Sports Thought from a casual sports fan...

 Are NBA franchises getting smarter- and NFL franchises getting stupider?

Let me explain.

The history of the NBA is that there have always been at least a quarter of the NBA franchises that made foolish, short-sighted moves that crippled their franchises.  It wasn't enough to not be one of those franchises; you had to do a better job taking advantages of those franchises than anyone else.

The perfect example:  In 1976, the New Orleans Jazz wanted to sign Gail Goodrich.  Now in his prime Goodrich was an excellent NBA player.  But in 1976 he was 32 years old and on the downside of his career.  To sign him, the Jazz relenquished their rights to Moses Malone.  And, because of the NBA compensation laws at the time, the Jazz owed the Los Angeles Lakers their 1979 first round pick- who turned out to be Magic Johnson.

The NBA is littered with examples like that- teams making bad decisions that hurt them in the long run.  Portland picking an injured Sam Bowie over Michael Jordan.  The Knicks passing up a chance to get Julius Erving.  The Cleveland Cavaliers traded so many 1st round draft picks the NBA had to step in and create The Stepien Rule to prevent an owner from sabotaging his team too badly.

But right now... most of the NBA franchises are in decent shape.  The teams with poor records have young players and are stockpiling draft picks.  The teams that have traded their draft picks are either contenders or recent contenders.  There are still one or two franchises that make some questionable moves (Minnesota Timberwolves, anyone?).  But they are the exceptions.  Maybe with all of the money going around, the owners of the NBA are getting smarter.

But that doesn't seem to be applying to the NFL.  The NFL seems to be growing in franchises that are making foolish moves that are not good in the short term and horrific in the long term.  The obsession with getting a quarterback has led them to making stupid reckless trades.  It's one thing to go all in, try to win the Super Bowl, and then suffer the long term consequences; I'm sure fans of the Los Angeles Rams accept the poor year and lack of a draft pick in exchage for the Super Bowl Victory.  But what's the point of going all in and not even making the playoffs?

Most of the moves I see in the NBA, even if I don't agree with them, I understand them.  That's not so true with the NFL.