Citation

Brager AJ, Mistovich RJ. J. Strength Cond. Res. 2016; 31(2): 462-467.

Affiliation

1Behavioral Biology Branch, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Silver Spring, Maryland 2Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Cleveland, Ohio.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2016, National Strength and Conditioning Association)

DOI

10.1519/JSC.0000000000001727

PMID

27893483

Abstract

West coast teams of the National Football League (NFL) are more statistically likely to win home night games against east coast opponents. The alignment of game times with daily rhythms of alertness is thought to contribute to this advantage. The present study aims to determine if rates of turnovers and injuries during the regular season, putative measures of mental and physical fatigue, impact winning percentages. Regular season schedules and rates of turnovers for each of the thirty-two teams were obtained from Pro-Football-Reference. We developed our own metric of injury risk for each position obtained from depth charts and regular season schedules. This metric compared cumulative weeks on injury reserve with cumulative time zone travel. West coast teams traveled four times as often as east coast teams. However, teams traveling eastward won twice as many games. There was no relationship between the extent and direction of travel and number of turnovers. Losing teams had more turnovers. The offensive and defensive lines in Central time (CT) were placed on injury reserve four times as often as offensive and defensive lines in Pacific time (PT). Injury prevalence in CT vs. PT was most prominent midseason. Plotting midseason game time relative to biological time revealed that PT teams play games closer to endogenous peaks in alertness while CT teams play games closer to endogenous troughs in alertness. Overall, closer alignment of game time with the endogenous 'alerting' signal may protect west coast teams from fatigue-related injuries and suggests for modified strength & conditioning programs.

Keywords: American football;

Language: en