Trends and Research in the Decision Sciences: Best Papers from the 2014 Annual Conference

4. A Social Network Analysis of NFL Coaches

—Ravi S. Behara, IT & Operations Management Department, College of Business, Florida Atlantic University

—Preston J. Huang, Spanish River Community High School

—C. Derrick Huang, IT & Operations Management Department, College of Business, Florida Atlantic University

Abstract

This study examines coaching leadership in the National Football League (NFL) in the United States from a social network perspective. Specifically, the role of coaches is explored based on team coaching staff networks across all NFL teams. Utilizing NFL coaching staff data from all NFL teams for the period of 2000–2013, we focused on the networks of leading coaches based on specific network measures. We find the eigenvector centrality ...