Pro Football Reference (PFR) is an online statistics database for professionalAmerican football maintained bySports Reference. The site provides career statistics for players, teams, and games, as well as records andNFL draft history.[1] PFR was established independently by Doug Drinen in 2000, and became part of Sports Reference in 2007. Sports Reference also publishes similar statistics websites for basketball,baseball, and hockey.[2][3]
The Pro Football Reference website and database was established by Doug Drinen in December 2000.[4] In 2007, PFR merged with the previously unrelatedBaseball Reference and Basketball Reference to formSports Reference.[5][4] In December 2019, PFR introduced the Pro Football Hall of Fame monitor. The purpose of this monitor is to apply a formula to quantify player contributions during their career (includingAll-Pro selections,Pro Bowl selections, various awards, and career statistics) and to highlight wherePro Football Hall of Fame players rank in comparison, often with the goal of estimating a player's chances of making the Hall of Fame.[6][7][8] Drinen is also responsible for the creation of the "approximate value" statistic, a metric used to quantify the value of a player's season.[9][10]
In 2000, John Turney and Nick Webster, members of theProfessional Football Researchers Association (PFRA), conducted extensive research to create a more complete record of sacks in the NFL. After examining the play-by-play records of every NFL team as well as game film at NFL films they compiled a list of players with 100 sacks beginning in 1960.[11][12] These statistics, both the official and unofficial sack counts, are counted and displayed separately on the site from 1960 onwards.[13]
