Re-Post: Football Season

For our final 2024 re-post, it’s perhaps our most fun post :-) We could all use some extra fun as we switch gears from holiday revelry to the 2025 regular routine.

At ACT Rochester we find that it is helpful to remember that we use and apply statistics in our lives, without making our brains hurt or making numbers feel too complicated. Consider this post from October as some Brain Food that makes math feel less like a monster!

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It’s football season!

Whether you like the NFL, college football, or soccer (called football in the rest of the world!), you’ll notice how often sports use statistics. Announcers are always citing average yards and indicators that put quarterback statistics in context of their current or historical quarterback peers. Data is everywhere!

The point is, that indicators and statistics are commonly used in sports as part of the story. Sports data has been normalized. Sports fans tend to know statistics of their teams, even if they don’t consider themselves data savvy. They know the numbers that are important for their team’s performance.

Football season is a reminder that data, statistics, and indicators are just part of the story you are trying to tell. Adding numbers does not mean you’re adding complication, or that you need an advanced degree to understand.

How can we normalize data in the stories we tell about our community? How can we get as comfortable with statistics about child poverty as we are with Josh Allen’s player stats?

We should be comfortable including numbers in the important stories we are trying to tell. Please know that ACT Rochester is here to help!

GO BILLS!