National Football League

Prospective memory (PM) is the ability to remember to produce an action at a specific moment in the future signaled by the occurrence of a specific event (EB condition), a time or a time interval (TB condition). Detection of the appropriate moment corresponds to the prospective component (PC), while production of the appropriate action corresponds to the retrospective (RC) component. Although PM difficulties have been reported in healthy aging and in association with Multiple Sclerosis (MS), PM has not been examined in elderly people with MS (PwMS), which is particularly relevant since their life expectancy has improved significantly in recent years due to available treatments, and PM is essential to daily functioning. The main objective of this study was to investigate whether the decline in PM performance with advancing age is influenced by the presence of multiple sclerosis (MS). This study also aimed to clarify the type of PM impairment (PC vs RC in TB and EB conditions) in MS as a function of age. Participants and Methods: A total of 80 participants were recruited and separated into four groups: elderly PwMS (n = 20), young PwMS (n = 20), elderly healthy controls (HC) (n = 20) and young HC (n = 20). PM and its components were measured using the TEMP, an experimental ecological tool developed by our laboratory that has been validated in previous studies. In addition, all participants underwent a series of neuropsychological tests specific to MS (MACIFMS) and aging (Boston Naming Test, Clock Drawing Test, Towers of London, Trail making Test, Stroop, MoCA). Results: On the TEMP total score, a two-way ANOVA showed a main effect of age (F[1,75]=47.4, p<0.001, η2 = .40), a main effect of the presence of MS (F[1,75]=19.51, p<0.001, η2 = .21) as well as a significant Age X Disease interaction (F[2,74] =5.40, p=0.023, η2 = .07). Direct comparison between EB and TB conditions revealed that for the PC, only elderly PwMS had more difficulty in the TB than in the EB condition (Z =-2.51, p = 0.012), whereas RC score was significantly lower in the TB than in the EB condition in all groups except in younger controls (younger PwMS : Z =-2.56, p = 0.01; elderly HC : Z =-3.31, p < 0.001; elderly PwMS :Z =-3.04, p = 0.002). Conclusions: The TEMP revealed a marked impairment in PM in elderly PwMS compared to elderly HC and young PwMS. This impairment was particularly evident on the PC component in the TB condition. RC difficulties noted in the TB condition in all but younger controls reflect the arbitrary nature of the cue-action link that is particularly sensitive to episodic memory difficulties often observed in aging and MS.

Sports organizations use social media to create opportunities to increase productivity, market share, market value and profitability. Mass media, especially cyberspace, play a major role in the field of social change in the present era. One of the best features of cyberspace marketing for today's businesses and job creation in the field of sports is that there is not much barrier to entering and using their facilities. Therefore, the present study focuses on the role of social media in the revenue development of sports businesses. The study population in this study is PhD students in sports management and sports media experts in Iran in this field. Samples were identified purposefully using random sampling. Data collection tools were interviews, and data analysis tools were customary content analysis and paradigmatic grounded theory. Based on the findings of interviews with participants, there are a number of factors in sports that act as requirements or barriers to the use of social media in the revenue development of the sports industry. Factors such as; Experiences in the field of using social media, scientific view on the use of social media, paying attention to the interests and standards of common professions in the world and activities in the virtual world and social media play an important role in generating revenue through the use of social media in industry. They have exercise. The results of the present study showed that the development of appropriate cultural programs can increase knowledge and awareness, improve the intellectual and cultural level of the audience. Also, based on the analysis of the results, marketing through social media has potentials that can enable economic development in the sports industry. Social media marketing through revenue generation and cost reduction can be an effective step towards improving financial problems and the sports industry.

The National Football League (NFL) has encouraged league host cities to construct new stadiums. As an inducement, the NFL has offered some reluctant cities an opportunity to host the Super Bowl, the league championship game. Part of the NFL's apparatus of persuasion involves commissioned studies which assert a significant boost to metropolitan and regional economies from the Super Bowl.

