http://www.freep.com/article/2009011...ane+of+the+NFL
N.Y. Times: Lions candidate Jim Schwartz is the Billy Beane of the NFL
FREE PRESS STAFF REPORTS
With the Lions' coaching buzz Monday surrounding Titans defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz, we decided to dig up the profile the New York Times did of him in November.
Here's a snippet of Judy Battista's story:
Schwartz, now the defensive coordinator for the Tennessee Titans, (has) an economics degree from Georgetown University, an abiding fascination with statistics and a preference for watching game film over television. That made him a kindred spirit with his first N.F.L. boss, Bill Belichick. But when Schwartz told Belichick his findings from an early N.F.L. research project almost 15 years ago, Belichick said he did not believe him.
“Fumbles are a random occurrence,” Schwartz said he told Belichick. “Being able to get interceptions or not throw interceptions has a high correlation with good teams. But over the course of a year, good teams don’t fumble any more or less than bad teams. Bill didn’t agree. He said, ‘No, good teams don’t fumble the ball.’ But actually, they fumble just as often as bad teams.” ...
Unorthodox thinking like that has earned Schwartz, 42, a reputation as one of the N.F.L.’s leading practitioners of statistical analysis — “Moneyball” for the shoulder-pad set. ... Belichick regards Schwartz as one of the smartest coaches he has been around. ...
But being known as a “stats guy” is not necessarily a compliment, because statistics do not hold the romantic place in football that they do in baseball. Although every coach uses plenty of data — the Titans’ Jeff Fisher tracks how long his team takes to break the huddle — football is unlikely to bestow statistics-driven celebrity on anyone the way the baseball book “Moneyball” did on Billy Beane, the general manager of the Oakland Athletics.