ProFootballFocus is a Scam

I'm a smart guy. I enjoy advanced analytics. I also tend to think they can get a bit overwhelming and people try to dissect too much, both can be true at times. Sometimes stats are just stats and things can be black and white. Major League Baseball has implemented next-gen stats into their brand and it's fascinating to see things like launch angle and exit velocity averages; these are things that are perfect for baseball.  Football... not so much.

Football is not a good place for advanced analytics. There's too much going on to fairly grade a single functioning cog of a larger machine consisting of eleven moving parts working against eleven other independent variables. Maybe if you're talking about peak speed for someone on a touchdown run, that's fine, I'm all for things like that since you can measure it. But the frauds over at Pro Football Focus have pulled the wool over too many eyes. It's time to take a stand against their tyranny. 

Why is PFF trying to charge $200 a year for "elite" level access to their made up statistics? 

They make up statistics. They aren't even real things, they're subject to human error and bias, and there's no way of actually measuring them with any consistency.  Don't believe me? The most prominent QB statistic is something PFF calls "Big-Time Throws". What is a "Big-Time Throw"? Nobody knows, except for the folks over at PFF. There is no way of determining what constitutes a "big-time throw" versus just a quality, regular pass. There's discussion of degree of difficulty of the pass and ball location/timing, but again, no actual way of measuring. Since there isn't an actual measurement involved with this, the PFF website just settled for this vague explanation: 

To summarize: There isn't actually a REAL definition for this (valuable) metric that PFF uses and awards QBs for good passes. Technically a "big-time throw" could be intercepted and returned for a touchdown if the defense is in position. Incompletions can also be "big-time throws" which is about the dumbest thing I've ever heard of. 

PFF "analysts" award players with a -2 to 2 score on a per-play basis. 0 is the "expected" score for every play. Here is the chart from their website outlining how points could be awarded (or deducted).

What a ridiculously flawed system this is, trying to take something that is decidedly NOT black and white, and make it so. "Awful throw that should be intercepted"... what happens if this pass is actually caught for a TD? The external factors that play into this aren't (can't be) calculated and there could be negative points given for a TD pass! I suppose the question is: Do we still negate points for a play that, despite other variables, turned out to be good? They pick and choose when the outcome is factored into the grade based on what some guys in a conference room think and ultimately agree on after watching the tape. Sometimes it's not as easy as what they try to make it and PFF is guilty of trying too hard and doing a bit too much. 

Always stay informed, that's a code that I live by. There's something you should know on the front end: Cris Collinsworth is owner and chairman of PFF. If you're wondering why all the graphics show up in-game with "PFF Grade" attached, look no further. There's no doubt he's used his influence to make this happen and include it in broadcasts. There's no doubt he's landed some sort of lucrative deal with the NFL to have them included everywhere you look. He stands to benefit the most from this and there isn't another "advanced data" entity in the NFL since it's largely unnecessary. 

If you're evaluating one single player, then there are 21 other individual variables that are immeasurable but also affect the player being evaluated. How can this be viewed as even remotely accurate? It's an inefficient and inconsistent way of placing grades on players that may not always show the full picture of a player's performance. It's objectively dumb to grade an individual when there isn't a sport more dependent on the element of team.  

During the off-season PFF resorts to shit-posts like this by their cringeworthy social media team because they're bored and need to drive up their engagement:

"I think he's going to be really good this year." Expert stuff here from George. Their timeline is splattered with the most braindead analysis money can buy. 

I come to you with a simple request: Can we please stop citing PFF like it's a legitimate reference? If you're paying for this, please reconsider. They must be stopped. These people are scam artists. Sometimes less is more. If you pay for premium membership to Pro Football Focus, let me know because I have a luxurious timeshare you might be interested in that just so happens to cost $200/year.