Release nflreadr 1.4.0 · nflverse/nflreadr

This release addresses bugs, improves some utilities, and adds a few new datasets.

New Datasets

load_player_stats(stat_type = "defense") added to provide defensive player stats
as computed by nflfastR::calculate_player_stats_def() (#200) It also comes with
a data dictionary, courtesy of @mpcen (#192)
load_ftn_charting() adds manual charting data for 2022-onwards, graciously
provided by FTN Data. This should automatically be updated when published
by FTN, and the early indication is that it will be within 48 hours after a game
has finished.

nflverse_sitrep() and friends overhauled:
- now returns a list of sitrep attributes rather than only printing to console (for programmatic use)
- now checks CRAN and r-universe to tell you if your installation is behind cran or devel
- now handles dependencies for nflverse/ffverse packages that are not on CRAN
nflreadr::most_recent_season() and aliases get_latest_season, get_current_season
etc now use March 15th as the changeover for league year. Hopefully this is not
a moving target 🙃
nflreadr::clean_homeaway() now handles columns with suffixes _home and _away
nflreadr::nflverse_game_id() now accepts old team abbreviations and outputs useful errors.
Added .for_cran() to limit parallelization in CRAN examples and tests
make_nflverse_data_class() now uses data.table::setattr() to preserve data.table pointer

Clarified description of the "special" variable in the play-by-play data dictionary. (#189)

Thank you to @ak47twq, @alecglen, @andycancapital, @bullaspc, @mcarman8, @mpcen, @mrcaseb, @tanho63, @tashapiro, and @TheMathNinja for their questions, feedback, and contributions to this release