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Now more than ever, the sports-obsessed populace worships at the altar of numbers.

You're called stupid if you don't echo the gospel of analytics. ESPN came up with some win-percentage index that we're supposed to think is important.

At the NFL Combine and assorted pro days, the stock of draft hopefuls rises and falls on a 40 time, a cone drill or how many times they can lift 225 pounds while on their backs.

It's all great for people who love to nerd out on all the supposed measurables. But the balance seems tipped so far in favor of the extracurricular -- the breathless analysis of how much money a tenth of a second might have cost this guy or that guy -- that we need someone or something to represent the other side.

The side that advocates plain-old, uncomplicated common sense.