The National Football League (NFL) has recently received significant negative media attention surrounding the safety of its players, revolving largely around the long term health risks of playing the sport. Recent premature deaths and instances of suicide associated with chronic traumatic encephalopathy and other football related injuries have brought the sport under increased scrutiny. By comparing mortality rates of the general population to mortality rates of players using publically available data from the 1970 and 1994 NFL seasons, we test whether participation in football is significantly harmful to the longevity of the players. We conclude that, in total, players in the NFL have lower mortality rates than the general population. However, there is evidence that line players have higher mortality rates than other players and that those who played more games have higher mortality rates than those who played fewer games.

To review the epidemiology of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries in the National Football League (NFL) and current treatment trends within this population. Type of Study: Descriptive. Methods: Part 1 of this study reviews the data collected in the NFL Injury Surveillance System from 1986 to 1995 with respect to these injuries. Included in this review are the specifics surrounding these injuries such as exposure type (game versus practice), position, mechanism, and playing surface on which the injury occurred. Part 2 of this analysis focuses on present treatment performed on these high-level athletes through a survey that was sent to and completed by all 31 NFL team orthopaedic surgeons. Results: The total number of ACL injuries in this select population has remained constant over the period analyzed. Conclusions: Current preferred treatment technique favors endoscopic patellar tendon autograft reconstruction.

Originally described in 1853 by Dr. Morel-Lavellee, closed internal degloving injuries represent an important, although uncommon, source of morbidity in trauma patients. These injuries are typically the result of a shearing or crushing force that traumatically separates the skin and subcutaneous tissue from the underlying fat. This results in disruption of perforating blood vessels and lymphatics, leading to hematoma/seroma formation. We describe two cases in which industrial crush injuries resulted in lumbar transverse process fracture. Both patients developed closed degloving injuries of the flank. To the author's knowledge, this is the first case series describing the occurrence of closed internal degloving injuries of the flank with transverse process fractures. We advise that a high level of suspicion for these lesions to occur with transverse spinal fractures should be maintained, as they may arise several years after initial injury.

Originally described in 1853 by Dr. Morel-Lavellee, closed internal degloving injuries represent an important, although uncommon, source of morbidity in trauma patients. These injuries are typically the result of a shearing or crushing force that traumatically separates the skin and subcutaneous tissue from the underlying fat. This results in disruption of perforating blood vessels and lymphatics, leading to hematoma/seroma formation. We describe two cases in which industrial crush injuries resulted in lumbar transverse process fracture. Both patients developed closed degloving injuries of the flank. To the author&#39;s knowledge, this is the first case series describing the occurrence of closed internal degloving injuries of the flank with transverse process fractures. We advise that a high level of suspicion for these lesions to occur with transverse spinal fractures should be maintained, as they may arise several years after initial injury.

Background Executive dysfunction (EF) in people living with HIV (PLWH) is well-established. However, decision-making, a key aspect of EF, is often overlooked in neurocognitive (NC) evaluations of PLWH. Poor decision-making can detrimentally impact PLWH by increasing risk of poor health outcomes. This study aimed to determine if including a decision-making task in NC evaluations might improve diagnostic formulations. Participants and Method This cross-sectional study included 90 PLWH (63 Latinx; 27 non-Latinx white) who were evaluated for HIV-Associated Neurocognitive Disorder (HAND) using established criteria, with the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) and Trail Making Test Part B (TMTB) comprising the “traditional” EF domain. The Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) assessed decision-making. Demographically corrected T-scores were calculated for each test. The “traditional” EF tests were averaged into an EF domain T-score. The WCST, TMTB, and IGT were also averaged into a “new” EF+IGT domain ...

This article examines the impact of leader succession on organizational performance. We argue that both time and size of program are critical factors that need to be considered to appropriately determine the impacts of the leader succession on performance. We focus our analysis on the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) and examine the effect of performance-related coaching firings on on-field performance (win-loss percentage, Sagarin rating, Sagarin rank) and financial performance (team revenue). We cluster teams into three categories based on revenue and analyze team performance following leader succession after the first, second, and fourth year following the change. While most studies in this area report findings consistent with vicious cycle theory or ritual scapegoating, our findings offer primary support for common sense theory and ritual scapegoating, contingent on time and the size of the program as determined by team revenue.

