The Coach that Never Punts

Grantland has fantastic story on a high school football coach who never punts and always performs onside kicks, and has strong statistics to back up his strategy.  The argument translates to the pros as well, and odds are that a good fraction of pro football coaches know it yet ignore the advice.

This is a great case where “loss aversion” results in bad decisions – the emotional cloud of  losses lasts far longer than the adrenaline from success.  A good leader puts aside these emotional issues to focus on the data when making decisions.  But even in  football the coaches aren’t really in charge – the fans are.  And they as emotionally wrapped up in the game as can be, and not usually forgiving.