FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Dr. John F. Murray, the Palm Beach sport performance psychologist known as the ‘Football Shrink’ and called the ‘Freud of Football’ by the Washington Post, will publish scores of every moment in the NFL playoffs this year on his website. He will use his trademarked ‘Mental Performance Index’ (MPI) for the fourth year in a row to rate team performances. The MPI is the first mental scoring system developed for team sports, and accurately forecast each of the past three Super Bowl games contrary to public consensus.

Palm Beach, FL — January 9, 2005 — With the NFL playoffs having finally arrived, Dr. John F. Murray, AKA “football shrink” and “Freud of Football,” (Washington Post, 2005) is taking his unique scoring system known as the “Mental Performance Index (MPI),” public this year. He is publishing MPI statistics for every NFL playoff game and the Super Bowl on his website at https://johnfmurray.com

The MPI is the first measure of overall performance including for mental factors developed in sports, and in this case America’s biggest sport of football.

As reported in America’s number two selling sports magazine in December, 2002, Murray developed the MPI and first began broadcasting MPI scores on his Miami radio station.

Murray, a licensed clinical and sport performance psychologist and NFL team consultant, created the MPI to help football coaches understand their team’s performances better. The MPI also demonstrates the extreme importance of mental factors in football by including in the scoring such factors as “pressure management,” “focused execution,” and “reduction of mental errors.”

In three very public tests of the accuracy of the MPI on radio and television stations worldwide, the MPI has correctly estimated the future performance of the teams in the national championship (Super Bowl XXXVII 2003, Super Bowl XXXVIII 2004, and Super Bowl XXXIX 2005), beating the spread each time, going counter to public opinion each time, and accurately forecasting the course of each game. More information is available at https://johnfmurray.com

In 2003 the Oakland Raiders were favored to win easily over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The MPI, however, indicated that Tampa Bay was performing at a much higher level than Oakland. This was published in over ten major newspapers and broadcast on hundreds of radio stations worldwide including Bloomberg Radio, CNN Radio, and ABC Radio. Tampa Bay easily won the game.

In 2004 and 2005, MPI analyses showed the two competing teams to be relatively equal, forecasting extremely close games both times even though the New England Patriots were predicted to win by at least 7 points in each game. Murray’s analyses were reported on an even larger number of print and broadcasting media outlets including the biggest sports radio statons in several major markets, ESPN Radio in several markets, Canadian national radio, and hundreds of programs including Bloomberg Radio for the 2nd and 3rd years in a row.

How accurate was the MPI? The 2004 game was tied with 4 seconds remaining (3 point New England win) and the 2005 game was the first game in Super Bowl history to be tied entering the final quarter of play. New England again won by 3. Former NASA rocket scientist and internet guru from MIT Dr. Cliff Kurtzman, who publishes the “Tennis Server” where Murray produced a monthly sport psychology column from 1995-2001, wrote a public congratulations letter to Dr. Murray for the “MPI’s extreme accuracy three years in a row” after last year’s game.

The MPI goes way beyond theory and journalism. Murray has actually worked with NFL teams and players, and has received many endorsements from top coaches and athletes. He will appear on national radio and television stations for the 4th year in a row to discuss his MPI findings prior to the Super Bowl. Murray has been invited for the 4th straight year on host Bob Goldsholl’s “Bloomberg on the Ball.”

Beginning today, MPI scores will be available after every playoff weekend on Murray’s website at https://johnfmurray.com. Murray will provide all the primary MPI scores including a total score, scores for offense, defense and special teams, pressure scores for offense and defense, and a total pressure score. Murray enters data into a computer program as he is watching and rating every play of every game in the playoffs.

Readers can await Murray’s detailed interpretation on the website and radio programs before the Super Bowl, or draw their own conclusions from the weekly statistics he provides.

“The purpose of the MPI is to demonstrate how important the mental game is to any performance situation, and especially a team sport like football,” said Murray. “Coaches and players routinely claim that the mental game accounts for anywhere from 50% to 95% of performance and ultimate outcome, but then spend less than 2% of their training on mental skills,” said Murray. “This is probably because there are so few authentic sport psychologists and many old school coaches who are not comfortable changing.”

“Since the MPI has been so accurate three years in a row on the biggest sports stage in America, I think people are finally waking up. Innovative coaches like Nick Saban of the Miami Dolphins, for example, already tell their teams how important it is to stay in the moment and just perform your absolute best on one play and in the moment at hand. This is more than cliche. It is precisely what the MPI measures, performance in the moment, with a logical rating system that includes for mental factors and has been refined over time.”

Dr. Murray is available for interviews. MPI scores and analysis will be provided on the Monday following games at https://johnfmurray.com

Contact Information:

John F. Murray, Ph.D.
340 Royal Poinciana Way Suite 339 J
Palm Beach, FL 33480
USA
Tel: 561-596-9898
Fax: 561-805-8662
Email: e-mail protected from spam bots

Licensed Psychologist and Sports Psychologist Dr John F. Murray