The opening of the Palace of Auburn Hills, SkyDome, and Oriole Park at Camden Yards led to the beginning of a construction boom in professional sport. In the National Football League (NFL) alone, 26 stadiums have been built or renovated in the past ten years. Due to the additional revenue generated by these facilities and the NFL's current revenue sharing system, professional football franchises are building new stadia for economic reasons rather than to replace unusable or unsafe facilities. The purpose of this study was to determine if a significant difference in net revenue change existed for NFL teams that moved into a new facility and to determine if there was a significant change in valuation for these franchises. The findings indicated that new stadia significantly increase revenue and franchise value in the NFL; therefore, the primary goal of every firm, wealth maximization, is met for teams after opening a new facility.

This paper examines the demand for attendance at National Football League (NFL) games using a rational addiction model to test the hypothesis that professional football displays the properties of a habit-forming good. Rational addiction theory suggests that past and future consumption play a part in determining the current period's consumption for habit-forming goods. Additionally, we postulate the behavioral implications of profit-maximizing ticket pricing behavior by NFL teams. Previous studies have been unable to detect pricing power by NFL teams. Our model of pricing power allows us to identify theoretically-anticipated pricing behavior. A pooled data set is collected using statistics from each NFL team from the 1983 to the 2008 seasons. Current attendance is modeled as a function of team specific variables, including past and future attendance, ticket price, and team performance. The model is estimated using Two-Stage Least Squares (2SLS). We also treat the censored nature of ticket demand as NFL teams frequently experience sellouts. It is found that past and future attendance, winning percentage, the age of the stadium in which a team plays, and own-price demand elasticity influence attendance. The fact that coefficients for past and future attendance are positive and significant in this analysis lends support to the notion that NFL fans display characteristics of rational addiction in their consumption behavior. Further, we find evidence to support profit-maximizing behavior in ticket sales.

This paper examines the demand for attendance at National Football League (NFL) games using a rational addiction model to test the hypothesis that professional football displays the properties of a habit-forming good. Rational addiction theory suggests that past and future consumption play a part in determining the current period's consumption for habit-forming goods. A pooled data set is collected using statistics from each NFL team from the 1983 to the 2002 seasons. Current attendance is modeled as a function of team specific variables including past and future attendance, ticket price, and team performance as well as league variables such as the incidence of strikes. The model is estimated using Two-Stage Least Squares (2SLS). It is found that past and future attendance, winning percentage, the age of the stadium in which a team plays, and the occurrence of strikes are significant factors in the determination of attendance at NFL games. The fact that coefficients for past and future attendance are positive and significant in this analysis lends support to the notion that NFL fans display characteristics of rational addiction in their consumption behavior.

In a series of studies, the authors established empirical support for a general decision-making bias that they termed a person sensitivity bias. Specifically, a person sensitivity bias consists of a person positivity bias (D. O. Sears, 1983) under positive performance conditions and a person negativity bias under negative performance conditions. The authors conducted the first empirical studies of a direct comparison between individuals and objects performing the same task under both positive and negative performance conditions. Two additional studies tested the boundaries of the sensitivity bias within negatively framed decision dilemmas. The results are discussed in terms of their relevance toward a more comprehensive theory of person-object evaluation differences.

Research on women's football is still, especially in Asia, scarce. The purpose of this research has been to investigate the underlying points of attachment of women's football spectators and how these influence future behaviour. The points of attachment scaledrawing on social identity theorydeveloped previously has been modified for the research setting to detect whether they are general determinants or country-specific indicators. Research was conducted in two countries, namely Japan and Germany. Surveys were conducted at two friendlies of the national team in each country (Japan: n = 607; Germany: n = 597). Attachment with the team, coach and women's sport were defining overall attachment best. Intention to attend matches of the national team was significantly predicted by football attachment and previously attended games, while intention to attend matches of the league was significantly predicted by attachment with the coach and attended league games in the past.

