Archive | February, 2011

NFL Quarterback Turnover

6 Feb 2011

Cheering for the Bears requires living and dying by whatever Johnny-come-lately quarterback the franchise decides is the next big thing. New Chicago quarterbacks are common — as it turns out, more frequent than any other NFL franchise since 1980:

Team Yrs Most Played QB Starts Different QBs QBs Per Year
Chicago Bears 31 Jim Harbaugh 60 29 0.94
Cleveland Browns 28 Bernie Kosar 91 26 0.93
Arizona Cardinals 31 Neil Lomax 92 27 0.87
Carolina Panthers 16 Jake Delhomme 71 13 0.81
Dallas Cowboys 31 Troy Aikman 165 25 0.81
Baltimore Ravens 15 Joe Flacco 48 12 0.80
Tampa Bay Bucs 31 Trent Dilfer 76 24 0.77
Atlanta Hawks 31 Chris Chandler 67 24 0.77
Washington Redskins 31 Joe Theismann 83 24 0.77
New Orleans Saints 31 Bobby Hebert 69 23 0.74
Detroit Lions 31 Scott Mitchell 57 22 0.71
San Diego Chargers 31 Dan Fouts 98 22 0.71
NY Jets 30 Ken O’Brien 100 21 0.70
Minnesota Vikings 31 Tommy Kramer 82 21 0.68
Kansas City Chiefs 31 Trent Green 72 21 0.68
St. Louis Rams 31 Jim Everett 100 21 0.68
Oakland Raiders 31 Rich Gannon 67 20 0.65
Philadelphia Eagles 31 Donovan McNabb 135 20 0.65
Miami Dolphins 31 Dan Marino 235 20 0.65
Denver Broncos 31 John Elway 230 20 0.65
Tennessee Titans 31 Warren Moon 139 18 0.58
Buffalo Bills 31 Jim Kelly 160 18 0.58
Indianapolis Colts 31 Peyton Manning 160 18 0.58
Houston Texans 9 David Carr 75 5 0.56
Seattle Seahawks 31 Matt Hasselbeck 124 17 0.55
New England Patriots 31 Tom Brady 143 17 0.55
Cincinatti Bengals 31 Boomer Esiason 118 17 0.55
San Francisco 49ers 31 Joe Montana 131 16 0.52
Pittsburgh Steelers 31 Ben Roethlisberger 98 14 0.45
Jaxsonville Jaguars 16 Mark Brunell 101 7 0.44
New York Giants 31 Phil Simms 148 11 0.35
Green Bay Packers 31 Brett Favre 237 8 0.25

Actors: Who Is Sucking the Fastest?

2 Feb 2011

According to the news, Charlie Sheen’s career is in shambles. He’s facing some unhealthy distractions that may cause him to miss some work, but he’s having fun too. I don’t doubt his short-term work will be limited, but I don’t buy that his long-term prospects are gloomy.

Is Charlie Sheen’s decline the worst in Hollywood? Let’s put the fact that Charlie’s still the face of the biggest sitcom on TV aside and just look at movies to find out.

Using some math, here’s a list of the the actors whose movies are sucking the fastest. Keep in mind that an actor’s “decline” implies they have somewhere to fall from — the better they originally did, the further they have to drop.

1

Vin Diesel
Decline / Year: 4.88
Early Hits:
91 – Saving Private Ryan (1998)
97 – The Iron Giant (1999)
67 – Boiler Room (2000)
Recent Misses:
36 – F&F: Tokyo Drift (2006)
7 – Babylon A.D. (2008)
28 – Fast and Furious (2009)

2

Damon Wayans
Decline / Year: 4.23
Early Hits:
84 – Beverley Hills Cop (1984)
88 – Roxanne (1987)
87 – Hollywood Shuffle (1987)
Recent Misses:
48 – Bamboozled (2000)
9 – Marci X (2003)
9 – Marmaduke (2010)

3

Amanda Seyfried
Decline / Year: 3.67
Early Hits:
75 – Nine Lives (2004)
83 – Mean Girls (2004)
53 – Mamma Mia! (2008)
Recent Misses:
33 – Boogie Woogie (2009
28 – Dear John (2010)
41 – Letters to Juliet (2010)

