I like to think that I’m the only one out there logging NFL injuries and trying to make sense of all the data, but that’s not really true. There are plenty of other smart people (that indicates that I am smart… nice work) that are doing some great work, and I’d like to highlight some of that here.
Zach Binney is a Ph.D. student in epidemiology, which is a branch of medicine dealing with the incidence, distribution, and patterns of health events (such as injury or disease). That’s exactly the sort of person who should be combing NFL injury data. Thankfully, Football Outsiders has an impressive database of NFL injuries, and Zach did some great work with them that I think is worth a read. He did a four-part series that really clearly breaks down some great injury data. It was good enough that I actually read it with a little of that sinking, “holy shit, THIS is what I should’ve been doing!” feeling. If you’re interested, give his stuff a read and see what you think.
NFL Injuries, Part I: Overall View.
NFL Injuries, Part II: Variation Over Time.
NFL Injuries, Part III: Variation by Position and Age.
NFL Injuries, Part IV: Variation by Position.
That’s a lot of data, a lot of charts, and a lot of text. But I think it’s all done very well. I think it’s digestible and compelling, which is a really tough line to walk with data like this. I have more thoughts, but I don’t want to make this about me. Nice work Zach Binney.
Thanks for the kind words (and link traffic), man! I think I linked to one of your posts in one of my FO things, too. The individual-level focus of most of your posts is a really valuable complement to the population-level stuff I tend to produce.