Category: Midfoot/Forefoot, Sports, Trauma Introduction/Purpose: “Turf toe” is an injury to the great toe’s metatarsophalangeal joint capsule. The increase in artificial turf in the 1970’s was thought to have contributed to increased incidence of this injury in players of the National Football League (NFL). To our knowledge, there are no publications that have critically analyzed the impact of this injury on player performance. The goal of this study was to quantify the impact a turf toe injury has on NFL players, specifically in time to return to competition and their performance post-injury compared to pre-injury. Methods: This is a retrospective review of NFL players who sustained a turf toe injury between the 2011-2014 seasons. Online resources including NFL injury reports, player registries, game summary sites, NFL news articles, fantasy football sites and NFL blogs were used to identify players with this injury. Additionally, an injury database from theFantasyDoctors.com was u...

Drawing on the contingency theory of strategic conflict management, this study examines how the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) used Twitter to communicate during Hurricane Harvey. A content analysis was conducted on tweets (N = 273) by using stances along the contingency&#39;s continuum, finding that the USCG frequently adopted stances on both sides of the continuum&#39;s spectrum throughout the disaster event. The analysis of USCG tweets provides a real‐world case study of how Twitter is used by organizations to strategically communicate with the public during a disaster event. Like many disaster aid organizations, the USCG must balance competing goals of assisting the impacted population, while continuing to secure funding from the U.S. government. The current study contributes to contingency theory of strategic conflict management literature by applying the theory to a disaster, providing tangible evidence that disaster communication research should consider incorporating different stan...

Previous research suggests that minorities are more likely to perceive racially-based discrimination in a variety of settings than are whites, in large part because of the ways their personal experiences with racism shape the lens they use to view the world. We examine a labor market that is typically considered an exception to patterns of racism in employment, the industry of professional football. We interview athletes who attempted to gain employment in the National Football League, a labor market where access to valued positions is heavily restricted by industry practices. Findings from field research and semi-structured interviews indicate that minority workers experience symbolic discrimination during the hiring process. Differential treatment of players reflects stereotypes about minority families and masculinity. Although minority and white players describe much of the actual content of their labor market experiences in similar fashion, their perceptions of these experiences differ sharply, with minority athletes identifying far more negative repercussions.

Decisions made years in advance can have profound impacts on a team's scenario in the NFL. Such is the case with the San Francisco 49ers, whose choice to forgo selecting Patrick Mahomes in the 2017 NFL Draft set o a chain of events that ultimately led them to discover their franchise quarterback in

An econometric analysis of the 2016 National Football League season is conducted with respect to regular season victories. Results obtained confirm many of the hypotheses made and bear much in common with one prior NFL study and several earlier MLB econometric analyses. Most of the data employed are fairly symmetric with relatively small standard deviations. Estimation results validate the importance of both defense and offense. Evidence is obtained that indicates that passing games are more important on offense, while shutting down the run matters most on defense. Beyond that, the regression equations also provide some insight to how human capital and payroll expenditures affect NFL regular season performances. The magnitudes of some coefficients and elasticities indicate that further analysis involving more explanatory variables can potentially provide additional clarity about what helps determine success in the NFL.

Background: Morel-Lavallée lesion is a rare clinical presentation which involves detachment of skin and subcutaneous fat from underlying fixed fascia which mainly occurs after traumatic injury. Morel-Lavallée lesions require immediate attention because it may lead to superinfection and poor patient outcomes, if treatment is delayed. Materials and methods: A detailed case study was done of three patients who were diagnosed with Morel-Lavallée lesion at the outpatient surgery department of tertiary care center at Sri Amritsar. Results and conclusion: Patients were treated either surgically or conservatively and they responded to treatment. It can be concluded that the initial treatment is critical to shortening the clinical course and preventing the recurrence. Early diagnosis and management are essential. The Morel-Lavallée lesion is usually missed during the initial assessment, so a thorough clinical examination of roadside accident should be done to rule out such lesions. Neglected lesions can become infected and progression of lesion may lead to extensive skin necrosis.

