Football Is a Numbers Game: Pro Football Focus and How a Data-Driven Approach Shook Up the Sport

by Matthew Coller

In the 1980s, Neil Hornsby was one of very few National Football League fans in England. Never one to do anything casually, he began keeping hand-written score sheets of every game using his own tracking system. Soon he'd enlisted some fellow British super fans in his mission to take football information an extra layer deeper.

This was the beginning of Pro Football Focus, an analytics company that now supplies data to all 32 NFL teams and every major broadcasting corporation. PFF player grades appear on the screen during Sunday Night Football broadcasts, and PFF's pioneering research and analysis informs discussions at the highest level, from coaching to drafting to game-planning and player evaluation.

In Football Is a Numbers Game , Matthew Coller chronicles this improbable start-up tale with unprecedented access, exploring the company's origin as a band of obsessive outsiders, its pivotal acquisition by Cris Collinsworth, and its role in the proliferation of data in the NFL and professional sports.

Featuring a cast of memorable characters, this is a portrait of an unlikely business success as well as a behind-the-scenes look at the forces guiding modern NFL teams as they search for a competitive edge.

Genres: Sports, Nonfiction, Football, Business

256 pages, Hardcover

Published October 3, 2023

Reviews

[Warren · Rating 3 out of 5]

There’s a quote with one of the PFF guys asking why now for the book. I have to say, I get charting the rise of this analytic behemoth is interesting, but we’ve barely begun to see where we’re going in all of this. It also just glosses over a lot of conflict points to give PFF a brighter shine. In 20 years this might’ve been a more interesting read.

[Hanson Ho · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very matter of fact oral history of the rise of PFF and some of the characters involved. It reads more like a long, well researched piece on the Athletic than a book book, but it gets the job done.

[Sean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tells the story of PFF. Compelling at times, less so at others. Solid overall.

[Noah Zunker · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a fantastic book and anyone remotely interested in football should read it. A lot like PFF itself, this book is about more than just numbers. It’s the story of the people behind that data, the why behind why that data is so important, and what that means for football going forward.

[Tyler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cool to go fully behind the scenes before the story has concluded and see how PFF has risen to prominence. It does feel like the author pulled some punches toward the end and let some things go early on in the history of PFF that could have done with more introspection (poor working conditions, low pay). Still an insightful read in the presence of a rapidly evolving industry.

[Dave Cottenie · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story of Pro Football Focus and its rise as a company and rise of relevance is an interesting one. “Football is a Numbers Game” however, suffers from a subject matter that I believe is unbeknownst to the majority of football fans. The idea of analytics in football is interesting, however, the main people in this story are relative unknowns and even the company itself is fairly unknown to outsiders.

[Darren · Rating 3 out of 5]

For some reason i figured there’d be a little more actual discussion of analytics and how they’ve shaped modern football as that was an aspect that brought me back into really following the sport but it’s all about the behind the scenes of the modern movement. A Moneyball esque look at one of the biggest movers and shakers of modern football analytics. It will really only be interesting if you’ve followed the analytics battles closely on places like twitter and what to truly tap into the humanity of these people (well mainly the owner of PFF). Its a story not closed to finished and with the rapidly changing media landscape and how we interact with sports media always morphing into a more personalized thing I’d like to know where a company like PFF will end up but that’s probably for a follow up book in a decade or so. Can’t say I was the biggest PFF guy and was much more into the way football outsiders discussed the game but the former has won the war and football outsiders are merely substacks and relegated subheads now that I still frequent but it’s not the same and like all things it never will be.

[Jodi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wasn't really very interested in PFF as a book-length topic on its own, but I love Coller's Purple Insider. He did a really good job with the history and impact of PFF and analytics in general, and it was an added bonus to hear him cursing via reading quotes in the audiobook, as he is obviously holding back his own strong language at times on the podcast.

I appreciate that he didn't refrain from mentioning much of the drama, and even made it clear that Collinsworth's kid doesn't seem to be doing a very good job (not exactly shocking, since having a rich parent doesn't necessarily make one a good executive; incidentally, I just googled after finishing the book and it looks like the dysfunction has only grown as Sam Monson and Steve Palazzolo just announced that they're leaving). It's always seemed to be a bit of a conflict of interest to me for Collinsworth to own PFF and be involved in the NFL, even though it's just the broadcast side (admittedly, I'm not a fan of his broadcasting), but I guess he's not truly "double dipping." Overall, I learned a lot and picked up a new phrase: "weapon of math destruction."

[Corey Hermanson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Matthew Coller captures a snapshot of PFF's history at the perfect time to reminisce on the golden age of PFF before it completely fell apart due to mismanagement and nepotism. I've grown interested in many of the names mentioned in this book from all the years of podcast guests on various platforms, including Coller's Purple Insider. Eric Eager is my all-time favorite.

