espn_cfb_game_player_box: *ESPN College Football Game Player Box Score*

In cfbfastR: Access College Football Play by Play Data

ESPN College Football Game Player Box Score

Description

Get the full per-player box score for both teams in a single college football game – one row per (team x athlete x category x stat), in long format.

Usage

espn_cfb_game_player_box(
  game_id = NULL,
  position_detail = TRUE,
  team_detail = TRUE
)

Arguments

game_id	(Integer required): ESPN game identifier.
position_detail	(Logical): when TRUE (default), fetch the ESPN position catalog once and join it onto position_id, appending the five ⁠position_*⁠ detail columns shown in the Value table. A catalog failure degrades to NA rather than erroring the wrapper. Set FALSE to skip the extra fetch and the join.
team_detail	(Logical): when TRUE (default), fetch the ESPN team catalog (espn_cfb_teams()) once and join friendly team fields next to the team_id column – team_name, team_abbreviation, team_location, team_display_name, team_short_display_name, team_nickname, team_color, team_alternate_color, team_logo_href, and team_logo_dark_href, inserted immediately after team_id. A catalog failure degrades to NA rather than erroring the wrapper. Set FALSE to skip the catalog fetch and the join.

Details

Wraps the ESPN core-v2 endpoint events/{game_id}/competitions/{game_id}/competitors/{team_id}/statistics. This wrapper reads the teams list for the game, fetches the team statistics resource for both teams, and walks the per-category splits -> categories -> athletes arrays – the per-player box-score tree that the team-level espn_cfb_game_team_statistics() wrapper (which walks categories -> stats) drops entirely.

Each athlete entry under a category carries only a ⁠$ref⁠ to that athlete's per-game statistics resource; this wrapper dereferences each unique athlete statistics ⁠$ref⁠ and flattens the nested splits -> categories -> stats tree into one long frame: one row per (team x athlete x category x stat). Athlete display names and position ids are joined from espn_cfb_game_team_roster(); a roster failure degrades to NA names rather than erroring. The long shape absorbs ESPN's habit of adding and retiring stat keys across seasons.

When position_detail = TRUE (the default) the ESPN position catalog (espn_cfb_positions()) is fetched once and joined onto position_id, so the output carries the full position name / abbreviation (see Details).

When position_detail = TRUE (the default), the position_id column (roster-joined per athlete) is enriched with five columns from the ESPN position catalog (espn_cfb_positions()): position_name, position_display_name, position_abbreviation, position_leaf, and position_parent_id. The catalog is fetched once per call. A row whose position_id is missing or unmatched receives NA for all five, and a catalog-fetch failure degrades the whole set to NA rather than erroring the wrapper. With position_detail = FALSE the five columns (and the catalog fetch) are skipped.

Value

A data frame with one row per team-athlete-category-stat:

col_name	types	description
game_id	character	ESPN game identifier.
team_id	character	ESPN team id (competitor id) for the team.
team_name	character	Team nickname; team_detail = TRUE only.
team_abbreviation	character	Team abbreviation; team_detail = TRUE only.
team_location	character	Team location / school name; team_detail = TRUE only.
team_display_name	character	Full team display name; team_detail = TRUE only.
team_short_display_name	character	Short team display name; team_detail = TRUE only.
team_nickname	character	Team nickname label; team_detail = TRUE only.
team_color	character	Primary team color; team_detail = TRUE only.
team_alternate_color	character	Alternate team color; team_detail = TRUE only.
team_logo_href	character	Default team logo URL; team_detail = TRUE only.
team_logo_dark_href	character	Dark-variant team logo URL; team_detail = TRUE only.
home_away	character	home or away.
athlete_id	character	ESPN athlete id (parsed from the athlete ⁠$ref⁠).
athlete_name	character	Athlete display name (roster-joined).
position_id	character	ESPN position id (roster-joined; NA if unmatched).
category_name	character	Stat category key (e.g. passing, rushing).
category_display	character	Human-readable category name.
category_short_display	character	Short human-readable category name.
category_summary	character	ESPN's summary string for the category.
stat_name	character	Internal stat key (e.g. passingYards).
abbreviation	character	Stat abbreviation.
display_name	character	Human-readable stat name.
short_display_name	character	Short human-readable stat name.
description	character	ESPN's description of the stat.
value	numeric	Stat value.
display_value	character	Display-formatted stat value as shown on ESPN.
statistics_ref	character	⁠$ref⁠ URL to the athlete's game-statistics resource.
position_name	character	Position name (e.g. Quarterback); position_detail = TRUE only.
position_display_name	character	Human-readable position name; position_detail = TRUE only.
position_abbreviation	character	Position abbreviation (e.g. QB); position_detail = TRUE only.
position_leaf	logical	TRUE for a most-specific (leaf) position; position_detail = TRUE only.
position_parent_id	character	ESPN id of the parent position; position_detail = TRUE only.

See Also

Other ESPN CFB Functions: espn_cfb_award(), espn_cfb_awards(), espn_cfb_clear_cache(), espn_cfb_coach(), espn_cfb_coach_record(), espn_cfb_coaches(), espn_cfb_franchise(), espn_cfb_franchises(), espn_cfb_futures(), espn_cfb_game_broadcasts(), espn_cfb_game_drive_plays(), espn_cfb_game_drives(), espn_cfb_game_leaders(), espn_cfb_game_odds(), espn_cfb_game_pbp(), espn_cfb_game_play(), espn_cfb_game_player_statistics(), espn_cfb_game_powerindex(), espn_cfb_game_predictor(), espn_cfb_game_probabilities(), espn_cfb_game_situation(), espn_cfb_game_status(), espn_cfb_game_team_leaders(), espn_cfb_game_team_linescores(), espn_cfb_game_team_records(), espn_cfb_game_team_roster(), espn_cfb_game_team_statistics(), espn_cfb_game_teams(), espn_cfb_groups(), espn_cfb_pbp_v2(), espn_cfb_player(), espn_cfb_player_career_stats(), espn_cfb_player_eventlog(), espn_cfb_player_gamelog(), espn_cfb_player_overview(), espn_cfb_player_seasons(), espn_cfb_player_splits(), espn_cfb_player_stats_v3(), espn_cfb_players(), espn_cfb_position(), espn_cfb_positions(), espn_cfb_powerindex(), espn_cfb_qbr(), espn_cfb_rankings(), espn_cfb_recruits(), espn_cfb_season_info(), espn_cfb_season_types(), espn_cfb_season_weeks(), espn_cfb_seasons(), espn_cfb_standings(), espn_cfb_team(), espn_cfb_team_ats(), espn_cfb_team_awards(), espn_cfb_team_coaches(), espn_cfb_team_events(), espn_cfb_team_leaders(), espn_cfb_team_powerindex(), espn_cfb_team_ranks(), espn_cfb_team_record(), espn_cfb_team_roster(), espn_cfb_team_schedule(), espn_cfb_teams(), espn_cfb_unnest_plays(), espn_cfb_venue(), espn_cfb_venues(), espn_cfb_week_rankings()

Examples

  try(espn_cfb_game_player_box(game_id = 401628339))
  try(espn_cfb_game_player_box(game_id = 401628339,
                               position_detail = FALSE))
  try(espn_cfb_game_player_box(game_id = 401628339,
                               team_detail = FALSE))

cfbfastR documentation built on Aug. 24, 2026, 5:13 p.m.