Stanford QB Legend Jim Plunkett With Cardinal Coaching Legend George Seifert At Oregon Game

Stanford Qb Legend Jim Plunkett With Cardinal Coaching Legend George Seifert At Oregon Game

https://youtu.be/hDgAeM2lAIc Oakland News Now – Stanford QB Legend Jim Plunkett With Cardinal Coaching Legend George Seifert At Oregon Game – vlog by Zennie62 YouTube. OaklandNewsNow.com is the original blog post for this content. Stanford QB Legend Jim Plunkett With Cardinal Coaching Legend George Seifert At Oregon Game via IFTTT Note from Zennie62Media’s Zennie62 YouTube and … Read more

The Most Influential African American / Black Sports Executives In The SF Bay Area

Ray Bobbitt Oakland

KPIX Channel 5 Sports Anchor Vernon Glenn Gives Shout-Out To Zennie62Media CEO Zennie Abraham For The Most Influential African American / Black Sports Executives In The SF Bay Area List As we close Black History Month 2021, one question remains. Of all African American / Black sports executives in the San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose … Read more

NFL Provides College Pro Days Dates Ahead Of 2021 Virtual NFL Draft

NFL Draft

The National Football League posted a giant list of dates for the pro days for a long list of colleges at its media website. The National Football League reports “​​​​​​​As a lead-up to the 2021 NFL Draft, the following are confirmed dates for college pro days. The NFL is collecting logistical details from schools to … Read more

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris Announce Members of the White House Office of Digital Strategy

Joe Biden and Kamela Harris

President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris Announce Members of the White House Office of Digital Strategy Washington, DC – Today, President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris announced members of the White House Office of Digital Strategy. These diverse, accomplished, and talented individuals demonstrate that the president and vice president-elect are building … Read more

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris Announce Additional Members of White House Senior Staff

Joe Biden and Kamela Harris

President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris Announce Additional Members of White House Senior Staff Washington – Today, President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris announced additional members of the White House senior staff. These diverse, experienced, and talented individuals demonstrate that the president and vice president-elect are building an administration that looks … Read more

Raiders Fire Paul Guenther: Top Black Defensive Coordinator Candidates From College, NFL Ranks

Raiders Fire Paul Guenther: Top Black Defensive Coordinator Candidates From College, NFL Ranks

Raiders Fire Paul Guenther: Top Black Defensive Coordinator Candidates From College, NFL Ranks ONN – Raiders Fire Paul Guenther: Top Black Defensive Coordinator Candidates From College, NFL Ranks – vlog by Zennie62 YouTube Raiders Fire Paul Guenther: Top Black Defensive Coordinator Candidates From College, NFL Ranks. Derek Mason, Marvin Lewis, Teryl Austin, John Mitchell, Kris … Read more

21 Club NYC Is Closing: My Favorite Restaurant, NFL Draft Landmark, Is American History Trump Can Save

21 Club NYC Closing

The idea that 21 Club NYC is closing is like a bad dream for me. The news that the New York Restaurant planned to shut own for good March 9th, 2021 (barring action) hit me via a text message by my good friend Beth Schnitzer just something like 15 minutes ago, or so. Now I … Read more

President-Elect Joe Biden Announces Key Members Of Health Team Including Dr. Anthony Fauci

President-Elect Joe Biden

This deeply qualified, diverse team will be ready on day one to contain the COVID pandemic; ensure the safe, free, and equitable distribution of vaccines; make sure every American has access to affordable, quality health care; and guard against the full range of health threats facing our nation. Washington – Today, President-Elect Joe Biden announced … Read more

Stanford Gets The Axe Back From Cal Football 24-23 In 123rd Big Game Coronavirus Edition

Stanford Gets The Axe Back From Cal Football 24-23 In 123rd Big Game Coronavirus Edition

Stanford Gets The Axe Back From Cal Football 24-23 In 123rd Big Game Coronavirus Edition ONN – Yep. Stanford Football Gets The Axe Back From Cal Football and 24-23 was the score in The 123rd Big Game. What I call “Coronavirus Edition” – vlog by Zennie62 YouTube Before the game, I wrote this: The strangest … Read more

Stanford at Cal For 123rd Big Game, Coronavirus Edition – Bears Will Retain The Axe

