Brian Burke

Once I built that model, it was very, very clear that passing was far superior to running.

The run-pass balance.

It was this perennial question, do teams run too often or do they not run often enough?

That is Brian Burke, a sports data scientist with ESPN.

And so there was this question, and so people came along and they started to analyze the question, and they didn't really have the right tools.

I won't argue against it.

I was part of a larger movement that I may have been at the forefront of it, but I certainly wasn't alone.

Describe your role in that larger movement then.

My role in this was my hobby, which was football stats and what eventually became known as analytics.

Yeah.

Went to flight school, made it into F-18s, flew single-seat fighters for my career in the Navy.

They sent me to Monterey to grad school, and that's where I learned my stats.

I thought, this is completely useless.

Like, how am I ever going to use this in the Navy?

But once I got out of the Navy, I thought, gosh, the level of analysis in football is so bad.

What were your early jobs between getting out of the Navy and doing what you do now?

I have to be a little bit careful.

I live in Northern Virginia.

I was recruited.

By something with three letters, maybe?