Reilly, Whitlock and Simmons: A Statistical Analysis of the Words They Use
By Jason McIntyre
To no surprise, the word that popped up for Bill Simmons most frequently: “Boston.”
Whitlock: “Favre.”
Reilly: “Anybody.”
A quick parsing of the charts – six of Whitlock’s 10 most-used words are NFL-related. Two are media-related. Two of Reilly’s most-used words are golf related. If you were shown the rest of his Top 10 words and had no clue who used them, you probably wouldn’t guess, “this guy is a highly-paid columnist for the largest sports entity in the world.” Three interesting words in Simmons’ Top 10 – “picks”, “trade” and strangely, “Suns.”
Unnecessary Inference and Undisputed Authorship: Bill Simmons, Jason Whitlock, and Rick Reilly [Harvard Sports Analysis Collective]