As “Deflategate” rattles the National Football League in the run-up to this year’s Super Bowl, data analysts have swooped in, including Warren Sharp, one of many self-styled football analysts who blog about the topic. In a Slate article he analyzes the fumbling rate of the New England Patriots — the team accused of purposefully underinflating footballs to gain an advantage. The headline to his analysis calls the Patriots’ fumble rate compared to the rest of the league “nearly impossible.”
An Important Data Lesson from an Inconsequential Football Scandal
What Deflategate reveals about the problem of reverse causation.
January 30, 2015
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