The Hill News

In early August, the Philadelphia Eagles beat the Baltimore Ravens 13-6.  The Eagles, who had bulked up their team in the offseason, were being declared “America’s Team” and inevitable champions.  Perhaps the defeat of the Ravens was a sign of the potential Super Bowl victory that awaited long beleaguered Eagles fans.  Indeed, the Eagles won three of their first four games.

There was only one problem.  It was the preseason. And the preseason does not count, as evidenced by the Eagles’ current 4-8 record.

This is a vital lesson to the scores of commentators pouring over the FCC staff’s paper on the ATT/TMobile merger.  Even though regulatory staffs traditionally guard their staff work from public disclosure, the FCC bucked tradition by sharing it in the public domain.  

Now the merger opponents will argue that the FCC decision dooms the ATT/TMobile merger.  They will claim it provides a perfect roadmap for Judge Huvelle to find the! merger anticompetitive and block it.  They will demand that it demonstrates without dispute that the merger is anticompetitive.  

They could not be more wrong.

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