BOSTON — John Clayton isn’t scheduled to speak at the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference this weekend, but the ESPN NFL reporter was still hanging out with his fellow sports geeks at the Boston Convention Center on Friday.
That’s not a surprise, given how much “The Professor” likes collecting and analyzing NFL-related information.
“I have more databases than you can imagine,” he told GeekWire. “I’m into it because you need to be into it. If you don’t try to re-invent yourself in an ever-changing industry like this that has so much information, you fall behind.”
GeekWire briefly caught up with the veteran reporter, who said that NFL teams should also prescribe to a similar mentality when it comes to utilizing data and analytics.
“You look at college basketball — if you don’t know all the metrics and schemes and analytics for where guys should be positioned and how it affects individual players, you are behind,” said Clayton, who lives in the Seattle region. “You look at baseball, with how the infield shift is becoming so good — that’s analytics. What’s happening in the analysis is changing what’s happening on the field.”
Clayton, a 21-year ESPN veteran, noted that NFL teams are a little behind leagues like MLB and the NBA as far as collecting and analyzing data to help win more games and prevent injury.
“It’s a little tougher to figure out,” he explained. “In baseball, it’s 1-on-1, the pitcher versus the batter. In basketball, it’s 5-on-5. Well, now you talk about 11-on-11 in football with some positions like the offensive line that don’t have quantitative stats — you look at that and say, how do you catch up?
It’s happening, because you’re seeing teams crunch numbers with what you need for a position, and what a running back can do with certain things. You also need metrics to figure out what to pay a guy. It’s still catching up, but it’s not there yet.”
Clayton, who unfortunately was not rocking a Slayer tank-top and massive ponytail, also said he’s a fan of the NFL players and coaches utilizing Microsoft Surface tablets on the sidelines.
“Didn’t you think it was a little outdated two years ago, when people ran down from the coaches box with polaroids?” he said. “That’s almost like not having a cell phone and using a rotary phone, or like watching black and white TV.”
He added that having video replays on the tablets, which the NFL is currently testing, should also be adopted by the league.
“Players spend all but three hours in a week looking at motion tape and things of that nature — why can’t you see it during a game on the field?” Clayton said. “A quarterback can see how guys are moving around, as opposed to polaroid pictures taken one by one by one. With video, they can maybe recognize something that will help them in the game.”
One of the most respected NFL insiders in the country, Clayton has racked up nearly 1.4 million followers on Twitter despite only utilizing the social media service once or twice per week and his pixilated profile picture.
“I don’t use it as much as I should, but it’s fun,” he said. “There’s so much information out there and you can find out different things. Players tell you when they’re leaving the team; Chad Ochocino tells you what’s going on in his life; Terrell Owens tells you what he’s mad at. It’s great stuff.”
As far as his favorite personal technology, Clayton said he’s “amazed” by streaming live video on mobile devices and being able to watch NFL games on the go. He also likes Pandora — “there’s some good music on there,” he noted — but has yet to try Uber.
“I don’t know if I want to trust putting my credit card on there,” Clayton said.
