The Buffalo Bills announced this week that they would be starting a "robust" analytics department, becoming the latest team to embrace statistical analysis as a tool to help make decisions. Just like in baseball, this is not going to be embraced by the old guard. "As a practical tool, Moneyball does not work in the NFL because there are very few undervalued players and no middle class because of our salary cap," longtime NFL general manager Bill Polian told Buffalo Business First contributing editor Tim O'Shei, via The Buffalo News. "There is no middle class in football because the minimum salaries are so high and because of the salary cap, a player will reach a point where you can't keep him. They go. They're going to get big money elsewhere," Polian said. Polian is right that the NFL salary cap makes financial matters in the NFL far different than baseball, but that hardly means there isn't value to be found on the free-agent market or through the draft. It's hard to find veterans who are on their second and third contracts and are undervalued, but they certainly are out there. "Now, you can't win for long, which is why nobody will ever go to four straight Super Bowls again," Polian said. "The system is designed to take good teams and rob them of players. That's the way it is." Source: NFL.com
polian is old school ........ not real surprising that he would reject something like this immediately .......... having said that, it may not work in the nfl. we'll just have to see.
I've never thought of that, but essentially it's true. When a team is winning football games, it's because a lot of players are doing their part. When a lot of players are doing their part, they feel they deserve more money. When a lot of players feel like they deserve more money, there is less money to go around.
Lol...it's like a children's book. When there's less money to go round, players leave. When players leave, they go to other teams. When they go to Other teams other teams get better. When other teams get better, they win.
the whole thing about going to four straight superbowls is a little above the topic of money ball getting to the superbowl is one thing getting a roster through 16 games and into the playoffs is another also mainly the best player plays not the highest paid player look at wilson and flynn in seatle
no doubt the modern age of F.A. (post-Bills 4 straight) has made it harder to repeat but I would actually attribute more of the Bills 4 straight to a really, really, really crapty AFC at the time ............. there just weren't many good teams in the AFC at that time and Buffalo just steamrolled them. All the good teams were in the NFC during that timeframe and that's why the NFC won the SB every year.
expanding the post season could add to this football money ball theory if a team only needs to win 9 out of 16 games to get in the playoffs and win the superbowl now just think what it would be like with 14-16 teams in the playoffs eeek
which is why he is correct because no one gets that lucky in a draft 4 years running. Belichick has been the only one to play his form of money-ball but its only because he has a top tier in life-time football history QB