Background: Pectoralis major (PM) injuries are rare, primarily occurring in males during athletic activity. In the current literature, these injuries have not been well described in National Football League (NFL) athletes. Hypothesis: The incidence of PM injuries will be low in NFL athletes, with athletes missing significantly more time after injuries requiring operative management. Study Design: Cohort study. Level of Evidence: Level 4. Methods: All documented PM injuries were retrospectively analyzed using the NFL Injury Surveillance System over a 15-season period. The data were analyzed by season, session, position, activity, and contact type at the time of injury. Additionally, the incidence, treatment, and days missed as a result of injury were assessed. Results: Over 15 consecutive seasons, there were a total of 211 PM injuries. Of these injuries, 132 were classified as strains and 79 as ruptures. The incidence of strains was 0.41 per 10,000 athlete-exposures, compared with 0....

This paper considers whether publicly-financed new facility investments encourage professional sports team owners to increase their investments in costly talent. We develop a model of a sports league that incorporates publicly-financed facility investments, the unique characteristics of the talent market, and revenue sharing to explore the complementarity between new facility amenities, the team budget decision and team performance. Our empirical results suggest that publicly-financed new stadiums do little to improve team performance, not due to restrictions in the talent market, but rather due to a lack of fan response.

Zusammenfassung Vermarktlichung und Globalisierung haben den Profifußball und die Zusammensetzung von Mannschaften fundamental verändert. Vor dem Hintergrund der veränderten Rahmenbedingungen untersucht der Beitrag, in welchem Maße (a) der Marktwert einer Mannschaft, (b) ihre interne Ungleichheit, (c) die kulturelle Diversität eines Teams sowie (d) der Grad der Fluktuation im Team über den sportlichen Erfolg in nationalen Meisterschaften entscheiden. Die empirische Analyse bezieht sich für die Spielsaison 2012/13 auf die zwölf leistungsstärksten nationalen Fußball- Ligen Europas. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass der Ausgang von nationalen Fußballmeisterschaften auf der Basis unserer Hypothesen sehr gut vorausgesagt werden kann; fast alle unsere Hypothesen werden bestätigt. Dem Marktwert der Mannschaften kommt dabei die mit deutlichem Abstand wichtigste Rolle in der Prognose ihres Erfolgs zu.

Vermarktlichung und Globalisierung haben den Profifußball und die Zusammensetzung von Mannschaften fundamental verändert. Vor dem Hintergrund der veränderten Rahmenbedingungen untersucht der Beitrag, in welchem Maße (a) der Marktwert einer Mannschaft, (b) ihre interne Ungleichheit, (c) die kulturelle Diversität eines Teams sowie (d) der Grad der Fluktuation im Team über den sportlichen Erfolg in nationalen Meisterschaften entscheiden. Die empirische Analyse bezieht sich für die Spielsaison 2012/13 auf die zwçlf leistungsstärksten nationalen Fußball-Ligen Europas. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass der Ausgang von nationalen Fußballmeisterschaften auf der Basis unserer Hypothesen sehr gut vorausgesagt werden kann; fast alle unsere Hypothesen werden bestätigt. Dem Marktwert der Mannschaften kommt dabei die mit deutlichem Abstand wichtigste Rolle in der Prognose ihres Erfolgs zu.

