OT: Historical NFL Stats

[Rob0729]

Anyone else notice that all the major websites have removed all the historical stats from their site. If you go to NFL.com or SI.com, all they have is the 2007 stats available. ESPN.com (yeah, I went there) has removed their stats link completely.

Anyone know what is going on? Am I just not finding them?

 

[pats1]

You're just not finding them.

Go here, then use the drop-down box to select the year.

 

[Rob0729]

You're just not finding them.

Go here, then use the drop-down box to select the year.

Thanks. It still seems that all the other sites have either dropped the stats or hiding them. Maybe NFL.com has the exclusive.

But then again, I am not always the most observant person and I might not have seen them on their sites either.

 

[Rob0729]

Actually, my mistake is that I never did go to NFL.com. My bookmark for CBSSportsline and NFL.com are similiar and I clicked on that one. My bonehead move. It does appear that NFL.com is the only site that has historical stats anymore. The NFL must have not licensed out these stats anymore to drive more traffic to their site.

 

[pats1]

Actually, my mistake is that I never did go to NFL.com. My bookmark for CBSSportsline and NFL.com are similiar and I clicked on that one. My bonehead move. It does appear that NFL.com is the only site that has historical stats anymore. The NFL must have not licensed out these stats anymore to drive more traffic to their site.

Yeah, when NFL.com upgraded their site last year, they added bios for all historical players (complete with pictures and stats), so it wouldn't surprise me.

 

[ctpatsfan77]

Well, they're not completely gone from ESPN.com; I just found Tom's historical stats here.

Besides which, didn't the courts decide that statistics are public domain? IANAL, but I don't see how the NFL could stop other sites from posting stats (except by paying them more or offering some other significant carrot).

 

[Rob0729]

Well, they're not completely gone from ESPN.com; I just found Tom's historical stats here.

Besides which, didn't the courts decide that statistics are public domain? IANAL, but I don't see how the NFL could stop other sites from posting stats (except by paying them more or offering some other significant carrot).

I am actually talking about the stats page where you can see all the individual leaders by category and all the team stats.

I am not familiar with any of the cases so you may be right. But most of the stats used by these sites are compiled by services like Stats, Inc. I can't see the league system requiring them to release stats that they package and sell as a product for free to all these multi-billion dollar companies. Maybe Stats Inc. upped their rates to a point that it was worth keeping the historical stats.

I guess there is nothing stopping these sites to compile their own stats, but then again it wouldn't be cost effective to go back in history to get these stats.

 

[Deus Irae]

Assuming I'm correct about what you are looking for, CBS Sportsline still has them, and so does Fox.

 

[Rob0729]

Assuming I'm correct about what you are looking for, CBS Sportsline still has them, and so does Fox.

CBS Sportsline only has the 2007 regular and post season. They don't have any years prior. They and most other sites used to have stats going back 4-5 years.

http://www.sportsline.com/nfl/stats

 

[Deus Irae]

CBS Sportsline only has the 2007 regular and post season. They don't have any years prior. They and most other sites used to have stats going back 4-5 years.

http://www.sportsline.com/nfl/stats

Sorry for the mistake. I just looked too quickly. Heck, I may have done the same with Fox, too...

However, Yahoo! should have what you're looking for.

 

[jmt57]

In my opinion Pro Football Reference is the best site for NFL stats, particularly if you are looking for historical stats.

Next would be NFL.com - after all, it is their own product.

ESPN is the most well known sport network, but I always liked FOX Sports better for current stats amongst the major multimedia players - even though my long time work group uses CBS Sportsline for our fantasy football league. For whatever reason, I rarely, if ever, use NBC, Yahoo, or Sports Illustrated, while Sporting News appears to focus on analysis and is not even competing in the stats game.

As I recall, FOX, CBS, SI and others only showed stats for the current/previous year in the past, didn't they? Did they ever show historical stats, or just link to nfl.com?