About

channingverse is a personal project where I'm documenting my learnings on NFL analytics. One of my lifelong dreams has been to work in the sports industry dating back to when I was a kid and got my first pack of baseball cards. I am combining my passion for sports with my professional skills and acumen resulting in getting hired to lead the Talent Acquisition function at SumerSports.

SumerSports is funded by the legendary investor Paul Tudor Jones and the former GM of the Atlanta Falcons, Thomas Dimitroff, currently operates as CEO. Now for those of you who don't know me, I'm originally from Atlanta and remember when Thomas was first hired to the Falcons. It was the year after one of the most unprecedented seasons I've ever witnessed. In 2007, the Falcons were beginning their first year under new Head Coach Bobby Petrino. Coach Petrino was brought in to work with QB Michael Vick but for those of you who know what happens next, it wasn't a pretty ending. Vick ended up leaving the team after being indicted on criminal charges and Petrino quit before the season ended. It was a disaster.

I do want to note that Michael Vick has made amends for his mistakes and is one of the best stories of retribution I've seen. He is a good man in my eyes.

Enter Thomas Dimitroff in 2008. In his first NFL Draft he lands QB Matt Ryan from Boston College with the #3 overall pick - completely changing the trajectory of the Falcons franchise. Under his leadership he consistently built playoff winning teams, fostered a great culture within the Atlanta Falcons, and brought us closer to a Super Bowl victory than anyone else in franchise history.

The work his team at SumerSports is doing in the space of advanced analytics and consulting is pushing the game forward in directions never before possible. The NFL is at an inflection point as more organizations are able to harness the power of technology to extract patterns and trends. For example, the NFL has recently started tracking player movements with microchips inside of the player's protective padding.

Here's a paper published at the 2017 MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference on the topic where the authors were able to use computer vision techniques to look at pixel density and weighted spatial reasoning. In doing so, they were able to automate the classification of all 22 NFL game films from start (offensive formation labeling) to finish (video player tracking coordinates throughout the life of a play). This also includes formations, player routes, and player speeds. This showcases the benefits this technology can bring to difference facets of the game like game planning, scouting, and player/coach evaluation.

Fast forward to 2023 and the pace of innovation isn't slowing down. Every year the NFL hosts an annual analytics contest called the Big Data Bowl centered around the exploration of statistical innovations in football — how the game is played and coached. It's encouraging to see the NFL lean into adopting more technology because at the end of the day, technology is enabling the league to attract a broader, more diverse audience while simultaneously producing a higher quality product.

Currently, I work at Adobe as a Sr. Talent Partner where I manage technical recruiting efforts for our Digital Media organization. In my career, I've had a front-row seat to the evolution of technology and it's impact on our life. Having a specialization in AI and Machine Learning, I'm particularly well equipped at understanding technical jargon and translating it back to layman's terms. This has helped me tremendously in my role because most of my peers and stakeholders are non-technical. This means that I'm able to fill a gap that nobody else on the team can.

My abilities with R and data visualization have even opened up new doors within the walls of Adobe! Recently, I took on a new role as Program Manager where I worked with our Global Talent Acquisition Operations (GTAO) team to enhance dashboard and reporting capabilities of a new CRM system that was recently launched. After successfully developing a dashboard in PowerBi that showcased key metrics and insights from the CRM, I transitioned back to my role within Global Talent Acquisition where I am once again leading hiring and working on new, data related projects internally.

It's fitting that my love of sports and experience in the technology sector should merge together at some point. I'm currently very happy in my role at Adobe, but SumerSports has an office in Atlanta and one of my goals is to move back in order to be closer to family. It would be a big jump leaving San Francisco, but for the right opportunity at Sumer? I'd pack my bags in a heartbeat. Perhaps one day I'll show my future colleagues this website and we can all have a good laugh about it over coffee at the conference room table.

Until then,

.channing

Last update: January 10, 2024