Who said numbers ain’t fun? When it comes to football and sports in general, many fans try to develop a new way to connect with the game through analytics and predictions based on stats. Data research has become so important that it now determines how teams make decisions and how they operate as a whole, defining what their strategy is and even becoming the key to winning a championship. In this episode, host Kristen Berman talks with Eric Eager, VP of Research and Development at Pro Football Focus to discover the many ways in which they're changing the game of football with behavior science.

Jump straight into:

(01:27) - Get to know PFF: A football data collection and analysis firm for every single player in every single game that offers an entertainment platform.

(08:39) - Trust in the numbers: On math-based playbook strategies versus intuition, risk aversion, and omission bias.

(17:15) - Behavior and decisions made under pressure: What’s behind the mistakes of a quarterback and a coach?

(24:04) - How did the analytics revolution in sports start plus why it works so differently in football.

(28:01) - Exploring the many ways data has changed football teams’ draft and trade decisions and how that impacts their money cap.

(34:58) - Drawing up trick plays meant to deceive the other team and how that applies to markets and real-life decisions.

(38:37) - Home team advantage relevance: Discussing the fans’ role when it comes to predictions.

(41:31) - What’s going to change for football in the future? Determined positions and the use of algorithms.

Episode resources

Connect with Eric through LinkedIn

PFF

Thank you for listening to The Science of Change. Reach out to Kristen through LinkedIn and visit The Irrational Labs website for more information on behavioral science. 

This show is presented by SetSail (follow on LinkedIn) and produced by Kristen Berman and Studio Pod Media. The executive producer is Rachel Roberts. All episodes are written by Jack Bueher. Music and editing provided by nodalab.