My love of GIFs stemmed from the early reaction shot days, but has since morphed into a variety of topics ranging from bat flips to goals, to, okay, still some reaction shots. The GIF is being phased out across the board as HTML5 and GIFV services are better equipped to handle a longer clip in higher quality, and recently the site Streamable has been popping up on my radar. As an inquisitive nerd, I dove right in.

Right off the bat you’re given the option upload from your computer or via URL. According to Streamable, the clips utilize HTML5, or in the rare case where that is unavailable, Flash. You’re not forced to create an account to view a clip or even to upload one, though in order to browse your own uploads it is encouraged to make a free account.

Unfortunately at this time there is no search or index option for other clips, so if you come across something you really like, you’ll need to favorite it. Say, maybe a clip of Leo Messi stealing Jerome Boateng’s soul, then chipping Manuel Neuer in the opening leg of the UEFA semi-finals.

(Editor’s note: Some Ad-Blocking extensions seem to block these embeds. If you see nothing, disable ad blocking.)

Where Gfycat doesn’t have a size limit, Imgur limits animated uploads to 200 MB. Streamable also has a limit, but it’s a 2 GB and 10 minute clip, which at 10 minutes, is longer than an average trailer and some short movies.

The interface is concise and uncluttered. If you choose to parse down a YouTube clip of a go-ahead shot from Game 7 of an NBA playoff series, it’s very easy. Once you have the URL, simply click “Paste from URL” and allow the clip to upload. As soon as it is in the Streamable editing system, feel free to trim it down from either side as the picture below shows.

After settling on the desired starting and ending points, click create clip and voila, you’re all set.

Streamable offers a fast and simple service and if you’re looking for a GIF-type clip but with sound — it’s the best option short of a full YouTube upload. While I’d certainly love to see a searchable index of clips like Imgur and Gfycat offer, I’ve already began to use Streamable as my go-to option for highlights, even if the highlight is against my favorite baseball team:

I’ve criticized various organizations and even the Federal Aviation Administration for failing to embrace drones and their practical applications around sporting events, but I may be lowering my pitchfork now. The FAA posted a trio of press releases that seem to speak of them relaxing their stance on drones.

The first presser was the announcement of an iOS app (with an Android version on the way) called B4UFLY. The app aims to let controllers of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS or more commonly called drones) where it is legal for them to fly. It will have a straightforward “clear” or “not clear” flight availability for current locations as well as the option to search for other areas for future planning. There are preview screenshots of the app in the second press release here. Of note is a pre-flight checklist as well as indicators for special flight rules around specific areas such as Washington D.C. Within the first release, FAA Administrator Michael Huerta spoke on the app and its goal:

We want to make sure hobbyists and modelers know where it is and isn’t okay to fly. While there are other apps that provide model aircraft enthusiast with various types of data, we believe B4UFLY has the most user-friendly interface and the most up-to-date information.

The third item of news from the FAA was an announcement of a joint programs with CNN for news gathering in urban areas, drone manufacturer PrecisionHawk for crop analysis and monitoring and BNSF Railroad to help examine tracks and overall rail infrastructure. None of these partnerships directly affect the average sports fan, but that the government as well as different companies are at least willing to explore new uses for drone technology is worth celebrating. We may not be able to watch a soccer match in the way a polo match could be utilized, but I am just happy to see things shift from mere conversations and potential turn into policy and implementation.

(Header image via Facebook)

This is a really simple trick that I think a lot of people will never need, but a few people will love forever. It’s this problem:

Year   Age  Tm  ERA   G     IP  FIP
1906    29 CHC 1.04  36  277.1 2.08
1907    30 CHC 1.39  34  233.0 1.97
1908    31 CHC 1.47  44  312.1 1.87

Here’s Mordecai Brown’s 1906 through 1908 stats from Baseball-Reference. But some nimcompoop has pasted them as pre-formatted values. Paste this biz into Excel and you get something like this:

Well, you’re in luck. Because there’s a super easy way to make this into legit data. Go to the appropriately-named “Data” tab and you’ll find the “Text to Columns” function:

With the data selected, click on this “Text to Columns” button. A pop up window will then prompt you whether you want to treat the text as “Fixed width” or “Delimited.” These concepts are weird-sounding, but actually quite simple:

• Fixed-width: The data has spaces inserted into it so that it visually lines up. When you’re pasting from pre-formatted text, this is almost always the right choice.
• Delimited: This is text that has special characters within it to help signify the differences between columns. So, if you’re pasting something from a CSV file (a file that uses commas between each data point), then delimited would be the right choice. You can also use delimited if there are spaces between data points — and this can be very helpful when translating a list not intended for spreadsheet use into a spreadsheet.

For this instance, let’s use Delimited to see what happens:

Step 2 asks us what our delimiters are. We can choose one of the usual delimiters (like tabs and commas) or we can use spaces or even insert our own characters (this can be usual for when, say, we scrape data off a Korean baseball site and special Korean characters divide the columns).

With “Tab” selected, you’ll probably notice the data in the preview box doesn’t change — as in, there are no vertical lines indicating the creation of new columns. If you click the “Space” box though, you should see something like this:

Note the check next to “Treat consecutive delimiters as one.” That is important, because without it, we end up with a lot of columns we don’t need:

In the third step, we have the option to change the data formats and choose an alternative location for the new separated data to appear — both of which are handy — but in general, our work his here is done. Hit “Finish.”

That should give us something like:

So, the alternative to delimited data is fixed-width. Let’s go Pro on this thing and used the fixed-width setting. But this time, I’m going to use data from my Scoresheet league. I encourage any other Scoresheet users to play along with their own data.

I really like Scoresheet. It is one of the very few fantasy baseball sites to include defense. In fact, it might be the only one. But it has problem. The site’s interface was designed by DARPA to fend off the Soviets, or at least that’s what it feels like:

So, here’s my undrafted players list (and before you league-mates start thinking you’ve got a peak at my undrafted players list, just know: I’m no longer in the market for a second catcher or extra bat, so ogle all you want). In the middle, big frame, I have a list of players organized first by position and then by playing time accrued (i.e. their real world stats). But what I want to do is combine this data with, say, some projection data like the FanGraphs Depth Charts leaderboard.

But in order to match these undrafted player with the FanGraphs DC projections, I need to first suss out the names of the players. I can achieve that through scraping the numbers of available players here in this undrafted screen and then combine them with the Scoresheet master roster (downloadable here).

For those keeping track at home, I’m combining data like this:

We need to scrape the data from the undrafted list. This amounts to clicking in the middle frame of that previous screen, pressing CTRL+A (select all) and then CTRL+C (copy).

Pasting that into Excel gets something like this (note, I deliberately pasted using source formatting):

First, we can get rid of those top two rows. Really don’t need them. BUT DON’T DELETE THAT THIRD ROW. We need that.

Let’s go ahead and split our data. Select the entirety of Column A (just click the “A” at the top). Then run our handy converter (Data > Text to Columns). This time, let’s go with Fixed Width (though, once again, we could probably make it work with either).

We see reach a screen like this:

The key here is that the numbers on the far left are isolated into their own column. It’s fine that the word “Pitchers” is getting sliced into multiple columns; we don’t really need it anyway.

Scrolling down the preview panel, I can confirm that all the numbers are indeed isolated into the far left column. Now I’m going to actually use the Step 3 of the conversion wizard.

In Step 3, I can choose an alternative destination for the conversion. I want to do this. So I’m going to change the “Destination” section to the next available column — in other words, change it from $A$1 to $B$1:

Great! Now I’ve got my data separated out:

Now I want to get rid of all the blank or white-font lines. These are leftovers from the column titles on the Scoresheet website. First I select all the data (CTRL+A and then CTRL+A again to select everything), and then I sort by the first column.

Sorting Z to A, I find — midway down the data — this blank spot where white-font titles have gather together:

After I purge those rows, the data should be clean. Row B should be nothing but numbers. Beautiful, delicious numbers.