Stanford at Cal For 123rd Big Game, Coronavirus Edition – Bears Will Retain The Axe ONN – Stanford at Cal For 123rd Big Game, Coronavirus Edition – Bears Will Retain The Axe – vlog by Zennie62 YouTube Stanford at Cal For 123rd Big Game, Coronavirus Edition – Bears Will Retain The Axe The strangest Stanford … Read more

Rebecca Kaplan Victory & Hanukkah Party With Congresswoman Barbara Lee

Rebecca Kaplan Oakland City Council At-Large

Oakland – Rebecca Kaplan has retained her At Large seat on the Oakland City Council after a hard fought race that included $500K in independent expenditures from large corporate interests. Kaplan will be holding a Victory and Hanukkah Fundraiser including her longtime friend Congresswoman Barbara Lee among other Host Committee members. The event will be … Read more

Oakland Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan Urges No Vote On Proposition 22

Rebecca Kaplan Oakland City Council At-Large

Oakland – Amid the $200 million in expenditures to pass Proposition 22 and the $400,000 to defeat her by Lyft, Rebecca Kaplan is urging voters to vote No on Proposition 22. Large corporations, including Lyft and Uber, are spending big in this election, seeking to undermine our democracy, harm workers, and undermine our communities, while … Read more

SF, Oakland Public Relations Firm Singer Associates One Of Forbes Best PR Agencies in America

Singer Associates Public Relations SF Oakland

Congratulations to Sam Singer! San Francisco Oakland Public Relations Firm Singer Associates Named to Forbes Best PR Agencies in America Singer Associates Public Relations in San Francisco and Oakland, a public relations and public affairs firm specializing in corporate communications, was selected by Forbes Magazine as one of the nation’s top PR agencies for 2021, … Read more

Oakland OUSD Girls Meet Thursday for Online Pre-Halloween Event “Spooky Science Night”

Spooky Science Night

Girls from Across OUSD Set to Come Together on Thursday for an Online Pre-Halloween Science Event Called Spooky Science Night Oakland, CA — Scientific Adventures for Girls, Chabot Space & Science Center and the Aeronautics and Astronautics Department at Stanford University are co-hosting an exciting Family STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art & Math) Night for … Read more

Oakland City Council President Rebecca Kaplan Calls For New Solutions To Speeding Problem

Rebecca Kaplan Oakland City Council At-Large

Rebecca Kaplan Calls for New Solutions to Oakland’s Speeding Problems & Requests Support From the State Legislature at the October 6, 2020 Oakland City Council Meeting

Oakland, CA —It seems that every day there is a report of a fatal hit and run or reckless speeding that has resulted in serious injury on Oakland’s streets. It has become a precarious endeavor for anyone, but especially the elderly and children, to cross the street or even walk on the sidewalk. We need stronger action to make our streets safer for pedestrians, bicyclists, and others.

The practice has been to rely exclusively on police officers for speeding enforcement, but this has not been working well. In a city the size of Oakland, it is not possible for the police to create a sufficient presence to catch speeding violations or be a deterrent that would discourage dangerous driving activity that has caused serious injury and fatalities. The discretionary, disparate treatment of African Americans, and the ways that traffic stops have sometimes resulted in people being killed by police during traffic stops, are also reasons that the more effective options of civilian and automated traffic enforcement is desirable.

Oakland Council President Rebecca Kaplan is proposing Oakland adopt a resolution requesting the State Legislature to enact legislation that would give municipalities the flexibility to adopt more effective methods for speeding enforcement, at the October 6th Oakland City Council meeting.

We need strategies that avoid racial disparities, prevent traffic stops from escalating into police shootings, while making speeding enforcement more effective and more broadly implemented. The answer is alternative traffic enforcement. Alternative traffic enforcement is the use of cameras and/or civilian personnel, such as Department of Transportation staff, to enforce traffic laws. This approach to traffic enforcement frees up the police to focus on serious crime, reduces likelihood of problematic police interactions, and improves reliability and fairness of enforcement. It also represents a potential savings for a city since it costs more for sworn officers to address these violations.

These systems can reduce racial disparities. “Driving While Black,” is the familiar term to describe the racial profiling used by law enforcement when an African American driver is stopped for little to no reason. The fear of a traffic stop escalated with no apparent reason is well-known in communities of color. With the use of cameras looking at license plates rather than individuals, automated systems, and local civilian staffing, communities of color could get a ticket for speeding, and it would no longer be a potentially life-threatening situation.

