Salon book review reveals error in new Michael Lewis book

The Nov. 28 book review "Pigskin Philosophy" quoted author Michael Lewis' assertion that NFL quarterbacks threw 7,583 passes in 1960. In fact, quarterbacks from two different professional football leagues, the NFL and the AFL, threw that number of passes in 1960, according to a statistician Lewis consulted. Lewis says that he has alerted his publisher to the mistake; a correction will be made in future printings of the book. The review also cited the total number of passes thrown in 1960 and 2000 as an indication of the increasing popularity of the passing game. That comparison, however, does not account for the increase in the total number of games played each season during that period. A more appropriate measure is the number of passes thrown per game. The review has been corrected. Link