The Premise
The book was written by Bob Carroll, Pete Palmer and John Thorn and was released in 1988, but it's certainly stood the test of time.
The book was designed to be answer to Bill James and his work in baseball and shows how many of the traditional methods of thinking about football could use some revision.
The authors look at such things as the kicking game, turnovers and other statistics and explain why they may not be all they're cracked up to be.
For Bettors
While bettors can pick up some good information throughout the book, there are two chapters that will be of special interest to bettors, Driving For glory and Wanna Bet?
Driving For Glory is a look at a team's probability of winning the game in different situations while the game is being played. with more and more sportsbooks now offering in-game betting, bettors may be able to uncover a nugget or two that will help in that regard.
Wanna Bet? is a quick look at the betting aspect of football and includes a system designed to use points for, points against and factors in the opponent's strength. It that aspect it is a bit similar to our [link url=od/nfl/a/NFLpointdiff.htm]Point Differential System and the predictions should be fairly close. (We'll track them during the 2009 NFL season and see.)
Summary
Any little edge a bettor can pick up is certainly worthwhile and the chances are you'll be able to find one or two tidbits in this book to make it worth your while.
Naturally some of the information, such as playing surfaces the teams use, is outdated, but there is quite a bit that's still relevant.
A used copy of the book can usually be found for a few dollars, amking it a decent investment.