The City of Berkeley has already taken steps in this direction. In July, Berkeley approved the use of transportation personnel to conduct traffic stops. The City of San Francisco has also previously expressed interest in alternative methods of speeding enforcement. Oakland is also now working on strategies to provide for options beyond using an armed officer for these situations. But allowing cities flexibility for these solutions requires a change in State law in California.

The California Legislature needs to assist municipalities like Oakland and Berkeley and beyond with more flexibility to innovate as we address this danger on Oakland’s streets. Alternative traffic enforcement is one place where that assistance could begin. The Legislature needs to amend State laws, to allow cities the discretion to use methods for speeding enforcement that are fairer and more effective.

SFMTA efforts for an Automated Speed Enforcement Project:

https://www.sfmta.com/projects/automated-speed-enforcement

This resolution is scheduled to be heard at the October 6, 2020 Oakland City Council meeting at 1:30pm.

Agenda: https://oakland.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=A&ID=806460&GUID=1D9852E1-3E39-4E7F-9489-25AE58173ABB

Memo: https://oakland.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=F&ID=8811254&GUID=E64BE5E4-85BE-43BF-92F6-3639585AE48F

Legislation: https://oakland.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=F&ID=8811255&GUID=2B7C7DBD-01BB-476F-9959-683E70408B9A

Councilmember At-Large Rebecca Kaplan is an honors graduate from MIT, and holds a J.D. from Stanford Law School. Kaplan was elected in 2008 to serve as Oakland’s citywide Councilmember, she was re-elected in 2016.

Lyft Spends $100K On TV Ads Against Rebecca Kaplan In Oakland City Council At-Large Race

Rebecca Kaplan Oakland City Council At-Large

Oakland – Just hours after it was announced that Lyft had dumped $100K into television ads against Oakland City Councilmember At-Large Rebecca Kaplan, allegedly lying about her record on housing, the At-Large Councilmember has received a number of new endorsements in the fight to stop the oligarchs from buying Oakland.

“This is not about housing,” Kaplan said of Lyft’s financial contribution to the campaign committee opposing her. “This is about a billionaire corporation that doesn’t want to pay its fair share in taxes and wants to abuse its workers.”

Rand Shaw – journalist, and pro-housing advocate – endorsed Rebecca’s re-election saying in an email, “Rebecca, I am absolutely horrified that YIMBY’s are using Lyft money to oppose you. I never make Oakland endorsements but feel compelled to show my support for you. So please list me as an endorser. Thanks, and on to victory!” and then followed with a tweet denouncing the lies by Lyft “IN 2018 @Kaplan4Oakland sought to increase housing density on transit corridors and upzone Rockridge. Yet some East Bay YIMBY’s have taken $100K from Lyft to help defeat this strong housing advocate. Terrible move.“

Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez who is a champion for working people and their families and who was the Primary Sponsor of Assembly Bill 5 which is now being fought by Lyft in a statewide ballot measure – Proposition 22 – funded by the same oligarchs that are running attack ads on Rebecca also endorsed her re-election to the At Large seat.

Finally, Assemblymember Ash Kalra, who was a co-sponsor of Assembly Bill 5, re-tweeted his colleague and showed support for Rebecca’s campaign.

These types of dirty campaign tactics should be unacceptable in Oakland politics. Oaklanders deserve better. What is most important right now is to help people make a plan to vote. It is so important to mail your ballots early this year or find your local drop box. Ballots drop on October 5th so people should be checking their mailbox, and if they plan to mail their ballot to get it in the mail by October 10th to assure it makes it to the Registrar in time.

(https://kaplanforoakland.org/how-to-vote-by-mail-and-more/)

Rebecca is proud to have the endorsement and support of many community organizations, leaders, grassroots advocates, and residents. For endorsement information please visit http://kaplanforoakland.org/endorsements/.

Councilmember At-Large Rebecca Kaplan is an honors graduate from MIT, and holds a J.D. from Stanford Law School. Kaplan was elected in 2008 to serve as Oakland’s citywide Councilmember, she was re-elected in 2016, Rebecca is Oakland’s first openly LGBTQ+ elected official and she serves on the Alameda County Transportation Commission (ACTC).

