In real (American gridiron) football, this problem is solved by the NFL tweaking the rules every year. They understand they are producing an entertainment product, and a typical pattern is something like this:
The New England Patriots come up with some clever rules exploit that ekes out an advantage, and maybe wins them a game.
Everyone goes “can they really do that??” and whines that it’s very unfair, even though it’s within the rules.[1]
If its early in the season, sometimes other teams begin to do the thing.
Between seasons, the NFL decides that this play pattern makes for worse TV, and changes the rules to eliminate it.
(Goto step 1)
As a fan of both the New England Patriots and David Sirlin, I find this cycle itself very entertaining. I am glad when the Patriots do this because it helps them win and it is, IMO, in the true spirit of competition to make all legal moves in service of victory.
[1] I recognize that the Patriots are widely believed to have cheated on several occasions. I don’t condone cheating, and don’t think that cheating makes one a “lovable scamp” or whatever. I personally find the actual evidence that the Patriots cheated on some of those occasions to be less than credible (and people’s views on it colored by their negative reaction to the Patriots Cycle), but I also recognize that I am biased and likely not able to fairly evaluate that evidence.
This pattern is even more pronounced in motorsport. The history of Formula 1 is the story of teams finding ways to tweak their cars to gain an advantage, other teams whining about unfairness, and the FIA then tweaking the rules to outlaw the “innovation”.
Examples include:
Brabham BT-46 -- a car that used a fan to suck air out from underneath it, allowing it to produce extra downforce
Tyrell P34 -- a car that had six wheels instead of four, to gain additional front grip for turning
In fact, one of the criticisms that many fans have of the FIA is that it goes too far with this. It seems like the moment any team gains an advantage by exploiting a loophole in the rules, the FIA takes action to close the loophole, without necessarily waiting to see if other teams can respond with innovations of their own.
There’s a similar, albeit slower moving, pattern in baseball. This season saw some of the largest rule changes in years with massive limitations on shifts (to wipe out some of the Moneyball-type strats) and the addition of a pitch clock.
The more common strategy taken by baseball, though, is to codify the spirit of the game. For example, the game codifies the concept of player error and limits how much the other team can benefit from errors, such as only allowing a double when overthrowing first in an out attempt. The best example is likely the infield fly rule which prevents fielders intentionally missing the catch in order to get more outs on the play.
I’m not sure if this is better or worse than cricket’s approach, but it does suggest an alternative strategy to achieve similar ends.
Isn’t it worse, for the reason mentioned in the OP (it’s Goodhart-able)?
This is why it is important that the ‘spirit of cricket’ is never properly codified into laws. If it was, then players would simply game the rules and find the most successful strategy that operates within the laws of the game and the process would be Goodharted.
Maybe in theory, but in practice humans have actual limits on performance and sometimes adequate rules actually succeed in limiting our ability to continue to game the systems to our advantage. That or the cost of further gaming is too high to be worth it (for example, in baseball egregious bad sportsmanship is often rewarded with the pitcher intentionally hitting the batter with the pitch).
This year, the big NFL controversy is over a play that the Philadelphia Eagles were repeatedly successful with last season. When the Eagles offense only needed a short gain, they would have their quarterback run the ball with 1 or 2 of his teammates pushing him from behind like in a rugby scrum. Despite the arguments that this play is a loophole that is “not football”, the NFL decided not to change the rules for the upcoming season, so we’ll probably see a lot more of this play by other teams for at least 1 more year.
Interesting, thanks for sharing! Its cool to see how different games manage the conflict between coming up with innovative tactics (which for me is all part of the fun of sports) and exploiting the rules in a way that makes the game boring.
Also thanks for the link to David Sirlin. I haven’t heard of him and the website looks interesting!
In real (American gridiron) football, this problem is solved by the NFL tweaking the rules every year. They understand they are producing an entertainment product, and a typical pattern is something like this:
The New England Patriots come up with some clever rules exploit that ekes out an advantage, and maybe wins them a game.
Everyone goes “can they really do that??” and whines that it’s very unfair, even though it’s within the rules.[1]
If its early in the season, sometimes other teams begin to do the thing.
Between seasons, the NFL decides that this play pattern makes for worse TV, and changes the rules to eliminate it.
(Goto step 1)
As a fan of both the New England Patriots and David Sirlin, I find this cycle itself very entertaining. I am glad when the Patriots do this because it helps them win and it is, IMO, in the true spirit of competition to make all legal moves in service of victory.
[1] I recognize that the Patriots are widely believed to have cheated on several occasions. I don’t condone cheating, and don’t think that cheating makes one a “lovable scamp” or whatever. I personally find the actual evidence that the Patriots cheated on some of those occasions to be less than credible (and people’s views on it colored by their negative reaction to the Patriots Cycle), but I also recognize that I am biased and likely not able to fairly evaluate that evidence.
This pattern is even more pronounced in motorsport. The history of Formula 1 is the story of teams finding ways to tweak their cars to gain an advantage, other teams whining about unfairness, and the FIA then tweaking the rules to outlaw the “innovation”.
Examples include:
Brabham BT-46 -- a car that used a fan to suck air out from underneath it, allowing it to produce extra downforce
Tyrell P34 -- a car that had six wheels instead of four, to gain additional front grip for turning
Williams FW-14B—a car that featured an electronic active suspension to ensure that it maintained the optimum ride height for its aerodynamics in all circumstances
Renault R25 -- which used a mass damper to keep the front end of the car settled
Red Bull RB6 -- which routed the exhaust underneath the car, in order to improve the aerodynamic characteristics of the floor
In fact, one of the criticisms that many fans have of the FIA is that it goes too far with this. It seems like the moment any team gains an advantage by exploiting a loophole in the rules, the FIA takes action to close the loophole, without necessarily waiting to see if other teams can respond with innovations of their own.
There’s a similar, albeit slower moving, pattern in baseball. This season saw some of the largest rule changes in years with massive limitations on shifts (to wipe out some of the Moneyball-type strats) and the addition of a pitch clock.
The more common strategy taken by baseball, though, is to codify the spirit of the game. For example, the game codifies the concept of player error and limits how much the other team can benefit from errors, such as only allowing a double when overthrowing first in an out attempt. The best example is likely the infield fly rule which prevents fielders intentionally missing the catch in order to get more outs on the play.
I’m not sure if this is better or worse than cricket’s approach, but it does suggest an alternative strategy to achieve similar ends.
Isn’t it worse, for the reason mentioned in the OP (it’s Goodhart-able)?
Maybe in theory, but in practice humans have actual limits on performance and sometimes adequate rules actually succeed in limiting our ability to continue to game the systems to our advantage. That or the cost of further gaming is too high to be worth it (for example, in baseball egregious bad sportsmanship is often rewarded with the pitcher intentionally hitting the batter with the pitch).
This year, the big NFL controversy is over a play that the Philadelphia Eagles were repeatedly successful with last season. When the Eagles offense only needed a short gain, they would have their quarterback run the ball with 1 or 2 of his teammates pushing him from behind like in a rugby scrum. Despite the arguments that this play is a loophole that is “not football”, the NFL decided not to change the rules for the upcoming season, so we’ll probably see a lot more of this play by other teams for at least 1 more year.
Interesting, thanks for sharing! Its cool to see how different games manage the conflict between coming up with innovative tactics (which for me is all part of the fun of sports) and exploiting the rules in a way that makes the game boring.
Also thanks for the link to David Sirlin. I haven’t heard of him and the website looks interesting!