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Kevin Seifert, ESPN Staff Writer 9y

Inside Slant: Todd Steussie finds post-career drive in analytics

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At 3:30 a.m., Todd Steussie got up from the table. He went to the fraternity house bathroom and splashed cold water on his face. Looking in the mirror, he thought to himself: "What am I doing here?"

Of all the moments, Steussie recalled in an interview this week, "that was probably the most surreal." Eventually, he collected himself and returned to the table. There, he and his classmates completed -- yes -- a group project due to their marketing professor at 8 a.m.

At 39, after a 14-year career as an NFL offensive lineman, Steussie returned to the University of California-Berkeley not for parties but to complete his undergraduate degree, beginning a journey that has brought him into the middle of football's looming technology boom. Aside from a few awkward generational moments, his story is a reminder that many players make a smooth post-career transition -- some, like Steussie, aided by NFL programs -- and serves as a balance to the often-justified hysteria surrounding quality of life for retired NFL players.

"I've had some amazing opportunities since retiring," Steussie said. "I can't complain. It's been a cool ride so far."

The No. 19 overall pick of the 1994 draft, Steussie attended offseason education seminars sponsored by the NFL at Harvard, Penn and Northwestern during his career. He played his final season for the St. Louis Rams in 2007, and in August 2009, he returned to Berkeley for two final semesters. His degree required in-person attendance, rather than online work, so he commuted weekly between California and his family home in St. Louis.

"When you're doing it on your own dime like that, you're going to be pretty committed," Steussie said. "I had an apartment with an inflatable bed and no TV, and pretty much all I did was study. I went all out."

He never received less than an A-minus in any class before graduating in 2010. Then, it was off to the Kellogg School of Management's executive MBA program before he began mining business contacts in St. Louis. Steussie ultimately bought into a company now called PotentiaMetrics, which was analyzing medical data to help doctors and patients predict outcomes for serious illnesses and various treatments.

With Steussie aboard, the company is expanding its range into sports. The first step is a free app called ScoutSight, to be released next month. Centered around the draft, it will incorporate advanced data to provide users with historic comparisons and other predictive tools on drafted players in real time.

The foundation of the app, and Steussie's belief in the marriage of football and analytics, originates from the mid-1990s. Then-Minnesota Vikings offensive line coach Mike Tice would issue a grade of 0, 1 or 2 on each play based on performance and post them for all players to see. The process, unique at the time, built in Steussie a certainty that football -- which might well be the ultimate team game -- can be assessed accurately based on a combination of individual analyses.

"Because there's so much complex interdependent relationships in football, people stray away from measuring things," Steussie said. "A lot of people throw up their hands in frustration. They think there's no way to measure the game in a predictive way, that it's just a black box, and it's the coaches and scouts that have the domain and we have to rely just on them. … To me it's far from impossible, though, and it's going to be fertile ground."

If all goes well, ScoutSight will lead to opportunities for marketing data analysis to NFL teams. ESPN's Great Analytics Ranking revealed that, among the teams committed to incorporating advanced data into decisions, only a handful are generating it internally. Steussie was among many vendors attending the recent MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference to network ideas and pitch products.

Steussie envisions a day when NFL teams and fantasy football players alike can mine historical data to project production for a receiver playing in a West Coast offense after returning from a sprained MCL. He sees value in knowing how a team's pass protection was impacted every time in the past 10 years when, say, its starting center has been sidelined.

That Steussie is envisioning a long-term future bucks the public narrative for retired NFL players. To be sure, there are thousands of men suffering from afflictions -- early dementia, ALS, joint replacement -- that can be traced to their playing careers. It is the most important issue facing the sport, but sometimes it's important to remember it does not carry a 1-to-1 correlation.

Steussie said he suffered no significant cognitive injuries in his career and has experienced no symptoms in retirement. He recently had his left ankle fused and has discomfort from a sternoclavicular joint injury that prevents heavy exercise.

"But that's like a lot of 44-year-old people," he said. "There are things I can't do now that I could do in my 20s. I have no complaints. I'm really excited for what's ahead."

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