Stephen Dubner

Why?

What do you want to know?

So today on Freakonomics Radio, Roland Fryer and I explore the decline of the running back.

We speak with one of the analytics gurus who sparked the revolution.

And, of course, we will get the running back perspective.

The quarterback got all the credit for taking to the Super Bowl, and he did the bare minimum.

Last year's Super Bowl was won by the Philadelphia Eagles, whose running back Saquon Barkley had a historically great season.

Was that the sign of a running back renaissance?

I don't think so.

The causes and consequences of the running back decline starting now.

This is Freakonomics Radio, the podcast that explores the hidden side of everything with your host, Stephen Dubner.

Roland Fryer is a Harvard economist.

He has also co-founded a few companies, and he's won some major awards for his research on education and policing.

You may remember him from an episode we made a few years ago called Roland Fryer Refuses to Lie to Black America.

But when he was a kid, he did not dream of being an economist.

In the early 1980s, when the running backs Eric Dickerson and Walter Payton were tearing up the NFL, Rowland was doing the same in Pop Warner football.

So what was your view of the running back position then?

Did you just feel like you were king of the hill?

Of course, because it was Texas Pop Warner football.

It wasn't just back then in the early 80s that running backs were revered.