So let’s go back to the top and add a title row. I really only need the first two columns for this, so I’m going to name them Original and Number and then delete the rest. Then I’m going — once again in the “Data” tab — add filters (Data > Filter). If you had any one of the data cells selected (i.e. not a blank cell selected), then Excel should add a neat little pair of gray arrows at the top like such:

You may also notice my data is already sorted in the preceding image (note the little up arrow inside the gray box). But this data is clearly not sorted numerically or alphabetically — No. 444 Greg Bird is near the top. It is sorted, however, by color.

See how the items with gray fonts are now all in the top together? These are players already drafted or selected for my queue. This is why we need the original formatting in the first pasting job.

So now I’ve got my numbers isolated. Using VLOOKUP (or INDEX and MATCH), matching these players to their full names should be a cinch (also, a CONCATENATE formula will help join the first and last names of the players). And with first and last names, we can do one more VLOOKUP / INDEX-MATCH to join them to their projections.

The net result, with some formatting and careful data pollination, can look something like this:

Now the real trick will be for me to find a way to hide this article from the guys in my league.

As TechGraphs readers commented, it didn’t take much digging to find a free stream of the Pacquiao/Mayweather fight from the weekend, despite HBO and Showtime’s legal jabs. And for the first time on a grand level, sports is dealing with pegged-leged and eye-patched mauraders in the form of social media live streams via Periscope and Meerkat.

The Los Angeles Times reported that Top Rank Inc. will seek legal action against individuals that it determines illegally streamed the fight and the companies that provided the platforms for them to do so.

“We’ll have to pursue any people who are allowing people to distribute something that is behind a proprietary wall,” DuBoef told the Times. “We’ll have to challenge those technology companies that are facilitating it and we’re going to have to take a legal position against them.”

Twitter, which owns Periscope, contends it respected intellectual property rights and disabled “dozens” of illegal streams of the fight. But a tweet from Twitter’s Dick Costolo, chief executive, seems to have discredited the company’s sincerity in fighting the piracy.

And the winner is… @periscopeco

— dick costolo (@dickc) May 3, 2015

Christina Warren, a writer at Mashable, shared her experience exploring the different Periscope streams. It’s a great read which you should check out for yourself.

Tapping into a few streams, it was quickly apparent that some were just standard Periscopes of friends at a fight-night party, while others were focused intently on television sets or computer screens playing the fight in real time.

The number of streams was almost overwhelming. Some Periscopers were shooting in portrait mode (as is standard for Periscope), while others were shooting in landscape to capture more of a TV screen.

Some streams featured commentary from parties and shots of friends; others focused almost completely on the fight itself. Some streams were in crowded rooms, other in almost empty homes.

Based on the map on Periscope, I saw streams from all over the world. There was even a stream of the fight from a police department in Africa. The Pacquiao-Mayweather fight was a very global story, and this was evident from the Periscope streams.

Warren noted that it did seem someone was shutting down the streams. If a specific stream received too many favorites, it’d get shut down. But Warren would just find another. She said the stream she watched half the fight in had more than 10,000 people at one point. In an interview at TechCrunch Disrupt NY, Periscope co-founder and CEO Kayvon Beykpour layed out his team’s direct work with the content providers to shut down streams. Bekypour said he took down 30 of the 66 requests, with the others already having stopped streaming on their own. He said they are brainstorming with content partners on ways to better handle piracy.

TechGraphs has been at the forefront of reporting how these apps could affect sports. In March, our own David Temple opined as to possible ways these mobile apps could affect sports broadcasts, namely with streams live from an event or game. A day before the fight, my cohort David Wiers touched on the Meerkat Android app release and wrote:

These are urky broadcasting rights waters we’ve waded into. From takedown notices, muted streams on Twitch.tv due to music rights to being wary of narcs taking you down in person for an illegally stream boxing match, the gap between producers and end-users appears to be widening.

