User:Dirtlawyer1/sandbox2

Ideas for revamping Template:Infobox NFL player
1. Remove all statistics parameters from the infobox template. Create new standard forms of statistical tables for quarterbacks, receivers, running backs, offensive lineman, defensive lineman, linebackers and defensive backs, punters, and placekickers, which will be included within the professional career section of the main body text of the article.
 * There's a lot of editors who's main or sole activity is weekly stats updates. Be interesting to see how this goes. Makes sense to me, as NFL lacks magic numbers like baseball for career numbers that anyone but a stat geek would be able to put into perspective. Other alternative are to list only for retired players (who can really verify all the weekly changes), or just HOFers.—Bagumba (talk) 03:43, 10 January 2015 (UTC)

2. Remove debut year/team and final year/team parameters from template. Encourage the inclusion of debut year/team and final year/team in professional career section of main body text.
 * Remove teams for sure. There might be some value to have a single line with the career tenure, e.g. 1980–1987. Saves having to move the eyeballs to the bottom of career history to find final year.—Bagumba (talk) 03:43, 10 January 2015 (UTC)

3. Remove high school parameter from template. Encourage the inclusion of hometown, high school, high school location, high school team name in the early years section of main body text.
 * Unlike NBA, nobody jumps tom high school to pros. (As an aside, nobody but a HS diehard would know what "Chico (CA) Pleasant Valley" means.  A non-American wouldnt know the state abbreviations, a reader from that city wouldnt recognize their local HS name.) —Bagumba (talk) 03:43, 10 January 2015 (UTC)

4. Remove links for player profiles at NFL.com, Pro-Football-Reference.com, etc., from template, and place them all within the external links section at the bottom of the page, and incorporate them into the main body text as inline footnotes as appropriate.
 * I find having at least one link there is useful as kind of a convenient citation for most of the items in the infobox. Basketball articles always have listed heights changed to "true" heights, and the link there makes it clear where the data came from. Rmv the databaseFootball one, as already have PFR as independent site.—Bagumba (talk) 03:43, 10 January 2015 (UTC)

5. Remove all high school honors and awards from the infobox, and incorporate them into the early years section of the main body text.
 * I don't think there is an equivalent of state POY, like Mr Basketball, or national POY, right? Should be fine.—Bagumba (talk) 03:43, 10 January 2015 (UTC)

6. Limit college honors and awards to major honors and awards (e.g., All-American, all-conference, major national awards, College Football Hall of Fame); remove all award finalist and semifinalist mentions from the infobox. Encourage the inclusion of all noteworthy in the college career section of the main body text.
 * A starting point might be to limit to those in Template:College football award navbox.—Bagumba (talk) 03:43, 10 January 2015 (UTC)

7. Limit the inclusion of college championships to conference and national championships in the infobox; remove all references to bowl game "championships."
 * I'd argue to limit to national championships. Only readers from the same alma mater or nuts of their school's conference will care about the rest.—Bagumba (talk) 03:43, 10 January 2015 (UTC)

8. Limit highlights section to no more than 12 to 15 total lines of text, forcing editors to prioritize honors and awards included in the infobox.
 * Might be premature to put arbitrary limit before enforcing which awards and achievements to list. Getting that list will naturally make 95% of all players manageable.—Bagumba (talk) 03:43, 10 January 2015 (UTC)

9. Remove references to tenures for professional teams for which subject player was only a member of the offseason or practice squad. Only those pro teams for which the subject player appeared in a regular season game will be listed.
 * Yeah. Can have that full-blown tenure list in the body as a compromise if needed.—Bagumba (talk) 03:43, 10 January 2015 (UTC)

10. Reduce the size of infobox text from 100% of main body text to 85 to 90% of main body text as done in most other infoboxes, thereby reducing the unusually wide NFL infobox by 10 to 15%.
 * I'm pretty sure the main reason it is stretched is because height and weight are crammed onto one line and/or the high school and HS city all on one line.—Bagumba (talk) 03:43, 10 January 2015 (UTC)

11. Limit infobox photos to 240 pixels in width. Furthermore, require close cropping to head and shoulders face shots of a roughly square or horizontally rectangular orientation. Encourage the removal of low-quality, low-resolution photos as unworthy of inclusion.
 * We are limited to free images, so this will often be too rigid. I think we should state that a recent quality portrait without a helmet is usually preferable.—Bagumba (talk) 03:43, 10 January 2015 (UTC)