How Do You Believe Football and Math Relates?
By: Damian Oden
Did you know people make over fifty thousand dollars a year recording stats and data for professional sports? For example, in football, there are people hired to record how many yards are gained or lost by each player, pass attempts and catches, speed of plays, and the score. The stat and data recievers even keep a list of records and broken records. Math and football goes together better than any other subject and sport combined. Football consists of many things that involves math such as scores, yards, and tackles that is recorded for a purpose.
When you score in football you can either get a touch down, a field goal, a safety, or a field goal after you score which is one point. Score keepers have to keep track of the points of both teams. They also have to keep track of the timeouts, time on the clock, and running time that leads to penalties for delay of game. Usually people who want to pursue this as a career goes into college for multiple math classes and have a like for math.
Running for yards and receiving yards from catching the football can be different. Running for yards is safer because it is more difficult for the runner to loose possession of the football, but it is a short way to gain yards and makes it more difficult for the data and score keepers to determine what happened during the pile. It is difficult for the data keepers to see what is going on under the pile. This is where the referees come in and break the pile up to get everything straight. If there is a misunderstanding, the referees check the camera for evidence.
In football, there also is a data keeper which keeps track of the tackles, tackles for lost, sacks, and individual tackles. A tackle for a lost means the other team lost yards after the tackle. Therefore, an individual tackle means that an individual mad the play alone. Finally, a sack means the quarterback was tackled before he attempted to throw the ball, which means they lost yards. Keeping track of tackles can sometimes be tricky because you can become confused on rather it was a sack, tackle for lost, team tackle, or and individual tackle. Though at the end, it all comes together and gets stored under files of the team and players.
Math is in some peoples’ blood, but for others it can be very difficult and confusing. You have to have a thing for math to pursue a career in it because you do not want to build a career in a subject that you aren’t familiar with or enjoy. That being said, you have to concentrate on your work and what you are doing much, much more than other jobs. This refers to any job you have. You have to focus on your surrounds, fellow employees, and most important your assignment. Knowing this, being familiar with football will benefit you on keeping score and recording data because if you are familiar with scores, yards, and tackles, it will be much easier on your behave.(8th Grade)
