Drew Magary’s Thursday Afternoon NFL Dick Joke Jamboroo runs every Thursday at Defector during the NFL season. Got something you wanna contribute? Email the Roo. You can also read Drew over at SFGATE, and buy Drew’s books while you’re at it.
Analytics have made NFL football a better sport. I’ve made some variation of that argument dozens of times in the past, and so have many of my colleagues. Thanks to all the nerdy math nerds crunching the numbers out there, more NFL teams are going for it on fourth down, going for two when they’re down eight points (might be a bad idea), and taking deep play-action shots even when they have a shit running game. All of that is fun and cool. Dan Campbell may never win a Super Bowl, but for his work putting analytics into practice, I’d gladly give him a Hall of Fame jacket and a kiss on the mouth. Analytics, on the whole, are good. Analytics are right. Analytics work.
