I wrote this for a prior post but it feels even more relevant here:
As if we needed more proof that (to paraphrase Churchill’s fake quote) God loves babies, drunks, the U.S.A. and football, we don’t need to focus on football’s lack of RSNs or its Covid timing or its handling of red/blue America or even its immunity to the player empowerment era - we can just look at how advanced analytics have crippled the watchability of the NBA and MLB while turbocharging the NFL.
NBA advance stats led teams to generally forsake everything but three pointers and free throws.
MLB advance stats led pitchers and batters to focus on the three true outcomes of home runs, strikeouts, and walks.
NFL advance stats led teams to minimize running plays in exchange for more passing plays.
The reason the NFL won with these changes is the same reason the NBA and MLB lost. The fun in these games is directly proportional to how much of the field/court is in play.
The NFL passing game revolution was both vertical and horizontal and made almost every inch of the field usable. The NBA and MLB’s revolutions took away giant swaths of the court/field and thus minimized motion and action.