Michael Valenzano

A little about me

At the moment, I am a graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. I majored in Recreation, Sports, & Tourism, and I made this newsletter to showcase my love for football and use this space as a creative outlet to share with all of you.

My interest in sports analytics began a few years ago when I did a project for a sports analytics class related to player grading. I had always had pauses with Pro Football Focus’s transparency when it relates to how they grade their players. So, I took it into my own hands to create my own player grading system on Microsoft Excel using some pretty basic player statistics.

Now, having discovered the intricate world of football analytics, I’ve begun using R Studio to create more in-depth visualizations of statistics I find interesting. Like this one, representing the times an NFL defense recorded 3+ interceptions in a game during the 2023 NFL season.

Recently, I’ve taken to Twitter to share my work and opinions, but I’ll be using this platform as a way for me to build a portfolio of my work and post more in-depth analysis of NFL/CFB games, players, and seasons.

My Interests

Here are some of the things I spend my free time doing. As well as some of my favorite parts about doing those things.

Check out one of my favorite pictures I’ve ever taken on film!

Who knew central Illinois could be so picturesque?

Also, if you think fried mushrooms are gross, try growing up.

When I’m not spending time on my hobbies, I love spending time with my family and friends. Life is only as good as the people you share it with. If you are one of those people, I appreciate you.

My Athletic Career

As far as football goes, my prime occurred about 12 years ago, but what a prime it was. In 4th grade, I posted what could go down as arguably the greatest rookie season of all time. In a 10-game season, I rushed for well over 1000 yards (on an 80-yard field too), scored 22 total touchdowns (19 rushing, 2 kick returns, and a pick 6; real numbers btw), and I even recorded a safety (2-way player). I was putting up LaDainian Tomlinson numbers as a 10-year-old.

If you want to see a pretty dope, low-quality video of me breaking some ankles back in the day, check it out here.

Unfortunately for me, I played one more season after that and later announced my formal retirement from peewee football. My miraculous 2011 season and disappearance from the game remains one of the great mysteries in Arlington Cowboys Football Lore. One could say I was the Peyton Hillis of my time.

Most recently, I was a high school gymnast. Through gymnastics, I discovered one of the most fun and challenging experiences of my life, made some incredible lifelong friends, and even won conference on two events along the way. A knee injury just last year unfortunately derailed my gymnastics career, and I have since announced my formal retirement from that as well, very tragic.

I hope this taught you a little more about who I am and who’s behind the posts you’re reading. If you want to follow me on social media, I am most active on Twitter. You can find the link to my account here.

I’ve also since started an Instagram account where I post football edits and previews of some of the articles you’ll see on this website. You can find the link to that account here.

If you found this or any of my posts interesting, feel free to share with someone else you think would appreciate them too.