If you want to win your Fantasy Football league this year, just abide by this one simple analysis-backed, data-confirmed rule - only draft players with facial hair.
STATS LLC, the Chicago-based company revolutionizing the metrics by which athletes are evaluated, has teamed up with Wahl Grooming to measure the fantasy performance of NFL position players with and without facial hair. Today, the Sterling, Illinois hair clipper pioneers published its findings, revealing that scruffy quarterbacks, running backs, and wide receivers significantly outperformed their clean-shaven counterparts on the virtual battlefield. Let's take a look inside the numbers.
- 86% of QBs with facial hair averaged at least 20 fantasy points per game. Only 57% of baby-faced signal callers hit that mark.
- Seven of the top ten rushing quarterbacks sported scruff.
- Seven of the top ten running backs sported scruff and six of the top ten rushing touchdown had some stubble.
- Of the top 20 fantasy wide receivers, 60% rocked facial hair, including Calvin Johnson (#1) and Brandon Marshall (#4).
- Of those receivers, wide outs with scruff scored 44% more touchdowns.
- This year, nine of the top ten running backs in STATS 2014 rankings have facial hair. Only DeMarco Murray (#7) does not.
- Eight of the ten top ranked QBs have been rocking scruff it throughout the preseason.
Said Steven Yde, Director of Marketing for Wahl and scruff ambassador, "facial hair is often associated with intimidation on the football field, but its popularity among today's skill position players suggests it's also about confidence. It's great to see so many athletes choosing to let it grow and having success."
To conduct the study, STATS, the world's leading sports technology, analyzed and compared the 2013 statistics of fantasy football players and used player profile photos from that season to group the individuals. For new projections, the company used public photography as of 8/21/14 to categorize players with or without scruff.
So, there's your Chicago Inno Fantasy tip of 2014 - draft players with facial hair.
