Economist Victor matheson has his own favorite example of spe ation. Ten people in a factory could specialize on ten different aspects of how you make a pen, he says. Economics is the study of the application of scarce resources across competing uses. And sports economics focuses on anything where we use this in the sports world.
Adam Smith famously argued that specialization is the key to prosperity. In the N.F.L., the long snapper is proof of that argument. Just in time for the Super Bowl, here’s everything there is to know about a job that didn’t used to exist.