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William Jerome Barnwell Jr. is an American sportswriter and staff writer for ESPN.com. He has written about a wide range of sports including football, basketball, baseball, soccer, golf and mixed martial arts.

Career

Barnwell began his sportswriting career while a student at Northeastern University as an intern for Football Outsiders, a football statistics and analysis website. He remained at Football Outsiders until 2011 when he was brought on to write at Grantland, a sports and pop-culture website started by Bill Simmons in affiliation with ESPN. At Grantland, Barnwell frequently wrote columns about the National Football League, including coverage and analysis of the NFL draft, free agency, salary cap, coaching strategy, rule changes, and prop bets. While at Grantland he also wrote about the NBA, UFC, Premier League and sabermetrics, and frequently appeared as a guest on The B.S. Report. Barnwell, along with fellow Grantland writer Robert Mays, hosted the Grantland NFL Podcast from August 2013 until October 2015, at which point ESPN announced that it was ending the publication of Grantland. Prior to Grantland's closure, the Grantland NFL Podcast missed several scheduled release dates over a period of two weeks without public explanation, leading to speculation that Barnwell and Mays may have been engaged in a dispute with interim editor Chris Connelly.

Regarding football analysis, Barnwell frequently cites a team's DVOA. While working at Football Outsiders, Barnwell developed a metric called Speed Score, which uses an individual football player's weight and 40-yard dash time at the NFL scouting combine to predict future performance. In fourth down situations, Barnwell has written that football teams are unlikely to be as aggressive as they should be, arguing that average win probability usually goes up when a team elects not to punt.

In 2015, he assumed full-time writing duties at ESPN.com.

Personal life

Barnwell has written about his struggles with depression and body image. He lost 125 pounds in 2015.

He is a fan of the New York Giants, but acknowledges that he also "worships" Tom Brady.

Bibliography (selected)

• "Cashing In on the New Moneyball"
• "The Marriage of Stats and Football"
• "Leaving Las Vegas"
• "Nomentum, Part 1"
• "NFL Trade Value, Part 1"

References

1. Bill Barnwell - MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference Archived March 13, 2016, at the Wayback Machine MIT Sloan School of Management. March 22, 2016
2. Leitch, Will Are the Jets a Disappointment This Season? Bill Barnwell From Football Outsiders Breaks Down the Numbers New York Magazine. March 22, 2016
3. Barnwell, Bill Bareatime! Grantland. March 22, 2016
4. ^ SITE NEWS: Bill Barnwell Says Goodbye Football Outsiders. March 22, 2016
5. Biasotti, Tony Bill Simmons is leaving Grantland. Can the site survive without him? Columbia Journalism Review. March 22, 2016
6. Tannenbaum, Rob Bill Simmons' Big Score Rolling Stone. March 22, 2016
7. McGeady, Andy A good run, Grantland? It was wonderful while it lasted Irish Times. March 22, 2016
8. Davis, Scott One of the NFL's hottest teams at the beginning of the season has completely fallen apart Business Insider. March 22, 2016
9. Soper, Taylor Secrets of sports analytics: Top athletes, coaches, execs explain importance of analyzing data GeekWire. March 22, 2016
10. Alvidrez, Julia The B.S. Report Report: Get It On Deadspin. March 22, 2016
11. Augustine, Bernie ESPN eliminates Grantland, says site founded by Bill Simmons will no longer publish New York Daily News. March 22, 2016
12. "ESPN Statement Regarding Grantland". ESPN MediaZone. Archived from the original on October 30, 2015. Retrieved March 22, 2016.
13. Shephard, Alex and Mark Krotov A Eulogy for Grantland The New Republic. March 22, 2016
14. Dietsch, Richard SI Media Podcast: Featuring guest James Andrew Miller Sports Illustrated. March 22, 2016
15. Barnwell, Bill Barnwell grades free-agent deals ABC News. March 22, 2016
16. Trapasso, Chris Chiefs-Raiders: The most important stats to know for Week 12's TNF game CBS Sports. March 22, 2016
17. Tomlinson, Sean How David Johnson Will Inject Life in Arizona Cardinals' Run Game Bleacher Report. March 22, 2016
18. Barnwell, Bill Revisiting, Revising, and Reexamining the 2008 Class of RBs Grantland. March 22, 2016
19. Hansen, Barrett 4th Down Strategy: Punt, Go for It, or Try the Hard Count? Harvard Sports Analysis Collective. March 22, 2016
20. Frauenfelder, Mark How ESPN writer Bill Barnwell lost 125 pounds last year BoingBoing. March 22, 2016
21. Barnwell, Bill The Easiest Way to Lose 125 Pounds Is to Gain 175 Pounds Medium. March 22, 2016
22. Barnwell, Bill The Debut of Our NFL Preview Podcast Series with Bill Barnwell and Robert Mays! Grantland. March 22, 2016

External links

• ESPN's list of Bill Barnwell articles
• Bill Barwell on Twitter

• Living people
• American sportswriters
• Northeastern University alumni
• 1984 births