This Team Easily Wins Numbers Game

Did you know that Cleveland quarterback Luke McCown has a 147.3 passer rating when he’s throwing to his left, but a rating of only 23.0 when throwing to his right or the middle of the field?

Did you know that Atlanta running back T.J. Duckett has by far the NFL’s best “stuff rate” -- which means he almost never gets tackled behind the line of scrimmage?

Did you know that Norv Turner’s Raiders have run only 33.3% of the time, and that only the run-and-shoot Houston Oiler and Atlanta teams of the early 1990s ran less?

If you knew any of those factoids, you probably learned them from STATS Inc., a sports statistical-analysis company that’s based outside Chicago and has a 13-person staff in Los Angeles that works directly with its television clients.

STATS crunches NFL numbers the way San Francisco 49er quarterbacks have been crunched over the past four weeks (21 times, the most over any four-game span in team history). They generate game notes, research support, graphics, editorial content and trivial curiosities the way the Philadelphia Eagles generate victories on national TV (they have won 15 of their last 16 prime-time games).

“Numbers tell a story about sports,” said Don Zminda, vice president and director of research for the company, which analyzes statistics of college football and basketball, and the major professional team sports. “But to tell a deeper story, you need deeper numbers.”

The company, a subsidiary of News Corp., not only analyzes statistics for network television but for video game companies such as Nintendo and Electronic Arts, and for fantasy leagues run by ESPN.com and SI.com. Several NFL teams subscribe to the service, among them the Eagles, Green Bay Packers and Kansas City Chiefs, although Elias Sports Bureau is the official league statistician.

Fox executive Gary Ehrlich, who oversees STATS, said the statistics provided by the company make watching, reading about, or listening to sports a “more dynamic, more immersive” experience.

“If you listen to sports-talk radio, you get the sense that we’re all amateur general managers -- what would you have done? What play would you have called?” said Ehrlich, executive vice president of Fox Sports Enterprises. “These stats allow the rabid fan to become more sophisticated in their understanding of their sports.”

Kansas City Coach Dick Vermeil, a staunch advocate of using statistics to formulate game plans and practice regimens, keeps a red, three-ring binder of updated NFL stats within arm’s reach throughout the week. It’s about the size of the Manhattan phone book, 400-500 pages, and it includes every conceivable football stat and situation -- all gleaned from STATS’ database. What formation do the Atlanta Falcons use most frequently in third-and-one situations? It’s in Vermeil’s book. Which cornerback has given up the most long passes in the past three weeks? Ditto.

“Every week and every opponent we play, there will be something [STATS] comes up with that jumps out and will really blow you away,” said Kansas City’s Pete Moris, chairman of the NFL Public Relations Statistics Committee.

Because they have the same parent company, the STATS crew in L.A. works most closely with Fox. During the Fox NFL Sunday show, for instance, STATS researchers sit just off camera keeping the on-air talent updated on all types of statistical trends and trivia.

“I use their statistics a lot in the broadcast, not only in raw form but they help trigger thoughts that lead to further investigation,” said Cris Collinsworth, a color analyst for Fox and co-host of HBO’s “Inside the NFL.”

“I use it. I trust it. I don’t spend any time second-guessing; I use it as fact.”

Said Mike Berger, Fox’s NFL studio coordinator: “You have pages and pages of information. If 10% of it gets used, that’s a normal day.”

Housed in a nondescript building on the Westside, STATS buzzes with activity during the week. Game footage is broken down at the company’s headquarters, and the L.A. employees continually look for ways to rework and re-interpret the numbers. Although several of them have advanced math degrees, they’re also incredibly informed sports junkies who need to pass a sports quiz as part of the job-application process.

“You can find the guy who can sit in the bar and answer the trivia questions, and you can find great programmers,” said Steve Vanderpool, director of operations. “But the tough part is finding the person who can do both.”

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Retired Bronco tight end Shannon Sharpe sent shock waves through Denver this week when he blasted his former team during his new gig on Sirius satellite radio. He questioned whether the team’s best-paid players were pulling their weight, said Bronco owner Pat Bowlen should “look deep into” firing Coach Mike Shanahan, and reserved his most scorching criticism for quarterback Jake Plummer.

“I can’t understand. What does Mike see in Jake?” Sharpe asked. “He takes chances with Jake that he never took with John Elway. If that mystic of Mike thinks he’s that good of a coach that he could take a guy that’s mediocre, average at best, and make him into something that he’s never going to be ...

“Jake Plummer is what he is. He is who he is. If you take a grizzly out of the wilderness and put him in the zoo, he is still a grizzly. Changing his habitat doesn’t change who or what he is.”

Sharpe played with Plummer last season and caught 62 passes for eight touchdowns, leading all Denver receivers. All but one of those touchdown passes were thrown by Plummer.

Plummer was intercepted four times last Sunday in a pivotal loss at San Diego.

“They’re about to start taking that ‘S-N’ in ‘Snake’ and put an ‘F’ in front of it,” Sharpe said, referring to Plummer’s nickname. “This is ridiculous. I don’t even fault Jake. I fault Mike because he puts the ball in his hands and he keeps allowing him to do it. They’re on the [seven]-yard line. You just got a first down and you’re going to put the ball in his hands and you know he’s prone to turn the football over? You know this. And you’re still convinced the guy can get it done.

“If you’re on a boat and you know this guy is punching holes in your ship and you still allow him to have a hammer and a nail to keep doing it, I don’t feel bad for you.”

Plummer told reporters Wednesday that he was unfazed by the comments, even though they came from a former teammate.

“There are 53 guys and coaches that believe in each other, and the outside is going to have their opinion. So regardless if it’s you or anybody in this room or someone from Wisconsin, it doesn’t matter. Somebody has an opinion. He’s got a right to it. It’s a free world.”

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Even though his NFL career is over, linebacker Bill Romanowski still loves driving quarterbacks into the dirt. He got plenty of chances to do that last summer, when he played a prison guard in Adam Sandler’s remake of “The Longest Yard,” in which the guards play the prisoners in a high-stakes football game.

Sandler, who plays quarterback Paul Crewe, scores the winning touchdown in the movie. But Romanowski, who was making his big screen debut, quickly grew tired of playing the vanquished defender in that scene.

“I just decided I’m not going to let Sandler run me over at the end,” Romanowski said. “We did the last play, I stopped Adam, and everybody from the cameraman, all the cons, everybody didn’t know what to do. I told all the guards, ‘Get ready, I’m not going to let them score.’ When I tackled him, we acted like just won the Super Bowl.”

Actor Michael Papajohn, who also plays a guard in the movie, said he and his fellow actors weren’t quite sure how to react when Romanowski quietly proposed his alternate ending in the huddle.

“When he told us he wasn’t going to let Adam score,” Papajohn told the Houston Chronicle, “we looked at him, like, ‘Uh, you know, Romo, it’s in the script. Didn’t you see the original? It won’t be released if he doesn’t score.’

“Anyway, Romo said on that take he was going to tackle Adam and keep him from scoring, and then he wanted all of us to cheer for a change. Well, you know, when Bill Romanowski tells you to do something, you do it.”

Everyone on the set seemed to like Romanowski’s ending, even though it probably will be included only in the outtakes.

Said Jack Giarraputo, producer of the movie, which will be released in May: “Hey, acting’s acting. Romo’s instincts just kicked in.”