Stop Saying That

At the risk of being snooty... Who am I kidding? I am trying to be snooty right now. Something that has been bugging me as a football fan (american football) is the phrase "turnover ratio". The phrase is always improperly used in the following way. Team A has 10 takeaways and 7 turnovers this season. Therefore, their "turnover ratio" is +3. I hate to be the one to point this out but that is in no way a ratio. A "turnover ratio" would be 10/7 or some such thing. It would have to involve division. When we subtract turnovers from takeaways we have the "turnover differential" which I think sounds cool and is actually correct.

So who cares about this? No one but me.

Michael Vick often contributes to the turnover differential.