Thursday, February 7, 2008

Statistical Cherry Picking

After I wrote Wes Welker versus Jerry Rice?!?, I found this marvelous rant:

Let's note one particularly stupid thing King writes. King compares Wes Welker's 2007 season with "the most productive season Jerry Rice ever had," which he calls 1995. He then ONLY compares regular season and post-season receptions to show Welker looking comparable to Jerry Rice. He doesn't point out that in 1995, Rice set the NFL RECORD FOR RECEIVING YARDS IN A SEASON with 1,848. In 2007 Welker had 1,175 receiving yards in the regular season, a total Rice topped ELEVEN TIMES! And in '95 Jerry Rice had 15 touchdown receptions in the regular season to Wes Welker's 8--a total Rice topped TWELVE TIMES!


If King wants to show how great Wes Welker is by comparing his best receptions total in a season (in 19 regular and post-season games) to Jerry Rice's best receptions total in a season (in 17 regular and post-season games), he can do so. He is, however, fairly idiotic to simply present only receptions without pointing out that in 1995 Rice had MORE RECEIVING YARDS THAN ANYBODY EVER HAD IN A SINGLE SEASON!, while Welker's 1,175 yards was topped by BY TEN RECEIVERS THIS SEASON! I'm completely appalled by this statistical cherry picking.

Well said, Pacifist Viking!

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