Professional Football Researchers Association Forum
PFRA is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the history of professional football. Formed in 1979, PFRA members include many of the game's foremost historians and writers.
RichardBak wrote: ↑Sun Mar 24, 2024 4:47 pm
I was just looking at some pix from SABR's analytics conference. I don't think I could spot one presenter or attendee who looked to be older than 30. And to be honest, most of them looked like the kind of guys who always got picked last on the playground, if they played at all. They're into the geekness/numbers/whatever, not the physicality or competition or beauty of the game. Analytics has killed baseball. In fact, my nephew's oldest son just finished his BA in sports analytics (I'm not sure that's exactly what the program's called) and while he's a nice kid, he's never been athletic and has never had any interest in actually playing sports. Yet he hopes to land some kind of job in some front office.
Agreed. The analytics don't take into account such things as to who had responsibility on the play. Sometimes it isn't easy to tell. They also cannot measure emotional impact like confidence and heart.
I don't remember even hearing the term "hip-drop tackle" before last year. I seem to recall making a comment in a different thread that "to me, a 'hip-drop tackle' is just a type of tackle." The kind that players have been making since our favorite form of football was invented.
It doesn't even sound like the league even knows how to properly define what a "hip-drop tackle" is! I can see this causing all SORTS of problems in the years to come. Ridiculous is what it is, if you ask me.