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Every NFL play for the past 10 years in CSV format

advancednflstats.com

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Re: Every NFL play for the past 10 years in CSV format

#11
post #9

From Line 42536 of the 2008 CSV file: 20090201_PIT@ARI,2,30,18,ARI,PIT,1,1,1,(:18) (Shotgun) K.Warner pass short middle intended for A.Boldin INTERCEPTED by J.Harrison at PIT 0. J.Harrison for 100 yards TOUCHDOWN. Super Bowl Record longest interception return yards. Penalty on ARZ-E.Brown Face Mask (15 Yards) declined. The Replay Assistant challenged the runner broke the plane ruling and the play was Upheld.,7,10,200…

Please post your results, I'd love to read your analysis.

Re: Every NFL play for the past 10 years in CSV format

#12
Looking through the 2002 season, there's an oddity around touchdowns and extra points. It seems that the 6 points for the touchdown are bundled with the extra point, and the score is not updated until the extra point is complete.

It seems this might result in bugs, as in the Oct 20, 2002 game between Dallas and Arizona. In the third quarter, with a score of Arizona 6 - Dallas 0, Dallas scored a touchdown (row 13900) but "aborted" the extra point (row 13901). The 6 points for the Cowboys are not recorded in the data.

The game eventually went to overtime, with the Cardinals kicking a winning field goal in OT for a final score of Arizona 9 - Dallas 6, but the data here records it as Arizona 6 - Dallas 0.

Re: Every NFL play for the past 10 years in CSV format

#14
post #9

From Line 42536 of the 2008 CSV file: 20090201_PIT@ARI,2,30,18,ARI,PIT,1,1,1,(:18) (Shotgun) K.Warner pass short middle intended for A.Boldin INTERCEPTED by J.Harrison at PIT 0. J.Harrison for 100 yards TOUCHDOWN. Super Bowl Record longest interception return yards. Penalty on ARZ-E.Brown Face Mask (15 Yards) declined. The Replay Assistant challenged the runner broke the plane ruling and the play was Upheld.,7,10,200…

I eagerly wait your next eBook, "How I Pivoted Into The NFL".

Re: Every NFL play for the past 10 years in CSV format

#15
post #9

From Line 42536 of the 2008 CSV file: 20090201_PIT@ARI,2,30,18,ARI,PIT,1,1,1,(:18) (Shotgun) K.Warner pass short middle intended for A.Boldin INTERCEPTED by J.Harrison at PIT 0. J.Harrison for 100 yards TOUCHDOWN. Super Bowl Record longest interception return yards. Penalty on ARZ-E.Brown Face Mask (15 Yards) declined. The Replay Assistant challenged the runner broke the plane ruling and the play was Upheld.,7,10,200…

Funny, I was looking for just that line to see how the more complicated plays were described.

First thing that I noticed was that the Game ID matched CBS's website's URLs: 20090201_PIT@ARI == http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/gametracker/playbyplay/NFL_2009...

Also, I went to compare this PBP to both ESPN and CBS and found that both have the exact PBP data, which is interesting because it seems that they got this data directly from the NFL (or from the same source, at least). I guess this makes sense, but it's something I hadn't considered.

For reference, ESPN's PBP for the same game: http://espn.go.com/nfl/playbyplay?gameId=290201022&perio...

Re: Every NFL play for the past 10 years in CSV format

#16
post #6
post #5

I'm frankly surprised that this information is allowed to be distributed. I spent awhile in the financial services industry, and while it was really easy to obtain "public" information like stock quote data, I recall that we weren't allowed to simply scrape data from public sites... we had to pay a license fee to get a feed of the data if we were planning on repackaging & distributing it. It seems to me that the NFL…

IANAL, but I asked one about this while ago; let's see if I can remember: It's complicated. The NFL broadcasts are copyrighted, and come with a statement that (among other things) distributing descriptions of the game is not allowed. That could be considered a derivative work. On the other hand, a live performance is generally not protected from copyright, so if you attend a live game to collect the data, you may be…

It might not even violate the NFL's copyright if extracted from tapes. For one thing, something is only a "derived work" for copyright purposes if it's a "creative work" subject to copyright at all, and in the U.S., data sets comprising factual information aren't typically considered "creative". For another, it's not clear whether data about a recording is derived from the recording for copyright purposes. For example, a re-edit or mash-up of a film is clearly a derived work, but is a count of how many minutes each character speaks a derived work? Or is a Spotify-style algorithmic analysis of a song's musical style a derived work of the song?

I wouldn't want to put a large bet on where exactly those lines are drawn, though.

Re: Every NFL play for the past 10 years in CSV format

#18

Amazing!!! Thanks to www.advancednflstats.com for doing all the leg-work. Highly recommend their site too. Their in-game win probability statistics are always a must-have for me on game-day ^_^

I really like his 4th Down analysis:

http://www.advancednflstats.com/2009/09/4th-down-study-part-...

The tl;dr version can be found at:

http://www.advancednflstats.com/2010/05/4th-down-briefs.html

The conclusion is that teams should go for it on 4th down much more often than they currently do.

He also has a calculator where you can get the exact values:

http://wp.advancednflstats.com/4thdncalc1.php

Re: Every NFL play for the past 10 years in CSV format

#19
post #9

From Line 42536 of the 2008 CSV file: 20090201_PIT@ARI,2,30,18,ARI,PIT,1,1,1,(:18) (Shotgun) K.Warner pass short middle intended for A.Boldin INTERCEPTED by J.Harrison at PIT 0. J.Harrison for 100 yards TOUCHDOWN. Super Bowl Record longest interception return yards. Penalty on ARZ-E.Brown Face Mask (15 Yards) declined. The Replay Assistant challenged the runner broke the plane ruling and the play was Upheld.,7,10,200…

Please post your results, I'd love to read your analysis.

Agreed. I'd love to learn about the process, too. Not just the results/findings.

Re: Every NFL play for the past 10 years in CSV format

#20
post #5

I'm frankly surprised that this information is allowed to be distributed. I spent awhile in the financial services industry, and while it was really easy to obtain "public" information like stock quote data, I recall that we weren't allowed to simply scrape data from public sites... we had to pay a license fee to get a feed of the data if we were planning on repackaging & distributing it. It seems to me that the NFL…

Generally speaking, stats are public domain as they are a public event that occurred. Because a sports league may disagree with this position doesn't mean that it isn't true. However, its entirely possible to violate a given site's TOU by scraping the data, it doesn't mean the data itself isn't allowed to be compiled or distributed.

IANAL, but I worked at ESPN and founded Fanvibe (YC S'10), and worked quite a bit with the leagues and lawyers on rights-related topics.

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