Pitch counts for football

I had no idea:

Why all the baseball? Don’t blame me. Blame the Vikings, who introduced the concept of a “pitch count” for their expensive and risky new quarterback addition after his Minnesota preseason debut Aug. 21 vs. Kansas City.

It isn’t a widely used or at least commonly known metric in football, but numerous teams employ it, at least informally and early in camp. Besides, Childress’ friend and former boss Andy Reid has used it with Donovan McNabb — and what’s good enough for Reid usually is good enough for Childress. Also Rams offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur, who worked with both of them, counted Marc Bulger’s passes this summer, limiting him to 60 or 70 throws, by Bulger’s estimate, until a fractured pinkie took care of that.

I love that in football it’s the old guys like Favre and McNabb who are placed on a count instead of the young dudes.