What Tha What?

"Why is there an injury report in pro football? Nobody else has one, only pro football does."

        -Jimmy Dix from The Last Boy Scout

That quote was the first thing that crossed my mind when I heard that the NFL is monkeying with the terminology of their weekly injury reports. As a young football fan in the 1970s I always found it a bit odd that there was even an injury report in the newspaper. As Jimmy Dix stated, pro football is the only sport that seems to find it necessary to do so. Let alone make it public. I found it even more odd that these injury reports were often conveniently located near the betting lines in the newspaper. That location was curious because the distance between sports and betting is supposed to be as great as possible.

The NFL has required teams to report injuries in the following categories.

Probable
Questionable
Doubtful
Out

Those are pretty self-explanatory without putting numbers to the terms. But, the NFL has to have numbers. Probable meant that a player had a better than 75% chance of playing in a game. Questionable was 50%. Doubtful was less than 75%. Out meant out. There isn't anything earth-shattering about any of these terms or numbers. The terms are words that are easily understood. The numbers are easily associated with the terms. Apparently, the NFL had an issue with the "probable" category. Careful study(!) revealed that 95% of the players listed as "probable" actually played in the game. 95% is great than 75%. Imagine that. Since the difference between 95 and 75 is so great that they find the "probable" designation misleading, the NFL is simply dropping the term from their lexicon.

I always figured that a player listed as "probable" was probably going to play in the game because that's exactly the meaning of the word. It's absolutely mind-numbing that the NFL took the time to study this let alone decide that it was necessary to change things. Not only has the NFL dropped the "probable" designation, they also changed the meaning of "questionable" and "doubtful." I didn't know that they could do that! Now, we have this.

questionable=it is uncertain as to whether the player will play in the game

doubtful=it is unlikely as to whether the player will play in the game

What tha what? That's exactly what those two words mean. Is this whole thing just a joke to perk up the time between preseason weeks two and three?

No. It's not a joke. There's a real memo. NFL Media Insider Ian Rapoport even tweeted it. Straight from the Competition Committee.

There must be a lot of idle time at 345 Park Avenue.

The NFL scours the weekly injury reports for inconsistencies and inaccuracies. They punish teams for infractions. Now, they are adjusting terminology. Unless gambling and fantasy football are the priorities, the NFL is spending way too much time on injury reports. Considering the incredibly toxic relationship between the players and management, this is time that can be much better spent. Instead of changing things that don't need to be changed maybe they should work on things that do.