Sports, Writing, Mathematics: A Trunk to the Tree of Knowing

Did you say you know what happened in a particular NFL game or other sport? Are you certain?

I want to raise your level of concern about NFL football.

Data, data, everywhere and not a drop to think. It reminds me of a line "Water, water, everywhere, and not a drop to drink." 

If you can not process the information using your familiarity with a sport, your communications skills or writing ability, enhanced by a knowledge of mathematics and statistics, then woe unto you.

May I broaden your horizon, a little bit. For example, I recently viewed a database for the NFL which contains numbers which measured the wind, the humidity, and temperature, among other variables.

The matrix of data contained 17 columns and 16 rows of data. The total entries in the array of numbers was 272.

One of the columns listed the type of surface the NFL played on. For example, nine of the stadiums had grass surfaces, five had artificial surfaces, and two were identified as "Dome."

So you think you know about football. Well, maybe some of you do. I say that because I quizzed my brother-in-law and he knew more about the condition and terms of NFL football than I expected.

Did you know that stadium conditions are not uniform. Some stadiums are domes so there is minimum to zero wind-speed. How does that affect the performance of a quarterback?

Some stadiums have artificial grass. How does that affect a running back or wide receiver?

I could go on and on, posing research questions.

My thesis for this article is that there is a wealth of sports information that can be written about, analyzed, and interpreted.

Apparently, some leaders in mathematics and sports have collaborated and decided that the theme for the 2010 Mathematics Awareness Month (MAM) is "Sports and Mathematics."

MAM is a national initiative to inspire more young people to learn, love and live, using the wisdom of communicating with words, symbols, numbers and graphs.

The concepts and principles of sports, writing and mathematics, as well as other disciplines, form, in my opinion, the tree trunk to a higher level of knowing.

Some things can be described with words. Those same things can be described with more rigor and exactitude, using science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Someone may say, "All of this is too much information." I disagree.

Here is a hypothetical situation. An NFL quarterback throws a ball in a stadium with gusty winds, on a certain day, at a certain time. Is it possible that even though his thrust and aim were good, the gusty wind may alter the trajectory.

You've got it.

Yes, that invisible wind, has a probability of shifting the path of the football, and a pass could be incomplete simply because of that slight wind.

In April 2010 there will be ample opportunities to discuss sports and mathematics.

The month of creating awareness in Sports and STEM, or Sports and Mathematics is a time for teachers, sportswriters, and others to use the media to inspire and educate America's youth.

I propose that we have a plethora of articles on Sports and STEM uploaded on our Sports and STEM page. Young people across the United States are invited to join the Bleacher Report and enjoy the writings of Josh, Graham, Brent, Bret, Leroy and many others.

April 2010 is the time that all of us can blend sports, writing and mathematics to build the trunk to a tree of knowing, in a world where we are told, "Knowledge is power."