I have long loved statistics and my obsession with “the numbers” was truly step one towards my career as a sports writer. However, stats have since been warped in such a way as to often make them misleading at best and flat out misinformation and lying at worst.
That does not make statistics useless. It does not render those who self-describe as “analytics experts” worthless. Stats do have value. But it’s important for fans to have an awareness that others can use statistics to backup baseless arguments rather than simply using their eyes and brains while actually watching football.