Colin Kaepernick"s refusal to stand for the national anthem starting from the NFL preseason game in August 2016 as a way of peaceful protest for "racial justice" and subsequent reactions of President Trump through his comments and tweets suggesting that such a protest is un-American and un-patriotic spurred much controversy, leading to a national debate among all segments of population and splitting them deeply along racial and political lines. Many polls conducted on this issue revealed strong support for both sides; i.e., for Kaepernick"s cause of protest, and for Trump"s reaction.This article"s primary objective was to examine how a sample of African American college students (as part of the millennial generation) view the NFL controversy. The study found that most of the young African American students have knowledge of the NFL anthem controversy; and, that a majority of them consider themselves NFL fans; agree with Kaepernick"s cause for kneeling protests, agree with the way NFL teams and owners showed unity before the Sunday games by locking arms and kneeling. Conversely, they do not support firing of those who refuse to stand during the anthem; and, strongly denounce Trump"s controversial "SOB" comment at an Alabama rally. Overall, these young adults tend to be more moderate in their view on the kneeling controversy than those in the general population.

One measure of sports-league competitive balance uses a ratio: the standard deviation of team winning percentages is divided by the so-called ideal standard deviation, which assumes either team is equally likely to win any game. In fact, teams playing at home win more than they lose. The extent of this advantage differs across sports. Ignoring this pattern makes the traditional ideal standard deviation too large; the ratio of standard deviations is therefore improperly small. The authors derive a standard-deviation formula that accounts for home advantage, and consider how the adjustment affects comparisons of competitive balance across leagues. We thank, without implicating for any remaining flaws, Craig Depken for comments on an earlier version of this paper.

A number of solutions have been proposed to the diversityvalidity dilemma arising from the use of cognitive ability tests in employment selection. Cognitive ability tests predict training and job performance but also produce adverse impact against minority groups. Although banding reduces adverse impact, it has been criticized for also reducing the utility of the selection process. We assessed the social and financial impact of a fixed band approach with top-down hiring across several hiring scenarios with a pool of bus driver applicants. Overall, the fixed band approach reduced adverse impact without substantially reducing the cost effectiveness of the hiring process. We discuss the implications of these two approaches in the context of the diversity-validity dilemma.

Background-Athletes with injury-related pain, especially National Football League (NFL) players, are at increased risk for opioid use and misuse which may result in medical, psychiatric and social problems. This is the first study to evaluate the intersection of sports pain and opioid use and misuse among former NFL players. Methods-A telephone survey of 644 retired NFL players from the 2009 Retired Players Association Directory was conducted (53.4% completion rate) from March to August 2010. Results-Over half (52%) used opioids during their NFL career with 71% reporting misuse. Additionally, 15% of NFL misusers currently misused vs. 5% among players who used just as prescribed during their NFL career. Prevalence of current opioid use was 7%-3 times the rate of the general population. Multivariate analyses indicated that significant NFL pain increased the adjusted odds (AOR) of any current opioid use vs. non-use (AOR 6.76, 95%CI 2.88-15.87), as did moderate to severe mental impairment (AOR 1.88, 95%CI 1.19-2.98) and heavy drinking in the past week (AOR 2.15, 95% CI 1.17-3.98). Undiagnosed concussions singly predicted current misuse vs. use just as prescribed (AOR 4.25, 95%CI 1.12-16.22). Three variables predicted current misuse vs. non-use: significant pain (AOR 8.33, 95%CI 1.98-35.04), undiagnosed concussions (AOR 3.51, 95%CI 1.98-35.04) and heavy drinking (AOR 3.48, 95%CI 1.63-7.41).

The faculty essays presented here emerge from a semester-long process of reading and writing together in an environment of critique and review. Nevertheless, this invited journal of essays represents the authors' views and not necessarily the views of the Wendt Center for Character Education or the University of Dubuque.

Financial abilities (FA) are a multi-dimensional domain comprising a wide range of conceptual, pragmatical, and judgmental skills ranging from basic abilities, such as bill payment, to high level abilities, such as financial decision-making (FDM). Preserved FDM abilities include the capacity to recognize fraud attempts, and they are fundamental for a person’s independence. Previous studies have reported decreased FDM in older adults and in patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), who consequently become more susceptible to fraud attempts. However, FDM has scarcely been investigated in other neurological populations, and it is unclear whether FDM may be predicted by more basic FA. The aim of the present study was to investigate FDM across patients with MCI, Parkinson’s disease (PD), or stroke, as well as healthy controls (HC), and to explore to what extent FDM could be inferred by other FA. We collected FDM and FA performances using the NADL-F short battery. Performances in the...

