My favorite thing about the NFL is the stats; I don’t care about the wins and losses. The reason being is for 19 years I was a high school football statistician in San Antonio. On a quick side note, I have seen many high school football players from San Antonio make it to the NFL and I am proud of them and enjoy seeing them promote San Antonio.
So, back to stats…
I kept track of passing yards, receiving years, rushing yards, 1st downs, 3rd down conversions, 4th down conversions, time of possession, punts, and in the back of my mind, I was always aware if a certain record was about to be broken. When I watch football games these days, I am still calculating some of these numbers in my head. It’s second nature for me and I will never be able to shed this from myself.
When I started as a high school football statistician, I will admit and tell you that I didn’t know anything about anything when it came to football stats. I picked it up as I worked the games and by the time I stepped away, I was at the top of my game! When I started writing about the high school football games I worked, I always included stats and that won’t change as I write about the NFL.
One record that will be broken this season is the NFL All-Time Passing Yards; right now, Drew Brees leads Tom Brady by 1,154 yards. And, Drew retired at the end of last season and Tom is still playing. It’s just a matter of a few games for when this record will be broken. What can Tom Brady not do?
I will be very interested in seeing who leads the weekly categories of passing yards, rushing yards, and receiving yards. Can the 2020 regular season leaders repeat for 2021; Deshaun Watson, the quarterback for the Houston Texans (we don’t even know if he will be a Texan this season), Derrick Henry, the running back for the Tennessee Titans, and Stefan Diggs, the wide receiver for the Buffalo Bills.
Oher things I am interested in are: will there be any undefeated teams, will there be any winless teams, what will be the largest margin of victory, what will be the lowest and highest total points combined for both teams for any specific game, how many players will be suspended for doing something stupid, how many coaches will get fired, how many memes will there be when your favorite team loses, how many fans will try to tell the coach what they did in crunch time was wrong, who will be the first player to do a post-game interview in the third person, who will be the first player to sit out the pre-season and/or regular season due to a contract dispute, and how many social media wars will happen between a player and a fan?
The upcoming NFL season will provide answers to those questions and we’ll be here to track it all.