4

Lindsay Lohan
Decline / Year: 3.22
Early Hits:
79 – The Parent Trap (1998)
88 – Freaky Friday (2003)
83 – Mean Girls (2004)
Recent Misses:
13 – Just My Luck (2006)
17 – Georgia Rule (2007)
7 – I Know Who Killed Me (2007)

5

Barbra Streisand
Decline / Year: 3.18
Early Hits:
92 – Funny Girl (1968)
100 – On a Clear Day… (1970)
91 – What’s Up, Doc? (1972)
Recent Misses:
54 – Mirror Has Two Faces (1996)
38 – Meet the Fockers (2004)
10 – Little Fockers (2010)

6

Orlando Bloom
Decline / Year: 3.10
Early Hits:
92 – Lord of the Rings I (2001)
77 – Black Hawk Down (2001)
96 – Lord of the Rings II (2002)
Recent Misses:
20 – Love / Other Disasters (2006)
45 – Pirates of the Carr. 3 (2007)
38 – New York, I Love You (2010)

7

Billy Burke
Decline / Year: 2.95
Early Hits:
86 – Under the Skin (1997)
78 – Without Limits (1998)
60 – The Independent (2000)
Recent Misses:
15 – Untraceable (2008)
27 – Twilight 2 (2009)
50 – Twilight 3 (2010)

8

Macaulay Culkin
Decline / Year: 2.88
Early Hits:
56 – Uncle Buck (1989)
71 – Jacob’s Ladder (1990)
47 – Home Alone (1990)
Recent Misses:
8 – Getting Even with Dad (1994)
27 – Party Monster (2003)
9 – Sex and Breakfast (2007)

9

Julie Andrews
Decline / Year: 2.70
Early Hits:
100 – The Amer. of Emily (1964)
100 – Mary Poppins (1964)
100 – Thor. Modern Millie (1967)
Recent Misses:
41 – Shrek the Third (2007)
58 – Shrek 4 (2010)
17 – The Tooth Fairy (2010)

10

America Ferrera
Decline / Year: 2.64
Early Hits:
83 – Real Wom. Have Curves (2002)
86 – Steel City (2005)
79 – Sis of the Traveling Pants (2005)
Recent Misses:
11 – Towards Darkness (2008)
61 – The Dry Land (2010)
14 – Our Family Wedding (2010)

11

Derek Luke
Decline / Year: 2.62
Early Hits:
79 – Antwone Fisher (2002)
84 – Pieces of April (2003)
81 – Friday Night Lights (2004)
Recent Misses:
36 – Miracle at St. Anna (2008)
26 – Madea Goes to Jail (2009)
50 – Notorious (2009)

12

David Spade
Decline / Year: 2.61
Early Hits:
94 – Light Sleeper (1992)
65 – Reality Bites (1994)
1994 – PCU (1994)
Recent Misses:
12 – The Benchwarmers (2006)
18 – Grandma’s Boy (2006)
10 – Grown Ups (2010)

13

Chris Klein
Decline / Year: 2.38
Early Hits:
92 – Election (1999)
59 – American Pie (1999)
63 – We Were Soliders (2002)
Recent Misses:
20 – The Good Life (2007)
8 – New York City Serenade (2007)
10 – Stright Fighter (2009)

14

Diane Keaton
Decline / Year: 2.10
Early Hits:
100 – The Godfather (1972)
100 – Sleeper (1973)
100 – Love and Death (1975)
Recent Misses:
5 – Because I Said So (2006)
8 – Mama’s Boy (2007)
22 – Mad Money (2008)

15

Katherine Heigl
Decline / Year: 2.07
Early Hits:
80 – That Night (1992)
96 – King of the Hill (1993)
60 – 100 Girls (2000)
Recent Misses:
14 – The Ugly Truth (2009)
29 – Life as We Know It (2010)
11 – Killers (2010)
Check it out, Carlos is only 35!

35

Charlie Sheen
Decline / Year: 1.25
Early Hits:
81 – Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986)
86 – Platoon (1986)
78 – Wall Street ( 1987)
Recent Misses:
36 – Scary Movie 3 (2003)
37 – Scary Movie 4 (2006)
40 – Due Date (2010)

The Process

1. Rotten Tomatoes derives a score out of 100 for every movie based on the percentage of favorable reviews. They’re used for this exercise, unedited.

