NFL play-by-play (nflverse data)

The NFL submodule reads straight from the nflverse data releases — the same parquet that powers nflfastR — so Python users get the canonical NFL play-by-play with zero setup.

import polars as pl
import sportsdataverse as sdv
 
pbp = sdv.nfl.load_nfl_pbp(seasons=[2024])
 
(
    pbp
    .filter(pl.col("epa").is_not_null() & pl.col("posteam").is_not_null())
    .group_by("posteam")
    .agg(
        plays=pl.len(),
        epa_play=pl.col("epa").mean(),
    )
    .sort("epa_play", descending=True)
    .head(10)
)

Note the casing: nflverse columns are lowercase (epa, posteam), while the college release uses EPA / pos_team — a classic gotcha when porting analysis between the two.

Full docs: py.sportsdataverse.org