NFL Football Is Back!

[Ion Saliu]

The 2011 NFL preseason started yesterday, August 11. The entire NFL season was under serious doubt last spring. There was a war between the two parties: The league (owners) and the union (players).

The two sides were worlds apart in striking a new agreement. In the end, what’s healthy in a democracy prevailed. Either party tried to get the largest piece of the pie. When the time almost ran out, both sides realized it was best to apply the principle of give-and-take. Before that, either side wanted only the take while other side should have accepted only the give.

The NBA professional basketball goes through the same type of negotiating war. The conditions seem to be far more difficult in the NBA right now. NFL makes big money, billions of dollars, while NBA loses hundreds of millions of dollars every year. But both camps in the NBA war should understand, albeit later, that only the give-and-take principle works.

A question was frequently asked up until July this year: Could USA live without NFL football? Of course, it could have. Every nation can live without sports entirely. But, I believe, every nation in this world has a sport or two. Even Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Afghanistan have sports (albeit with serious restrictions).

The problem in USA was the economic impact of professional football. Pro football is the most watched event on television. That has a serious impact on advertising. Advertising has a serious impact on consumption. The products or services advertised on TV during NFL games sell better, by and large. There are also vendors in the stadiums during the games. There are several other businesses who directly benefit from pro football (like those related to the famous tailgate parties.)

It’s all academic now. The NFL football is here to stay for several years. The new season just started.

Usually, the preseason attracts far less interest than the NFL regular season and especially the post-season. For example, I don’t even bother to publish the preseason schedule! I watch lightly the TV preseason football games. This was one of the issues the owners wanted to be addressed. Because the NFL team owners know how little interest the preseason excites, they wanted to prolong the regular season by a couple of games. “It’s about money!” the owners cried. “It’s about our bodies and our health!” the football players cried.

I was surprised to see how much interest the first NFL preseason game attracted. I am referring the TV game in my area: Baltimore Ravens at Philadelphia Eagles. Other football fans think like I do. The two potential Super Bowl favorites met in the first game of the preseason. The stadium was packed. The fans were as excited as during a regular season game.

The Philadelphia Eagles represent an unusual case in the history of the NFL. They are like a dream team — it is named that way now. It is loaded with super stars, football players with multiple Pro Bowl appearances. The Eagles acquired in one week this year the largest number of free agents of the highest caliber. Many NFL team owners are really jealous at Philadelphia Eagles — and other teams scream their displeasure!

Of course, talent is one thing and winning the championship is a totally different matter. As good as they look on paper, Philadelphia Eagles must win it all on the field. But they are the most exciting football team to watch, especially with Michael Vick at the helm.

I keep record of the results of the regular season accompanied by statistical analysis:

National Football League (NFL): Schedule of All Games and Every Team for Current Season.

Ion Saliu
Scheduler At-Large

[Pingu]

Does anyone know the span of ATS results in the NFL.ods file that comes with BrightS?

It's 244 lines long and i can't pin down where it starts or ends

Thanks.


Ion Saliu's edit:

Your post is too short (fewer than 200 characters). Please take a little more time to add a few more meaningful words.

The file NFL.ODS has data between 1990 – 2006, mostly without the Monday Night Football. You can do more (re)search at SALIU.COM. But I plan to revise the software and the data file to incorporate 16 games, including Monday Night.

IS
NFL Football Teams Ranked by Wins, Statistics, Seasons, Years, Point Spread

[Ion Saliu]

The results or data file (NFL.ODS in current software) must have exactly 15 winning teams per line. If a week has 16 games, the winning team of the NFL Monday Night Football game was discarded. When an NFL week has 14 (or fewer) games, the user must add the word OPEN to have 15 entries per line. Valid for the 2011 edition of BrightS.exe.

The currently public NFL.ODS file has results from the 1992 season to Week 5 of the 2006 NFL regular season.

I modified the previous NFL.ODS data file (the one included now with my software). The new file consists of 16 football teams per line, or ATS results. I created also a special program to work with the new format. The results start at the beginning of the 1992 NFL season. The file ends with the 2011 regular season. The Monday Night Football games are accurately included for the period 2004-2011.

The new software is not available at this time. Several updates are necessary. Also, I work on better protection against piracy of my software. New licensing schemes are necessary.

I updated the Web page with the newest statistical reports right in time for the NFL playoffs. The registered members are encouraged to download the updated data files and software:

NFL Football Statistics: Teams Ranked by Wins Against Point Spread (ATS).

                The NFL Teams Ranked by Wins Against The Spread (ATS)
                20-Year Report: 2011 - 1992
                Weeks Analyzed:  341
                File: NFL-16.ODS; Date: 01-12-2012
                Expected Wins:  50.00%

                Rank   Team          Hits    Percentage

                  1    PATRIOTS      176       54.83%
                  2    PACKERS       172       53.58%
                  3    EAGLES        170       52.96%
                  4    CHARGERS      169       52.65%
                  5    STEELERS      168       52.34%
                  6    TITANS        168       52.34%
                  7    CHIEFS        167       52.02%
                  8    FALCONS       167       52.02%
                  9    GIANTS        165       51.40%
                 10    SAINTS        165       51.40%
                 11    BRONCOS       164       51.09%
                 12    BEARS         158       49.22%
                 13    COLTS         158       49.22%
                 14    BILLS         157       48.91%
                 15    49ERS         155       48.29%
                 16    COWBOYS       155       48.29%
                 17    JETS          154       47.98%
                 18    DOLPHINS      154       47.98%
                 19    LIONS         153       47.66%
                 20    SEAHAWKS      151       47.04%
                 21    BUCCANEERS    151       47.04%
                 22    BENGALS       151       47.04%
                 23    VIKINGS       151       47.04%
                 24    REDSKINS      148       46.11%
                 25    PANTHERS      147       45.79%
                 26    CARDINALS     147       45.79%
                 27    RAVENS        140       43.61%
                 28    JAGUARS       139       43.30%
                 29    RAMS          138       42.99%
                 30    RAIDERS       134       41.74%
                 31    BROWNS        129       40.19%
                 32    TEXANS         78       24.30%  = started in 2002

Ion Saliu