The effects of team diversity on work performance have been extensively studied both in general and sport-specific context, often yielding mixed results. However, little research exists on the impact of that diversity in the context of ice hockey. Though the sport is not as diverse as others, such as football, it has greatly increased its global footprint over the last 20 years. This paper looks at the impact of national diversity on overall team performance. Using data from NHL teams between 2007 and 2011, national diversity on each squad is calculated in three ways: Richness, the Gini-Simpson Index and Shannon's Entropy. Controlling for team payroll and strength of schedule, we run correlations, linear regressions, logistic regressions and ordinal regressions to assess the effect of diversity on both regular season and playoff performance. Ultimately, we find that national diversity has no significant impact on team performance. We conclude by discussing potential explanations for this finding and propose further avenues of research.

In this paper, we use estimators of variable importance from the ensemble learning technique of random forest to consistently discover and extract the knowledge that Rush Attempt is strongly related with winning football games in the NFL. Almost all researchers before us have consistently made claims of the impact/influence other statistics in the outcomes of NFL games, with Third Down Conversion Percentage and Takeaways almost universally considered as having the greatest impacts in game outcomes. Rushing as a factor of NFL success has also been mentioned, but mostly in terms of number of rushing yards per game. The novelty in this present work lies in

In this paper, we introduce an R software package for simulating plays and drives using play-by-play data from the National Football League. The simulations are generated by sampling play-by-play data from previous football seasons. The sampling procedure adds statistical rigor to any decisions or inferences arising from examining the simulations. We highlight that the package is particularly useful as a data-driven tool for evaluating potential in-game strategies or rule changes within the league. We demonstrate its utility by evaluating the oft-debated strategy of "going for it" on fourth down and investigating whether or not teams should pass more than the current standard.

The purpose of this study is to create new knowledge about rugby participants’ levels of leisure identity, their demographics, and to investigate the extent to which certain factors shape their levels of leisure identity. For this study, researchers collected data by using a convenience sample of current and former female rugby players in Kentucky that participated in an online survey (n=88). The survey included an adapted version of the Jun and Kyle (2011) leisure identity measure and common demographics such as race, education, and income, as well as questions relevant to rugby. The results demonstrate that both frequency of play and respondents’ age affects leisure identity measures. This study deepens the understanding of leisure identity and if marketing, recruitment and social outreach target certain demographic aspects, it may increase the number of individuals who play rugby

This paper is an examination of the 2020 National Football League (NFL) Draft and how the virtual prism created due to the COVID-19 pandemic provides insight on the dual career identities of collegiate football players that are drafted into the NFL. The virtual prism created by the COVID-19 pandemic is a moment for cultural studies to take up seriously, namely because of the clear tensions and synergies between academic and athletic prowess, racial inequality in higher education, racial socialization, the continued racialization of the vocational realm, and media biases. Our method involved an analysis of secondary compiled data from the NFL. In our data analyses, we focused on the idea of credited season, player eligibility, team graduation rate. We also used athlete triangulation information to advance our understanding of the dual career, family, masculinity, and race. Ultimately, we conclude that NFL players possess a comparable set of academic/professional skills that effective...

Learning effective policies in multi-agent adversarial games is a significant challenge since the search space can be prohibitively large when the actions of all the agents are considered simultaneously. Recent advances in Monte Carlo search methods have produced good results in single-agent games like Go with very large search spaces. In this paper, we propose a variation on the Monte Carlo method, UCT (Upper Confidence Bound Trees), for multi-agent, continuous-valued, adversarial games and demonstrate its utility at generating American football plays for Rush Football 2008. In football, like in many other multi-agent games, the actions of all of the agents are not equally crucial to gameplay success. By automatically identifying key players from historical game play, we can focus the UCT search on player groupings that have the largest impact on yardage gains in a particular formation.