Abstract

Background Increased ambient temperature has been implicated in increased physical aggression, which has important practical consequences. The present study investigates this established relationship between aggressive behavior and ambient temperature in the highly aggressive context of professional football in the National Football League (NFL).

Methods Using a publicly available dataset, authors conducted multiple hierarchical regression analyses on game-level data (2326 games).

Results The analysis revealed that temperature positively predicted aggressive penalties in football, and that this relationship was significant for teams playing at home but not for visiting teams.