Reading the stories of the PFF analysts working their way up from grading games to bigger roles to football analytics stardom really hit home for me because I remember seeing those same ads for game trackers and analysts when I was in college and I looked at the application many times, but I never actually went through with it. So it kind of feels like a glimpse into a fork in the road not taken for me. Which, it turns out, it's like it would have been a pretty fun road to travel.

And if the rumors of PFF being acquired in the near future are true...then this was a fairly complete history of Pro Football Focus.

[Josh · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a fine oral history of the rise of PFF and a surface-level overview of how every team in the NFL came to buy its data. If you're interested in the analytics they generate, or the math behind those metrics (if say, you're an analytics professional in a different field, like me), you'll be disappointed in that aspect. There are a few findings in there, but none of the actual math or thought processes are in this book. The book is probably best seen as a valedictory for Neil Hornsby and his version of PFF, although the "what will happen now that the company has new leadership and Silver Lake capital" is an ongoing story (Coller is a little too nice on that new leadership point to me - Cris Collinsworth's kids may have nice degrees from good schools, but does that *really* qualify them for the positions they've been given since their dad bought the company?).

[Brandon Anderson · Rating 2 out of 5]

This could have been an article, and probably just one published at PFF.

If you follow these PFF guys on social media, you already know how pompous and self assured they are and how analytics football is mostly just one big circle jerk of these guys congratulating each other on being smarter than everyone else.

Welcome to this book.

The only real fun surprises here are finding out the names of guys that used to work at PFF and putting together ohhh right, *that’s* why they always seem like that personality too, that checks out.

Some interesting history here but five times too long and a couple decades too soon.

[Gianna · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a phenomenal book that reminded me a lot of Moneyball by Michael Lewis. Matthew coller tells a story about how PFF was started as a hobby by a man that most people have never heard of and developed into a multi million dollar company. He details how the NFL adapted to data and analytics to gain a competitive edge and streamline game planning. Excellent book! Must read if you’re a fan of the NFL!

[Sam Silver · Rating 4 out of 5]

You might expect this to read like an extra long piece from The Athletic, however you’ll be pleasantly surprised at Matthew Coller’s writing ability.

Using a variety of sources and subjects, Coller is able to patiently and effectively paint the picture of the rise and impact of PFF.

While at times the book is repetitive as it attempts to remind the reader of the dozens of individuals covered, the story and message are nonetheless interesting to learn.

[Bobby Smieszny · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very well researched and written report of the origins and evolution of Pro Football Focus. I enjoyed meeting some of the key figures at the company, and seeing how they worked together, and at times struggled to work together. I learned about both what modern football analytics looks like, and a few small lessons on how to work in a growing company. For anyone interested in the nitty-gritty of football this is a worthwhile read!

[Christian Lin · Rating 3 out of 5]

3/5 Before data colored coaching and viewership, it was an eclectic way to digest football action and tactics. Now there is no doubt of PFF’s value to football

Each chapter flows like a podcast episode with an employee of the “original” cast of PFF re-telling their start. As a frequent user of PFF data, it’s a story uniquely interesting to me

Favorite quotes and thoughts:
https://christianinc.substack.com/p/f...

[Matthew Edwards · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty interesting look into the history of PFF and a little broader discussion on analytics in the NFL. Fun to read about a lot of people that I have gotten to know and their history within the organization.

[Drake McCrary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Should definitely be taken at its word as a snapshot of a moment in time and not surprisingly given the subject matter it's not always the most exciting read with a not insignificant amount of time given to data lingo.

[Jacob · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book that reads similarly to an extremely thorough and well written Athletic or Ringer article.An extremely inspiring story of the rise of PFF and the growth of data within American Football.

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely a history of PFF with the analytics relating to American football as ancillary, and I was more looking for a book on analytics. The stories of the people involved with PFF felt very thin, I was given enough to stay engaged but finished not really knowing that much about the company or even exactly what they sell to the different NFL teams. Oddly changed my opinion on analytics for the worse, where I'd gone in thinking those who wrote it off as pseudo-science were dogmatic Philistines but Coller's attempt to defend analytics had the opposite effect on me. It's not something you can completely write-off (and no team actually does), but the sample size of data you get in the NFL is so small compared to baseball and the way measurements like pressures and o-line assignments are graded seem like they would always have an element of subjectivity to them.

[Benjamin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really cool deep dive into the football analytics company PFF. I'm a little biased because I know some people who used to work there but it was really interesting to learn about the characters behind the development of the company. I see quite a few parallels with my own work in football and how ambitions and personalities helped move them to prominence but also created friction. The story about Austin Gale's upbringing was particularly moving!

[Dylan Hogan · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.8

[Luke · Rating 5 out of 5]

2018-2022 PFF is my probably favorite website of all time, so learning the backstory of the company and some of my favorite analysts was a treat