmets. The crowd is there because they want to see guys heads go flying backward like that. They want to see people lying motionless on the ground. They dont care if these guys beat each other up. There is an element of that. The elements of the crown wants to see. I dont think it is a majority. I dont think nine out of 10 football fans want to see that is what i want to see. Most fans are like that. This, you seee this nfl game where there is this incredible violent contact and everybody gets up and walks away. It is fine, lets go home and have a few laughs. Nobody is really hurt. See school Football Players that and imitate that pager. They injure themselves and they will never get an nfl paycheck. Why has football been so popular in the United States and not nearly as popular around the world . We are the only country that loves gridiron style football. Canada likes it that they have ice hockey as the nationals for their. I think it is because we are the only country that could pull it off. Football is an athletic interpretation of what the United States is. Our good and our bad. We can do things that are complicated, that nobody else can do. We put a man on the moon and we can play these games that involve 50 players on each side bring a lot of expensive equipment. We are big, we are noisy, we are crazy, we are allowed, we are sexy. All of the things that americans are, that is what football is. Baseball is a beautiful sport. It has this nice pastoral elegance to it. It doesnt make you feel like only a crazy american could do this. Football gives you that feeling. Within limits, it is great that football is so crazy and loud and expensive. That is also why only america could pull it off. How have the Green Bay Packers stood out among the teams . Why have all the rest of the teams been bought by billionaire . The Green Bay Packers are the only professional sports franchise in football that is owned by the public. They have public shares although they are nonvoting shares. Because they have public shares, they have to disclose data. Everything we know about the other teams is based on extrapolating from the Green Bay Packers. Their, the packers team is highly publicly subsidized. They pay almost nothing for their stadium. Theers of wisconsin packers are so popular in wisconsin, if there was a vote, im sure it would pass. Your book, quote gregg easterbrook. Nfl owners are pigs at the trough. Arent they . , thee ownership families state of california has in effect built them a stadium in santa clara. I am sure it will be a wonderful stadium. That family has a net worth of more than 1 billion. They could have paid for the stadium themselves. If there is lots of money in the trough, why not swap some up . As you just said, it really speaks for what this country is. The Largest Television audience in history, the super bowl every year. If voters understood this better and if they had a chance to vote, they would normally vote against subsidies for sports. Case of the Green Bay Packers, citizens of wisconsin might vote in favor of subsidies. Miami, florida, citizens voted against subsidies for the nfl. If people had a chance to vote, they would normally vote against it. Poll questions have so much to do with how the question is phrased. If the question was, do you want your local nfl franchise to go out of business, everybody would say no. If the question was, the average nfl franchise has 45 million a year in profit, should they pay for their own stadium . Everybody would say yes. Quote, intellectuals have become contentious of average people. What about intellectuals . Why have they become contentious of average people and are you . Well, i try to keep myself in touch by attending and coaching Football Games. I would base that statement monthly mainly on modern fiction. So, we are done. Gregg easterbrook, the book is called the king of sports footballs impact on america. Thank you very much for joining us. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2013] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] for free transcripts or to give us your comments about this program, visit us at qand a. Org. Programs are also available as cspan podcasts. In a few moment, Prime Ministers questions. The victory speeches from Chris Christie and Virginia Governor elect terry mcauliffe. Another opportunity to see q and and a. Stop q time with david cameron. Much of last weeks debate was on the National Health service and cut to the accident and emergency services. The Prime Minister spoke about the Intelligence Services and oversight. Order. Questions for the Prime Minister. Here. Here. Number one, sir. You, mr. Speaker. With remember it coming, we will remember those who have given their lives in service to our country out particularly with the president of the republic of korea which remembered those who served,nd all those who many of whom are now coming to the end of their lives, and we should again t