Shortly after Wiers posted his piece, news came out that the PGA Tour revoked a reporter’s credentials for the rest of the season after she streamed a practice round – which no one owns broadcast rights to. The NHL has banned used of the apps and warned reporters not to use them.

@davidwiers Up your post’s alley. https://t.co/9BLIe42NBR

— Seth Keichline (@SethKeichline) May 1, 2015

@SethKeichline @awfulannouncing ridiculous.

— David Wiers (@davidwiers) May 1, 2015

It’s one thing for big boxing, the UFC or the WWE to fight these live streams. Their business model depends on pay-per-view buys, and while Warren and others that watched these social media live streams likely weren’t going to buy the fight anyway, it is a legitimate concern that a percentage of anticipated revenue could soon be slashed. It’s a completely different other thing for leagues and content distributors to overreact to what amounts to a second-screen social experience for most.

(Image via Nicolas Raymond)

Media consumption, like most things, can be broken down into various age demographics. While the brackets tend to have somewhat arbitrary numbers attached to them  — does turning 26 years old really change the preferred method of watching your favorite TV shows? — they can serve as a platform for observation. With thanks to Statista and Deloitte, the gap between paid cable subscriptions and streaming services, among other things, for those in the United States can be clearly shown.

It comes as no real surprise to see the two younger age groups consume the least amount of television while also nabbing the top two spots in video streaming. Somewhat surprising is to see the leading millennials 26-31 age group absorbing more newspaper, be it digital or print, than their older 32-48 counterparts. With large number of online and subscriptions available, plus the Washington Post’s agreement with Kindle customers, perhaps the leading millennial group has come back around in a cyclical trend of newspaper reading.

The percentage of the different aged people who are content with their current cable TV subscription is closely tied with age. The youngest three groups are the least satisfied, reporting at most 55% saying they haven’t at least considered cutting the cord.

With no shortage of streaming or screencasting options — despite AppleTV’s recent insistence on requiring a cable package for CBS Sports, USA and NBC Sports — the number of current and potential cord cutters has increased over the years, particularly in the younger crowds. Already 25% of the polled age-14 through 25 group hasn’t paid for TV in over a year or have ended their cable subscription within 12 months. Within the age group another trend emerges as 28% of 19-25 year olds versus 21% of 14-18 year olds are calling themselves cord cutters.

As the overall demand for TV changes, so does the desire for the way TV packages are sold. For the first time in the three year data set, more than 50% of the polled desire the ability to choose individual channels to watch. A three year decrease in the average number of channels watched further highlights the growing calls for an a la carte system. Canada is already developing a government mandate for cable companies to allow customers to choose individual channels after an initial package, though no legislative traction has gained ground in the U.S. yet.

The numbers represent a clear trend in increased subscription based services and a desire to either ditch cable TV altogether or give it a serious overhaul in programming options. The people are applying pressure to big cable with their wallets as companies lose money with every person severing their TV packages. Still, and with apologies to Bon Jovi, at this point it feels like we’re livin’ on a prayer rather than being halfway there.

(Header image via Deloitte)

Despite — or in some cases because of — Google’s insistence on pushing forward with new web browsing technologies, the tech giant continues to dominate the browser demographics for desktops as well as mobile phones and tablets. Not only has Chrome been on the rise for people at home, but also on the go. Via numbers from StatCounter Global Stats for mobile and tablets, only Chrome and to a much lesser extent the Android-based UC Browser and IE Mobile have increased their market shares since December 2012, the first month of collected data (click to embiggen).

For fellow computer users, and where many concerns stem from as Google phases out older technology, Chrome is even more dominant than on the mobile market. Again according to StatCounter GC, Chrome holds a remarkable 52.96% of the desktop browser market share. The gap between Chrome and everyone else has been widening since May of 2012, however Microsoft’s newest browser, Edge is looking to change things provided you’re running a Windows 10 machine.

