I was reading the latest post on Azimuth, [*Network Theory in Turin*](https://johncarlosbaez.wordpress.com/2015/05/23/network-theory-in-turin/), and I watched many of the lectures Baez posted on his site [here](http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/networks_oxford/). This might be a crazy question to ask considering it's not necessarily a scientific field like Biology, Physics or Ecology, but has anyone considered applying the mathematics of network theory or related to plays in football?

I was just at the Western Reserve Historical Society's museum (which is in Cleveland, OH) and I happened to walk past an exhibit dedicated to the Cleveland Browns. Behind the glass were notebooks filled with football plays, and oddly enough the first thing that came to mind was networks and diagrams. Although they're not necessarily cyclic it seems (I know little to nothing about football) I can't help but wonder what may have been done in sports of this kind. Also whether someone could apply the mathematics Baez talks about to diagrams such as these.

Hopefully I don't get down-voted too much with this question but I don't have anyone to bounce ideas off of.