2. The decline per year and graphs were auto-generated. The decline is the slope coefficient for a standard linear regression, the graphs use a moving average for the trend line.

3. Only the top 500 actors are included (the 500 whose movies have earned the most at the box office), and actors must have starred in 10 movies.

Caveat

Since rate is a function of time, actors with a shorter career will have a much more volatile number. That means actresses like Julie Andrews and Diane Keaton have to work extra hard to sully all those 100′s from the beginning of their career.

The Extended List

The 50 Fastest Falling

Rank Actor Fall per Year
1 Vin Diesel -4.88
2 Damon Wayans -4.23
3 Amanda Seyfried -3.67
4 Lindsay Lohan -3.22
5 Barbra Streisand -3.18
6 Orlando Bloom -3.10
7 Billy Burke -2.95
8 Macaulay Culkin -2.88
9 Julie Andrews -2.70
10 America Ferrera -2.64
11 Derek Luke -2.62
12 David Spade -2.61
13 Chris Klein -2.38
14 Diane Keaton -2.10
15 Katherine Heigl -2.07
16 Lena Headey -1.99
17 Marlon Wayans -1.89
18 Jackie Earle Haley -1.80
19 Ice Cube -1.76
20 Kate Beckinsale -1.75
21 Cher -1.63
22 Martin Lawrence -1.60
23 James Garner -1.57
24 Bette Midler -1.55
25 Jet Li -1.53
26 Breckin Meyer -1.50
27 John Corbett -1.49
28 Rufus Sewell -1.45
29 Nia Long -1.36
30 Amy Ryan -1.34
31 Carrie Fisher -1.33
32 Steve Coogan -1.29
33 Gael Garcia Bernal -1.26
34 Charlie Sheen -1.25
35 Randy Quaid -1.24
36 Ron Livingston -1.22
37 Paul Bettany -1.22
38 Edward Norton -1.21
39 Keira Knightley -1.20
40 Rutger Hauer -1.18
41 Arnold Schwarzenegger -1.18
42 Sarah Michelle Gellar -1.17
43 Seth Green -1.14
44 Jonathan Rhys Meyers -1.13
45 Jennifer Lopez -1.09
46 Sean Connery -1.08
47 Anna Paquin -1.06
48 Hugh Grant -1.05
49 Meg Ryan -1.03
50 Winona Ryder -1.03

The 50 Fastest Rising

Rank Actor Rise per Year
1 Jeremy Renner 3.11
2 Jesse Eisenberg 2.4
3 Jason Bateman 1.97
4 Steve Carell 1.88
5 Vera Farmiga 1.62
6 Jonah Hill 1.59
7 Adam Scott 1.57
8 Tobey Maguire 1.56
9 Kristen Wiig 1.48
10 Piper Perabo 1.47
11 Zach Galifianakis 1.44
12 Chris Evans 1.42
13 Ashton Kutcher 1.37
14 James Franco 1.34
15 Abigail Breslin 1.25
16 Jason Schwartzman 1.23
17 Cillian Murphy 1.21
18 Johnny Knoxville 1.20
19 Kristen Stewart 1.16
20 Ryan Phillippe 1.02
21 Josh Brolin 1.02
22 Angelina Jolie 1.01
23 Ryan Gosling 0.99
24 Liv Tyler 0.96
25 Mandy Moore 0.92
26 John Krasinski 0.87
27 Guy Pearce 0.86
28 Rhys Ifans 0.86
29 Leslie Mann 0.86
30 Casey Affleck 0.85
31 Heath Ledger 0.84
32 Tea Leoni 0.83
33 Eva Mendes 0.81
34 Hilary Swank 0.81
35 Kal Penn 0.80
36 Viggo Mortensen 0.79
37 Jim Carrey 0.72
38 Jeffrey Wright 0.71
39 Paul Walker 0.71
40 Adrien Brody 0.68
41 Ryan Reynolds 0.67
42 Maggie Gyllenhaal 0.63
43 Taraji P. Henson 0.62
44 Thomas Haden Church 0.59
45 Clive Owen 0.54
46 Christian Bale 0.53
47 Mark Ruffalo 0.53
48 Dakota Fanning 0.49
49 Benjamin Bratt 0.48
50 Peter Sarsgaard 0.42