Football doc’s hobby is set to turn pro
Former team physician provides injury advice to thousands of gamblers
For years, former San Diego Chargers team doctor David Chao has been giving instant injury analysis to NFL fans around the world. Tweeting under the moniker @ProFootballDoc, Chao spends every Sunday dissecting replays and interpreting injuries for his nearly 150,000 followers.
This past weekend, some of those fans noticed a change. When New York Giants running back Saquon Barkley limped off the field after incurring an ankle injury, Chao tweeted that his analysis was being posted first for subscribers on his new website.
Chao, who left the Chargers under a cloud in 2013, is in the early phases of launching a new subscription service, which he hopes will give unprecedented insight into the secretive world of NFL injuries. Free for now, though a paywall is likely coming next year, ProFootballDoc.com is aimed at helping gamblers and fantasy-sports enthusiasts make smarter decisions with their money.
The pivot is happening because Chao’s weekend hobby became more like a second job. He says he was spending 40 hours a week on his Twitter work, done in the living room of his Southern California home, in addition to his orthopedic practice.
“The question was, ‘Do I keep doing this from my couch, or turn this into an actual business?’ And the tipping point was gambling,” Chao said in an interview. “Gambling makes the business.”
As legal sports wagering spreads across the country, businesses that cater to bettors are also expanding. Fox Sports and ESPN have daily gambling shows, and the Action Network, a digital subscription service that provides gambling news and data, has a membership tier that costs $116.50 per month. Tout services, which dispense betting advice for a fee, are also growing more prevalent.
Chao views his work as another service that might help bettors gain an edge, especially for popular in-game wagering. During last week’s game between the New York Jets and Cleveland Browns, for example, star receiver Odell Beckham left the field shortly before the end of the first half, escorted by medical personnel.
Chao quickly tweeted that he didn’t believe it was serious. Beckham was likely headed to the locker room for his usual IV fluids, Chao said. “Expect him back for 2nd half.” Beckham returned to the game and caught an 89-yard touchdown in Cleveland’s 23-3 win.
“I will never say, ‘Pick this team,’” Chao said. “My lane is injuries; my lane is not handicapping.”
What started as Chao tweeting his thoughts is now a much bigger operation, with a dozen people working on the new site. Their war room has four TVs, plus six additional monitors and a handful of computers.
Sundays are a frantic mix of studying injuries and replays, and then posting reactions. Throughout the week, the group builds a detailed breakdown of each team’s overall health, position by position, a database that’s searchable by player. There also are breaking news alerts and video content.
To fund the expansion, Chao and business partner Craig Dado put together shy of $250,000, raised from family and friends. The group has done no advertising (the money went almost entirely into technology) and currently has over 10,000 people signed up, according to Dado.
“The plan is, after we get through this season, we’ll raise a Series A” funding round, said Dado, who is president of ProFootballDoc.com. “And if we think this is really a go, we’ll raise some serious money, build out the site even further, get a mobile app, do some advertising and really go for it.”
There’s some guesswork associated with interpreting injuries based off live video and replays. Chao clarifies that he’s not diagnosing injuries, just giving an informed opinion. He says he’s correct 95 per cent of the time, based on a three-year sample size of cataloguing every impression.
Matthew Matava, a former physician for the St. Louis Rams and former president of the NFL Physicians Society, said that while there’s value in providing this type of instant analysis, there is also danger.
“Criticism is warranted if treatment options, return to play estimates and other information specific to an injury is rendered by someone prior to the actual diagnosis being disclosed,” Matava said. “There may be associated injuries or other treatment factors unknown to the TV doctor (and general public) that may play a significant role in the player’s treatment and/or prognosis.”
This is a second career for Chao, who resigned from the Chargers amid a rash of lawsuits and malpractice allegations. (He cited a back injury and the desire to spend more time with his family.) He’s been reprimanded by the Medical Board of California and says he hasn’t renewed his certification with the American Board of Orthopedic Surgery. Shortly before he left the Chargers, the NFL players union requested an official review of Chao’s work, and he was exonerated by a trio of independent doctors.
Chao’s medical license remains active, and he sees patients in San Diego. In defending his professional reputation, he said he still performs surgery for NFL players, including recent procedures for Darren Sproles and Danny Woodhead.
Chao, who currently makes what he calls “college fund money” off media appearances and guest columns, knows the change to a subscription model will irk some of his followers. In response to his Barkley post, some called him a sellout. Another chided those critics for not understanding capitalism.
Chao and Dado say some content will continue to be posted on Twitter for all followers. They also say there’s no set date to start charging subscribers.
“Right now, the product is way better than it used to be,” Chao said. “It’s going to get better and better and better, and until we differentiate it tremendously, I’m not ready to put it behind a paywall.”