FanHouse Len Pasquarelli

In previous lives, before Matt Millen spent eight years running the Lions' franchise into the ground, he was a Pro Bowl linebacker and four-time Super Bowl winner. And after his football career, Millen was part of the No. 2 broadcast team for the NFL on Fox, and was also the color commentator for Monday Night Football on West Wood One.

Up to the moment he accepted the Lions gig, he was considered a good player and a great analyst. Which is why it wasn't totally surprising that he got back into commentating after William Clay Ford finally got around to firing him. Unfortunately, a large segment of the NFL-viewing population couldn't separate Millen the analyst from Millen the bumbling front office type.

On behalf of the entire universe, radio and talk show host, Jim Rome apologized to Mario Williams and the Texans for criticizing his pick in 2006. Len Pasquarelli ate some crow his own self, and recently named Williams as the biggest Pro Bowl snub.

Today, Houston Chronicle columnist, John McClain, put Williams' break out season in context of other defensive ends' second seasons:

[H]ere's something to think about: Williams is 22 and finishing his second season.

By comparison, here are the second-year sack totals of (Kyle) Vanden Bosch (3 1/2 ), (Patrick) Kerney (2 1/2) and (Aaron) Kampman (2).

Taylor had nine, (Aaron) Schobel 8 1/2 and (Osi) Umenyiora seven.

Want more? Howie Long had 5 1/2 and Michael Strahan 4 1/2 .

At this early stage of his career, Williams can best be compared to another defensive end who was the top pick in the draft. In 1986, his second season, Buffalo's Bruce Smith had 15 sacks.

I wholeheartedly support the use of statistics by sports writers. But too often, sports writers either fail to understand statistics or use them improperly. In his Insider Tip Sheet, ESPN's Len Pasquarelli provides a good example with his attempt to show that kickoffs are traveling longer this year than they did last year:

Kickers going long: For whatever reason, kickers are demonstrating a lot more leg on kickoffs in 2007. There were only two kickers for the 2006 season, Olindo Mare then of Miami (with 24) and Josh Scobee of Jacksonville (21), who registered 20 or more touchbacks on kickoffs. Through the first nine weeks of this season, there are five kickers with 10 or more touchbacks: Sebastian Janikowski of Oakland (18), New England's Stephen Gostkowski (14), Josh Brown of Seattle (11), Neil Rackers of Arizona (11) and Mare, now in New Orleans (10).

There are all kinds of problems here. Pasquarelli completely overlooks that his own stats show that last year's leader is on his way to fewer touchbacks than he had last season. He also overlooks that this year's leaders in touchbacks, Janikowski and Gostowski, are both playing for teams that have improved offensively, therefore giving them more opportunities to kick off and pad their touchback totals.