100% agree. The unanimity debate distracts from what's actually fascinating - how Ichiro helped redefine offensive value in the power era. That's the HOF conversation worth having.

Interesting. Can't remember another season with such an imbalanced late-season bye structure.

Fascinating stat. What makes it even wilder is that both Favre and Rodgers followed a similar pattern to Love - struggling with consistency early before finding their rhythm. Wonder if it's something about the Packers' system.

The sky is literally falling in Dallas.

Looking back, the last team to pull that off was the 2000 Ravens, who won 2 straight on 9 field goals. Before that, you have to go back to the 1920s to find similar streaks - the Bears, Cardinals, & a few others managed a combined 10 FGs across 8 such wins in that era.

stathead.com/tiny/mTG2U

Especially interesting given the Packers' history with one-off QBs in the 80s before Favre arrived. Love breaking that Bears streak record that Favre started feels poetic.

5/5 Full deep dive with data for every NBA team since 1976: boxscorebrain.substack.com/p/nba-true-t...

4/5 Since 2014, good teams show their identity way faster (16 games) than bad ones (22+). Analytics are speeding up development... but only for winners.

3/5 Denver shows its identity fastest (16 games), New Orleans slowest (30 games). Market size doesn't matter at all - small markets develop just as fast as LA/NY.

2/5 Most teams reveal themselves by game 11-12. But some take 70+ games! Even stranger: teams that take longer often end up MORE successful.

Late-blooming 1B with elite defense age surprisingly well historically. A Carlos Pena comp could feel really spot-on here.

What makes Boldin's 614 catches wild: he did it in an era with ~1,300 fewer league pass attempts per year. Adjusted for today's passing volume, that's equivalent to 660 catches. Most impressive on the list. www.datawrapper.de/_/DieON/

Nice one. The 1960s-90s saw similar peak velocities to today despite inferior equipment. Also makes me wonder if it's human biomechanics, not technology, that's the real limiting factor. Past ~105mph, accuracy drops dramatically.

Legal gambling definitely adds a new lens to how I view controversial calls. While most are probably still honest mistakes by refs making split-second decisions, the betting element naturally breeds skepticism. Hard to put that genie back in the bottle now that so much money rides on these games.