Follow Council President Kaplan on Twitter @Kaplan4Oakland and Facebook.

Berkeley Councilmember Ben Bartlett On Safety for All: George Floyd Community Safety Act

Minneapolis Police Death of George Floyd (photo by ABC30.com)

This Ben Bartlett post called “Safety for All: George Floyd Community Safety Act” by Berkeley Councilmember Ben Bartlett appears on Medium. Here’s an excerpt:

Ben Bartlett Berkeley Councilmember
Ben Bartlett Berkeley Councilmember

In all 50 states and more than 145 cities, Americans are calling for legitimate police accountability, an end to police brutality, and the transformation of the police system itself. The killing of George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, at the hands of police officers in Minneapolis this May initiated this wave of demonstrations. But Mr. Floyd’s death is only the latest entry in a long history of human rights atrocities inflicted on Black individuals. The message is clear: enough is enough.

In response, Congress has introduced the George Floyd Law Enforcement Trust and Integrity Act of 2020, which aims to prevent police brutality and calls for national policing standards. For example, the bill reforms hiring practices of law enforcement agencies mandates studies of training procedures that codify a uniform set of procedures for Police Officer conduct and implements other provisions. While this is a step in the right direction, broad legislation at the federal level is fundamentally unable to address the specific issues and nuances of local municipalities’ law enforcement. In order to better respond to the communities they serve, it is critical that local governments and policymakers take action on police reform.

Historically, the City of Berkeley has played a critical role in developing law enforcement practices. August Vollmer, the city’s first police Chief, who among other things, first put officers in automobiles, is hailed as the Father of American policing. Likewise, Berkeley is home to the nation’s first civilian oversight board over the Police Department. Berkeley can continue its leading role by addressing today’s policing issues, namely unconstitutional behavior, racial abuse, and unsustainable expense. Though a gargantuan problem, policymakers in Berkeley and elsewhere can make headway by breaking the larger problem into its individual parts — data-driven budgeting, police accountability, the warrior mentality instilled in police academies, and the use of armed officers in non-criminal cases.

Here is the full post on Medium: Safety For All: The George Floyd Community Safety Act.
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Rebecca Kaplan Asks Oakland To Open Health-Compliant Clean Air Cooling Centers – Update

Rebecca Kaplan Oakland City Council At-Large

Update on Rebecca Kaplan’s Call for the City of Oakland to Open Health-Compliant Clean Air Cooling Centers. Response to City Administration Report to be heard September 15 at 1:30pm

Oakland – On August 26, 2020, I shared with you my ongoing efforts to request the Oakland City Administration to open health-compliant Clean Air Cooling Centers, to protect public health on days of extreme heat and excess air pollution. Since then, we have continued to experience dangerous air quality. In the last few days, Oakland has seen hazy orange skies with falling ash, putting the health of the public at risk. We are asked to spare the air, and when outside, wear protective masks and limit our time outdoors. But not everyone has access to the resources needed in this challenging situation. Unfortunately, to date, the city has yet to open clean air centers.

We cannot ignore that many are without adequate shelter, clean air spaces or protective masks. When the administration had still not opened the previously-requested safe clean air facilities, I took action to schedule a report to Council on the progress, and any further steps needed, so both the Council and the public could hear from the administration about what has been setup, and what additional plans have been made. The report I requested from the City Administration will be heard at the Tuesday, September 15th City Council meeting, which takes place on zoom starting at 1:30pm.

To observe the meeting by video conference, please click on this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86525566247

Click here to view the FULL AGENDA & more Viewing meeting information

The report they have submitted to the agenda, lacks the information requested and it appears to disclose that they have not opened any clean air buildings despite many days of heavy smoke and high heat, and from the report, we cannot tell if any buildings have been made ready to open, nor have they provided information about what is needed to open them. The standards the administration mentions planning to use seem designed to avoid opening them, despite serious impacts to public health.

As I mentioned:

Tweet: https://twitter.com/kaplan4oakland/status/1304464828874911745?s=21

I have followed up with a supplemental memo, calling for further action to protect the health of our community, including to ensure such facilities are prepared and actually are opened when needed, and sharing my prior email with the administration about this. I am proposing that we give direction to the Administration to return to Council with the following:

What facilities are prepared to open for these uses?

What programs have been set up for masks and other protective equipment distribution?

What steps or funds are needed to achieve these goals?

