Miami Heat vs. Philadelphia Eagles: The Difference Is Not Collusion

The differences between free agency for the Philadelphia Eagles and Miami Heat are race and consistency—not collusion.

Many sports analysts and fans—from Doug Stewart of the 2 Live Stews to this fan on youtube — said the difference between the Eagles and the Heat is the NFL free agents didn't "collude" to come together like Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and LeBron James did.

Well, it doesn't seem to be that clear cut according to Newsy.com, which reported that Mike Vick had tremendous influence on the Eagles' free agents.

Fox Sports also has video of Vince Young speaking about his friendship with Mike Vick and what it means to play with him.

But what if the Miami Heat haters are right and Vick and Young didn't "collude" to play together? How did a quarterback like Young, who ranked fifth in QB rating last season, end up signing with the Eagles for $5.5 million while Kevin Kolb, who ranked 34th in QB rating last season, signed for $63 million with the Arizona Cardinals?

The answer is race. The NFL has historically undervalued black quarterbacks. Read this Bleacher Report article to find out more: Philadelphia Eagles: Stumbling on Wins with Brotherly Love for Black QBs.

Race did not seem to play a factor in the Heat's decision to sign Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and LeBron James last summer (although it played a role in the reaction afterwards).

The other difference in the Heat free agency signing is that Riley knew exactly what kind of performance to expect from the three All-Stars he signed because the performance of NBA players is remarkably consistent.

Sports economist David Berri illustrated this point many times at his blog, the Wages of Wins Journal. NFL quarterbacks, on the other hand, tend to be inconsistent from one season to the next.

While LeBron, Wade and Bosh were guaranteed to perform like All-Stars if healthy, Vick and Young may not repeat their high level of performance from 2010 in 2011. If they don't, then the Eagles probably won't be playing in the Super Bowl and very few sports reporters and fans will compare them to the Heat.