Edge doesn’t yet have a release date, but it something I’m eager to check out. It is seemingly looking to streamline the web, something I can get behind as separate tabs and locations for things like favorites, recently visited, current downloads and my reading list are all found in different areas in Chrome. Edge’s “Hub” will place them all in one easy to access area, however it isn’t all sunshine and rainbows with Microsoft’s latest browser. While the company is promising support for existing Chrome and Firefox extensions, that support will not be arriving until a later date. No official word on Silverlight being compatible with Edge, though recent history suggests it would be as all Windows 8 devices, including the tablet Surface Pro 3, are. It would be a stunning (though in my opinion welcome) reversal if Windows 10 and by extension Edge, was not Silverlight compatible. An introduction video to Edge can be found on YouTube.

Already some sports fans are finding themselves caught in the crossfire of the browser battles, specifically those looking to watch games on Sky TV, the preeminent broadcast of English Premier League soccer games in the United Kingdom. Sky — working with BT Sports — recently negotiated a new cable deal where Sky holds broadcast rights to 126 EPL matches per season, three times as many games as BT Sports will broadcast. On the Sky Go page there is a message regarding the incompatibility:

Until Edge is officially released — and probably for some time after — Chrome remains the undisputed browser champion. If Microsoft really does aim to “blur the line between consumption and creation” as the Edge preview video suggests, Windows 10 and Edge will drop Silverlight support and force broadcast companies to update to new and better technologies. What I don’t want to see is Edge allowing massive companies to sit on their hands at the cost of time and frustration for customers.

(Header image via Microsoft)

The live-stream app Meerkat went live on the Android market today. It’s still in Beta form, so things may not be perfect just yet, however as TechGraphs overlord David Temple explained over a month ago, Meerkat — and Periscope — both offer a new way to broadcast video.

Meerkat’s rules page doesn’t clearly define what you can or can’t stream as it is more of an outline of features.

Once you jump into the legal area of their terms of use one can see the company strictly prohibits broadcasting copyrighted material — as do the content creators. HBO has already sent out takedown notices to people streaming the new Game of Thrones season via Meerkat, though perhaps the company is in the takedown notice mood. Other creative minds have gone the opposite way and are embracing Meerkat. Entertainers such as Jimmy Fallon, Snoop Dogg and Jim Gaffigan are sprinkled among Meerkat’s leader-board in order for them to be easily found. If you are so inclined to follow them on Meerkat, expect a push notification when they begin a new broadcast.

Within each cast there is a chat room for interaction between viewers and the broadcaster. One of the pillars of Meerkat is the ability to cast in the here and now, however the company has also added ability to schedule a future broadcast. The quality of the available casts seems to be dependent on the the strength of the caster’s internet connection. In my brief experiences those doing in an office or home setting have had a quality better than Vines — even with their new 720p broadcasts — however what I assumed to be 4G/LTE connections stuttered and froze from to time. Part of it could be the app is still in Beta or it could be that the heavy bandwidth required to stream is too taxing on user’s non-WiFi networks.

These are urky broadcasting rights waters we’ve waded into. From takedown notices, muted streams on Twitch.tv due to music rights to being wary of narcs taking you down in person for an illegally stream boxing match, the gap between producers and end-users appears to be widening.

(Header image via Meerkat)

As we lead in to tomorrow night’s fight of the century and the most expensive pay-per-view ever, HBO and Showtime – the premium cable companies that joined forces to produce the event – are kissing their biceps following their jab-hook combination that knocked online streaming sites to the mat.

Yesterday a federal judge granted HBO and Showtime a temporary restraining order against boxinghd.net and sportship.org, two sites which advertised unauthorized free online streaming of the bout, but have since removed all related content.

Deciding Judge George Wu wrote:

“Plaintiffs have established that they will suffer irreparable harm in the absence of immediate relief. Among other things, Defendants’ threatened infringement would strip Plaintiffs of the critical right of first transmission and publication of an extremely valuable live sporting event, would interfere with Plaintiffs’ relationships with third parties, is likely to damage Plaintiffs’ goodwill among consumers, and will deprive Plaintiffs of revenue that will be difficult or impossible to calculate, but is likely far in excess of any amount that Defendants could repay to Plaintiffs in damages even if the amount could be calculated.”