Direction for a policy of opening them in a way that is protective of our community and public health.

Oakland must be prepared with clean air safe spaces for people, including for those who are unhoused or lack other options. The City must have a way to respond when we have smoke or air quality warnings or excess heat. Wildfires and the accompanying poor air quality can, and should have been, anticipated. In July, when I reminded the City Administration on the record, it was prior to the start of the traditional fire season, there was time to prepare. Experience has taught us to expect that there will be more fires. We needed to ensure we were prepared to have all of our community be protected in these situations.

In fact, last summer, when libraries were closed to the public during high heat bad air days, due to inadequate HVAC equipment, I reached out to start a process to identify and fund solutions to allow for our vital public facilities to be safe places during times of high heat and bad air quality. In recent budget deliberations, I sought funding to ensure that public facilities can be prepared to safely accommodate public needs, including being COVID-compliant, having adequate filtration, and being able to provide respite from high heat and bad air quality.

Please join me at the September 15th Council meeting to advocate for all of Oakland to have a safe space to breath and gain relief from the heat.

These materials are posted online at:

https://oakland.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=4632202&GUID=02647F7B-FE3F-423D-BA61-7975A4A4C2ED

In solidarity,

Rebecca Kaplan

Councilmember At-Large Rebecca Kaplan is an honors graduate from MIT, and holds a J.D. from Stanford Law School. Kaplan was elected in 2008 to serve as Oakland’s citywide Councilmember, she was re-elected in 2016.

Next Gen Stats Route Recognition NFL Receiver Model Is Garbage, Here’s Why

nfl_100_logo_new

On August 25th, 2020, on NFL,com, the league’s “Next Gen Stats Analytics Team” posted “Next Gen Stats: Intro to new Route Recognition Model”. And, thus continuing the NFL’s fascination with the data pouring out of the new player-tracking technology, the Next Gen Stats Analytics Team has proven that the old computer industry saying “garbage in – garbage out” still applied today. The Next Gen Stats Route Recognition Model is evidence of that.

First, in explaining the raison d’tre behind the Route Recognition Model, the Next Gen Stats Analytics Team wrote this (which is a little like driving from Downtown Oakland, down to San Jose, then up the 101 in the West Bay, past Stanford and then SFO Airport, and Redwood City, to get to San Francisco, rather than just using the Bay Bridge):

Conventional counting stats like receptions and receiving yards provide a way to measure an individual player’s ability to catch and move the football, but they only tell part of the story. Advanced stats like depth of target, separation window and completion probability provide greater insight, but they still leave out an important factor. Namely, which route did the pass catcher run to get open before catching the ball?
With the help of player-tracking technology, the Next Gen Stats Analytics team set out to answer that exact question, decoding one of the key elements of an offensive play call by using player-tracking data to measure which routes pass catchers are running on any given pass play.
The Next Gen Stats player-tracking system records the x-y location, speed, acceleration, direction and orientation of all 22 players on the field in real time. Our new Route Recognition model leverages this data as inputs into a model that assigns a route type to every eligible receiver on every pass play, including tight ends and running backs. Our architectural approach uses a combination of convolutional neural networks (CNNs) and long short-term memory (LSTM) networks trained on Amazon’s SageMaker platform. CNNs allow us to engage with the spatial nature of our dataset (that is, where each player is on the field in a given play), while LSTM networks allow us to engage with the temporal nature of our dataset (what happens as the play develops over time).
We approached routes run by players aligned in the backfield separately from routes run by players aligned out wide, in the slot or tight, because of clear differences in route archetypes. Below are the 15 unique route types assigned to all route runners, based on their location when the ball is snapped. Note that while NFL playbooks have hundreds of variations of routes, we’ve narrowed it down to these high-level categories, including 10 routes for those in typical wideout alignments and five for those aligned in the backfield:
Wideout Routes (10): Screen, flat, slant, crossing, out, in, hitch, corner, post, go
Backfield Routes (5): Screen, flat, angle, out, wheel
Real-time route classification enables us to contextualize the passing game in new ways. We can study league-wide trends to gain a new understanding of offensive strategy and tendencies, and we can break down and rank individual players by advanced performance metrics.

The last sentence, “ we can break down and rank individual players by advanced performance metrics” is one I completely disagree with.

