The Kind-Hearted Smart Aleck

On October 21st of this year, I wrote a blog titled, "Common Sense Trumps Analytics," where I criticized NFL coaches for obsessing over the analytics spreadsheet; treating it like a Bible; and using it as an excuse if things go awry - even when the decision made absolute no sense whatsoever. Well, two Hall-of-Fame coaches have just chimed in on the subject, and guess what? They completely agree with me. Two-time Super Bowl-winning coach Bill Parcells said on the subject: "This analytics stuff, I don't care for it. This is a 'get-off-my-lawn' guy talking. When you start talking about analytics, everybody's an expert. I saw this happen in boxing when they came up with the CompuBox - this guy had so many punches and so many power-punches, so therefore he should win the fight. It made everybody an expert. In reality, there's more criteria than just punching. Like ring gamesmanship. When I was coaching, I went for it on fourth down quite a bit. I wasn'...

Tell me if you've heard this before: a coach goes for it on 4th-and-short early in a tight game, in his own territory; fails; and the announcers say something along the lines of, "It was the right call. Don't judge the coach on the results; judge him on the decision. It's what the analytics said to do. He's just going by the book." "Analytics" has become like the Bible in football - a supposedly infallible guide, which continually gets edited; interpreted; and used as a perfect excuse if things should somehow go awry: "Hey, it's what the Bible said to do!" In other words, it's just laziness of the human mind and unwillingness to critically-think and take responsibility for one's own actions: "It's not my fault! It was the analytics!" Newsflash: common sense trumps analytics. This past weekend, when the Los Angeles Chargers trailed the Baltimore Ravens 14-0, 1st-year Chargers head coach Brandon Staley decided to go ...