Analytics geeks – Jason Kelce just called you out. Hardcore.
Kelce seems to be firmly in the camp that feels stat analysts are ruining sports. You know, the ‘Moneyball’ folks, who treat sports like they’re on the trading desk at Goldman Sachs. The topic was recently broached during an episode of his “New Heights” podcast with brother Travis Kelce.
The two spoke about recent comments made by Atlanta Falcons head coach Raheem Morris. Morris was discussing struggles by tight end Kyle Pitts, who in last Sunday’s game against the New Orleans Saints, had zero catches on three targets.
“You know, it’s just about going out there and winning the game. When you’re out there, you’re playing,” Morris defended. “He had a couple targets today, he had a couple things going up that way. We had a questionable call at the end of this stretch again to Kyle. Those things are always unfortunate.”
“But really, for me, stats are for losers, man,” he added. “I don’t get involved in that stuff. You go out there, you try to win each game. We were able to win it today. That’s what we did.”
The Falcons beat the Saints 26-24.
Jason Kelce Concurs – Stats Are For Losers
Super Bowl champion Jason Kelce agreed with Morris’ comments and pointed out that the only numbers that matter are points scored and the wins and losses.
“Stats are numbers. What I care about is the football. Where does it go? Does it go in the end zone? Do we get points? Points are also numbers, but points determine games and wins and losses. Stats are numbers, numbers are nerds, nerds are losers, therefore stats are losers,” Kelce said.
He was just getting warmed up in his verbal assault on stat geeks.
“All we care about is visually, does that ball go into that territory right there we got points? Does that ball go through those uprights? When we’re on defense, does the ball go that way or does it stay where it’s at?” he continued. “That’s all I care about.”
“I don’t care about the numbers, numbers are for the analytics people, and the pencil pushers, and the zit faces, and the four eyes.”
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Moneyball Author Agrees Analytics Have Ruined Baseball
Some might argue that Jason Kelce is going after stat guys because his brother Travis, tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs, is mired in a slump.
Travis Kelce did have 7 catches for 89 yards – including a season-high catch of 38 yards – in the Chiefs win over the Chargers on Sunday. But that is still a fairly pedestrian day for the all-time great. A pedestrian day that marks a doubling of his output in the three previous games combined (8 catches for 69 yards).
And, to the point of Kyle Pitts – you’re not exactly contributing to wins and the points needed to attain the victory if you’ve caught zero balls for zero yards. Did he deliver some blocks? Sure. Are those ever credited for wins? Nah.
So stats can’t be completely dismissed. But Kelce, the doppelganger for Yukon Cornelius, is onto something.
Michael Lewis, author of the book Moneyball, which kickstarted an analytics revolution in baseball and even spawned a movie by the same name starring Brad Pitt, says the heavy-handed statistical approach has ruined baseball.
“I think that’s true,” he said. “It turns out that the smart way to play baseball is boring. Don’t steal bases. Don’t swing at bad pitches. Position fielders so the ball is hit right to them,” Lewis told the San Francisco Chronicle. “It does make what is already a pretty sedentary sport less kinetic.”
“It’s much less fun having geeks from MIT running the baseball team than it was having colorful tobacco-chewing former players who you knew,” he added. “It’s much less fun when the manager is clearly less important, more like a middle manager.”
“I kind of agree that Moneyballing baseball made it more boring.”
Leaning on analytics was a necessity for the Oakland Athletics because they couldn’t compete in a league with teams that had much bigger payrolls to work with. It’s the whole gist of the movie. And while it never led to any championship runs, it did allow those teams for years to actually compete in a very statistic-driven sport.
As a Dodgers fan, manager Dave Roberts has been one of the most successful skippers of all-time. He is very analytics-driven.
But his reliance on such stats even when common sense dictates he go in another direction has almost assuredly cost Los Angeles one or two runs at the World Series.
In short, there is a place for stats in the sports world, but it shouldn’t consume entire organizations.
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