Got that? Ok, I digress here to point out that since the Halfback in my play “Eagle Right H Fly Motion Up, Shortout Swing Pass” (and part of my soon-to-be-introduced “Black Panther Offense”) runs an “up” pattern, the Next Gen Stats Route Recognition Model would have a problem fitting it into its analysis parameters. And that’s where I start my critique.

Eagle Right H Fly Motion Up, Shortout Swing Pass
Eagle Right H Fly Motion Up, Shortout Swing Pass

The Saints Michael Thomas Was The NFL Leading Receiver For 2019, Before The Next Gen Stats Route Recognition Model

Second, the Next Gen Stats Route Recognition Model that was introduced also came with the headlines for a post that reads Michael Thomas is the best route runner. Then, it goes on to say that he runs the crossing pattern better than anyone else, because his catch rate is higher. Right?

Well, if you actually look at Michael Thomas’ catches for all of 2019, you will see that when he did catch a crossing pattern, most of the time, he came out of a slot or a bunch set, or was helped by a “clear out” pattern. The problem with the Next Gen Stats Route Recognition Model, and its attempt to simply routes for the purpose of the model, is one loses any understanding of what the Saints do to get Thomas into a position where he’s effective so often. In other words, the reason for Michael Thomas’ great 2019 campaign was what head coach Sean Payton and his staff did to put Mr. Thomas in position to be great – and that was enabled by Teddy Bridgewater and Drew Brees as the quarterbacks for that year.

What I take away from Michael Thomas’ record-setting 2019 effort was the continued advances in using wide receivers as the focus of a ball-control passing game. (Something pioneered by Bill Walsh, but improved on by Bill Belichick during the 2006 NFL Season where the Pats nearly achieved a perfect record – but were stopped by the NY Giants in Super Bowl XLII). I also take away from Michael Thomas’ record-setting 2019 effort, the importance of designing plays that cause the quarterback to get rid of the ball faster.

The main question is this: can Michael Thomas’ record-setting 2019 effort be topped in 2020? I think it can if head coach Sean Payton introduces new formations continue to to give Thomas the “rub” and space from defenders to make catches. It’s clear the Saints have arguably the best passing game developed from a perspective of timing between quarterback and receiver. Don’t discount the role formations play in that outcome.

The missing element in the Next Gen Stats Route Recognition Model is any real consideration for formations. There’s no ability to determine which route came from a bunch set, for example, or a tight-slot lineup, to offer another.

In closing, as one who was the only media (other than NFL Media) to attend the NFL’s Big Data Event at the 2020 NFL Combine, I applaud the league’s effort to shine a light, a bright one, on game analytics. My only concern is that, in doing so, there is a tendency to forget the importance of knowing how the game works. For example, the winner of the 2020 Big Data Event was a very nice man named Matt Ploenzke who’s model was such that no one, not even himself, could clearly articulate how it could help the NFL beyond what we already know.

What he found was “Among roughly 40 input variables, a ball carrier’s “effective acceleration” was the most important for estimating yards gained on a handoff play.” Look, anyone who’s seen Dallas Cowboys NFL Hall of Fame Running Back Tony Dorsett hit the hole fast can tell you that. Dorsett will always be my favorite NFL ball carrier. Watch this:

 

Meanwhile, Graham Pash and Walker Powell of NC State, who…

used kinematic data such as player positions and velocity to determine zones of control for both the offensive and defensive teams at the time of the handoff. These zones of control predict the probabilities of yards lost or gained and quantifies the risk involved with plays.
Key stat: Robert Woods (Los Angeles Rams) and Raheem Mostert (San Francisco 49ers) outperformed the model predictions the most, averaging nearly three more yards than predicted over the 2017 and 2018 seasons.

…Came in second!

And Namrata Ray, Jugal Marfatia (Washington State University), who…

measured the open space of the rusher at three time intervals — handoff, after a half-second, and after one second — to understand the association between open space and yards gained. Results indicated that the difference in the open space between the time of handoff and after a half-second or full second was a strong predictor of the number of yards gained.
Key Stat: Yards gained by the rusher increases by four yards on average for every one percent increase in the additional open area created within a half-second of the handoff.

Came in third!

That was nuts.

What Namrata Ray and Jugal Marfatia learned, for me, should revolutionize running play design and formation use. Right now, too many NFL teams pay zero attention to line split variations in play design. Just saying.

