Baseball stats guru needed to accurately evaluate some football stats
A few weeks ago I watched my hero Bill James on “60 Minutes.” James, in case you don’t know, is the inventor of SABRmetrics, a way of applying stats in new and revolutionary ways to baseball. His ideas reportedly helped the Red Sox win a couple of World Series.
I couldn’t help thinking that it would be great if James applied his genius to an important sport like football, With the help of his innovations, who knows? Maybe the Bengals would be working on their third straight Super Bowl victory. Or at least a winning season.
One thing for sure, there wouldn’t be so many silly ideas floating around about some football stats.
For example, I’m sure James could set straight those people who put so much stock in the number of tackles a player makes. You’ve seen them drawing comparisons like Joe Blow made 120 tackles last season but John Doe only had 90 and that proves Blow is the better defender.
James probably would start out by reminding everybody that baseball is a team game played by individuals, but football is a team game played by teams. In baseball, every player is personally responsible for all or most of the stats he produces in batting, fielding, or pitching. Derek Jeter never stretched a single into a double because A-Rod laid a block on the opponent’s left fielder.
profootballweekly.com
9/1/08
