An article at The Athletic yesterday (I’d link it but it’s on the pay side) notes that in the modern era of sports analytics we are now all football nerds. They offer a few new stats and acronyms, one of which is the amusingly titled EPA, Expected Points Added. Not exactly new to the nerds, but new enough among casual fans and rather accessible as these things go, EPA places a value on factors other than simply yards gained (or lost) when determining a resultant play’s overall value. The simple example is that one yard gained on fourth and one and better than five yards gained on third and ten.

The nerds say this stat goes back to 1971, putting it almost exactly in line with that other thing we know EPA stands for.

This one is way more fun.