Matt Ploenzke’s now working for the Niners. Remember, Matt: formations matter!

Don’t Forget The Name Ermal Allen, Dallas Cowboys Quality Control Coach

Tom Landry And Ermal Allen Ap Shutterstock Photo
Tom Landry And Ermal Allen Ap Shutterstock Photo

At the same NFL Combine 2020, I noticed that media types seem to think we’re in some kind of golden age of data. Even someone with the Dallas Cowboys (name left out) bought that kool aide. Then, I mentioned that the real pioneer of analytics was Ermal Allen, Dallas Cowboys Quality Control Coach under Head Coach Tom Landry. Allen used computers to scout team tendencies, and a did remarkable job with the limited technology of the age compared to today. But the point is, he set the tone for the analytics departments of NFL teams in the 21st Century.

This is from United Press International in 1981:

Allen played his college football as a quarterback at the University of Kentucky and coached there from 1948 through 1961. He and assistant head coach Jim Myers have the longest tenure under Cowboys head coach Tom Landry, who has coached the team since its inception in 1960.

NFL teams exchange films of their last four games for scouting purposes and Allen dissects those films in an attempt to learn everything there is to know about the opponent.

All the information he gleans from his studies is fed into a computer to try to predict what a club is most likely to do in certain situations. All of that information is ready for the rest of the staff by the first of each week to assist Landry and his assistants in the formulation of their game plan.

On game days Allen stays in the press box with three other assistants to chart the opposition’s plays with Tubbs.

Stay tuned.

Honoring The Life And Work Of Chauncey Bailey Of The Oakland Post

Chauncey Bailey

Oakland – Last Sunday, August 2, 2020, marked 13 years since Oakland Tribune and Oakland Post Reporter Chauncey Bailey was murdered for his community-minded reporting. Chauncey Bailey had a lifetime passion for journalism, and for sharing important truths. He started at a young age delivering newspapers, and went on to work at multiple news outlets, … Read more

AIDS Quilt Installed At Oakland City Hall

Oakland City Hall AIDS Quilt

Oakland, CA – On  Monday, July 6, 2020, the City of Oakland started hosting panels of the AIDS Memorial Quilt to hang on the front of Oakland City Hall. The AIDS Memorial quilt has more than 100,000 names stitched in remembrance of loved ones that have been lost to AIDS. Panels are hung in Cities … Read more

Looking Back On Google’s Apparent Mission To Kill Blogs And Uplift Traditional Media

Infographic: Top Earning Blogs And How They Make Money Blogging

Let’s get this out of the way: I love Google and have literally moved through Adulthood with the search engine. I recall first learning about it in 1998, through a friend, in Oakland. At the time, I was working as Economic Advisor to Oakland Mayor Elihu Harris, and that thing called “The Internet” was still … Read more

NFL Combine 2020: Rash Of Top Players Avoiding Workouts Make Pro Days The Event

Nfl Combine 2020: Rash Of Top Players Avoiding Workouts Make Pro Days The Event

NFL Combine 2020: Rash Of Top Players Avoiding Workouts Make Pro Days The Event ONN – NFL Combine 2020: Rash Of Top Players Avoiding Workouts Make Pro Days The Event Top players like LSU’s Joe Burrow and Alabama’s Tua Tagovialoa are avoiding throwing the ball or just plain working out at this year’s NFL Combine … Read more

Saying “Go Bears!” With Evan Weaver Of Cal Football On Flight To NFL Combine

Saying “go Bears!” With Evan Weaver Of Cal Football On Flight To Nfl Combine

Saying “Go Bears!” With Evan Weaver Of Cal Football On Flight To NFL Combine ONN – Saying “Go Bears!” With Evan Weaver Of Cal Football On Flight To NFL Combine So I get on the United Airlines Flight to Indianapolis for the NFL Combine, and who do I happen to see? None other than Cal … Read more

Vrypac Dish Trail: Stanford’s Dish Trail Inspires A New Backpack

Vrypac-Pink

Stanford’s Dish Trail now has a consumer product named after it called Vrypac Dish Trail. Teka Thomas is the son of an emeritus professor, and grew up near the base of the trail in the Stanford Faculty Residential area. Last year Thomas’ company, Vrypac, launched an eponymously named backpack for outdoor sports and travel. A … Read more