The idea of using analytics and statistics to affect your gameplay is hardly a new discussion.
It’s something that originated more than 60 years ago, and it’s a concept that’s still developing today.
In the 1800s, Henry Chadwick, a former cricket reporter for the New York Times, was inspired by a baseball game between New York’s Gotham and Eagles to push the use of statistics in baseball.
Chadwick invented the box score. He’s the “Father of Sport Analytics and Informatics,” according to the Digital Museum of Sport Analytics & Informatics.
His work provided the base for sabermetrics, a blanket term for sports analytics coined by Bill James, the brain behind Moneyball, the concept that former Oakland Athletics General Manager Billy Beane applied to run his low-budget team in the early 2000s.
Beane relied on the principle that a player’s overall performance on the field is more important than traditional stats like batting average or home runs. Instead, he used metrics like on-base percentage and defensive runs saved to find value in players that other teams may have overlooked.
That’s the long answer.
For football, the short answer is it started right here in Ohio.
Paul Brown, a former head coach of both professional football teams in the state, started using film study and analytics to study his opponents back in 1946.
Brown is the first recorded coach in the NFL to do so. He found the most common formations and plays run by his opponents in the upcoming game and created what is now commonly known as a scout team.
Coaches around the league took notice and began to adopt similar practices in the 1970s.
The use of analytics in football has continued to expand today with people like Paul DePodesta, the chief strategy officer for the Cleveland Browns.
Ironically, DePodesta got his start in baseball and eventually introduced the principles to Beane, and the two worked in Oakland’s front office together for five years.
In 2016, after 20 years of experience in baseball, DePodesta was hired by the Browns, and he installed his system of beliefs into the organization, everywhere from the front office to the coaching staff.
As of 2023, the Browns had eight people on staff dedicated solely to the analytics department.
It’s a practice that started at the highest level, and now, we’re seeing more of it every day in the high school game.
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