Enlightening Football's Dark Ages

In 2003, Michael Lewis published Moneyball, the account of how Oakland Athletics general manager Billy Beane used a statistical approach to find underappreciated assets that could help his low-budget team be competitive. The book came as a revelation to many sports fans (and, of course, fantasy sports fans), and created a demand for better statistics in other sports.

Applying Moneyball concepts to the NFL wasn't easy, though. Baseball had a strong statistical tradition. Football was in the stone age. Aaron Schatz sought to change that.