At time of publication, both sites are unavailable. Deadline.com reported on Wednesday that “where big splashy photo of the two boxers and a ‘click here’ to watch the weekend fight, now there is pretty much nothing.”

The mega fight will cost viewers $100 to watch in HD ($90 in standard definition). According to Forbes, the fight is expected to earn $300 million in PPV revenue or more.

Online streaming sites aren’t the only ones being watched. The Guardian ran a piece Tuesday which brought light to the existence of pay-per-view cops.

On the night of the big fight, the PPV cops – who are not real police, though one company says many former law-enforcement officers are in their ranks – will attempt to find bars showing the fight without having paid licensing fees. If they help promoters nail establishments that have not paid, the companies say they can make hundreds or even thousands of dollars.

The cost for a bar or restaurant to purchase a license depends on the occupancy of the building. But for many establishments, it’s costing about $5000. The bigger the occupancy, the higher the cost. And many bars have decided it’s simply too expensive to carry the fight.

Meanwhile, other bars certainly will try to fly under the radar. These PPV cops are searching for those that duck the expensive license and purchase the residential PPV charge of $100 to show the fight illegally.

One firm’s ad offers $250 for every illegal location found for these enforcers. Another firm advertised on Craigslist. And it’s not all just show.

From The Guardian:

A bar in Lake Elsinore, California, shut down after paying a $23,000 fine for illegally showing a Mayweather fight. J&J Sports Promotions, which licenses fights and has partnered with G&G, has also filed more than 1,600 lawsuits against businesses illegally showing PPV events since 2010. In 2009 it won a $112,800 default judgment against a bar in Arkansas. It settled for $50,000 with a bar that showed the Mayweather-Victor Ortiz fight in 2011. “I’m not in business to sue people,” the J&J president Joseph Gagliardi told the Los Angeles Times. “But I’ve got to do it for one reason: to protect the clientele who are doing it right.”

Fight night piracy is down for the count. Bloodied and brawled, this one looks like a loss.

(Image courtesy of Justin Matthew)

The Kentucky Derby will take place in two days, but in terms of broadcast availability and on-site consumer technology, it feels like an event from previous decades. Churchill Downs has already banned drones and so-called remote controlled aircraft and selfie-sticks, though most of us are probably happy about the latter. The race organizer’s safety ban list includes plucky and niche devices such as laptops, cameras with a 6” lens or longer and camcorders.

To their credit, mobile phones and tablets are allowed on the premises. There are most definitely legitimate safety concerns at any sporting event, but here you can bring a stroller with you, only if you have a child in attendance. If you bring that same child on a wagon, you’re out of luck though. Maybe I’m wrongfully criticizing the Kentucky Derby; they are by no means the only sport to to ban drones. It didn’t take an FAA act like the Super Bowl nor a county-wide ban like The Masters, however it’s hard for me to be lenient on a sporting event that ranked in the top-10 in brand value last year at $99 million.

It’s tough to make excuses for the Derby when they’re not even making an attempt to embrace new technology like other race events. Despite my complaints — and animal treatment concerns — viewership for the Kentucky Derby is in a better place than both 10 and 20 years ago. Television views for the Derby have been up and down over the past few years, though they have seen a distinct uptick since NBC took over from ABC in 2001 (click to embiggen).

NBC does allow streaming of the race via their Sports Live Extra service, thought that option  demands a qualifying cable subscription. AppleTV and Roku users now have the option to view the race among other NBC Sports exclusives (again with a cable package), though Sling TV, Chromecast and FireTV cord cutters are still left with zero options.

(Header image via NBC)

When the 2015 NFL Draft kicks off tonight in Chicago, Michael Weinstein’s technology and analysis will serve as one of many measurements, scores and notes front offices will consider when selecting the future of their franchise.

Weinstein founded and owns Colorado-based Zybek Sports and five years ago began working as a backup timer in the 40-yard dash at the NFL Combine. For the first time this year, the NFL Network utilized Zybek’s laser sensors and computer set up in its broadcast and displayed the automatic time of the 40-yard dash, along with 10-yard split times, on screen during the race to produce instant results for viewers. Weinstein’s the man in the red jacket at the first table in every YouTube clip of the 40-yard dash from this year’s combine. His times are unofficial, however, as the NFL continues to use a hand start electronic-finish method for official scores.

He also developed what he calls a Power Index, an evaluation metric used to allow cross-position and cross-sport comparisons based on athlete power output. It measures his 40-yard dash times and the official results of the the vertical jump, shuttle, three-cone drill and the broad jump. Weinstein said coaches always talk about explosive power. But there isn’t a good definition or measurement of it. So he took the same methodology as the power-to-weight ratio used to calculate sports cars and applied it to all the tests. The athlete’s weight and combine scores are calculated to determine the final score, with a max possible score on each drill of 100. So if a running back that weighs 215 pounds makes the same time on the three-cone drill as a 315-pound lineman, because of the lineman’s additional weight and ability to run the same time, he earns the higher score on the Power Index.

“This is better to look at in terms of power,” Weinstein said. “You can compare different styles and body shapes. It’s the basis for science behind performance.”

The 40-yard dash has been a staple measurement for years that can shoot or drop a draft prospect following the combine. Accurate times are essential. Meanwhile, the ability to quantify raw atheltic ability in the form of the Power Index helps paint a picture for scouts and coaches that they can use differentiate the talent under review.

Last year, the first overall pick Jadeveon Clowney scored the highest on Weinstein’s Power Index with a score of 444. From February’s combine, defensive end Frank Clark out of Michigan led all athletes with a 452 score. Tied for second with 447 were three more defensive players: Vic Beasley (Clemson), Owamagbe Odighizuwa (UCLA) and Preston Smith (Mississippi State).

For those wondering, Brett Hundley (UCLA) edged Marcus Mariota (Oregon) amongst quarterbacks, 410 to 408. Jameis Winston, the projected number one pick out of Florida State, finished ninth in the quarterback group.

It’s worth noting that Weinstein, who has a mechanical engineering degree from Colorado State, does not include the bench press in his results.

“The test isn’t applicable,” Weinstein said. “But what do I know. I didn’t even know who John Fox was.”

And he didn’t. Three years ago, stuck in the middle seat after missing his original flight heading home, he chatted with Fox. Fox, now the head coach of the Chicago Bears, and at the time, the Denver Broncos – the beloved team in Weinstein’s home state – had to introduce himself.

“He’s the nicest guy ever,” Weinstein said.

Rather than the bench press, Weinstein prefers one push up as hard and as fast as an athlete can muster. A pad measures the force put in to the earth, the rate of force development and the rate of change of acceleration. It determines how you can accelerate your acceleration.

Zybek Sports began as an off shoot from Zybek Advanced Products four years ago when Weinstein decided to push forward in a market place he saw as wide open. There was a need for accurate but affordable equipment used to measure athletic performance. Eight years ago the Olympic Training Center approached Weinstein at his Zybek Advanced Products site to develop a better way to measure the vertical jump and 40-yard dash. NASA picked Weinstein about six years ago to make a lunar stimulant so it could test anything it might send to the moon.

Today, other than working for the NFL, Weinstein takes his equipment to college pro days, high school and youth football camps and he’s copied his model to other sports, including basketball, lacrosse, soccer and softball. In the last 35 days, while working with rivals.com, he’s ran 6,700 tests on high school football players. His goal is to standardize athletic tests, which don’t have any procedures, guidelines or protocols and often include hand-timed scores, which deceive kids with unrealistic, biased numbers. In his research, timing can vary up to .205 seconds on a 40-yard dash. A five-second 40 could mean a lot to a high school athlete telling college coaches he ran a 4.8.

Will Weinstein watch the draft?

“Probably not,” he said. “I didn’t even watch the Super Bowl.”