Put the source, data cutoff and update date beside every football table

A football table can look definitive long after its numbers have stopped being current. An active player adds to a career total, the league corrects a gamebook, or a new record-book edition replaces the one used for the original calculation.

The fix is compact: place a source note immediately beside the table, and distinguish the period covered by the data from the date on which the table was checked or changed.

Source: NFL Record & Fact Book, 2026 edition (printed information as of July 14, 2026). Data through: 2025 season. Table updated: September 22, 2026. Scope: NFL regular season unless noted.

Those labels answer different questions. Do not collapse them into a vague line such as “Source: NFL, updated 2026.”

The four labels a table may need

Label	What it tells the reader	Example
Source	Who published the information and which document, edition or database was used	NFL Record & Fact Book, 2026 edition
Source date	The publication date or information cutoff stated by that source	Printed information as of July 14, 2026
Data through	The last game, week or season included in the displayed values	Through the 2025 regular season
Table updated	When this site last changed or reverified the table	September 22, 2026

The source date and statistical cutoff are not necessarily the same. The official 2026 NFL Record & Fact Book says that information in its printed version is as of July 14, 2026, while its index identifies 2025 standings, results and individual statistics. It also credits the NFL Communications Department and Elias Sports Bureau for compiling the publication and its statistics (2026 NFL Record & Fact Book). A faithful note preserves those distinctions rather than suggesting that every statistic runs through July 2026.

“Table updated” is an editorial date. It does not mean the league changed its source that day, nor does it mean every value covers events through that date.

Put the note next to the table

Readers should not have to hunt through a bibliography or page footer to learn whether a leaderboard includes the latest season. Put the note directly below the table—or above it when the cutoff changes how the figures should be read.

Formal data catalogs make a similar distinction. The U.S. government’s DCAT-US schema defines modified as the most recent date on which a dataset changed and issued as its formal release date. It also provides a separate temporal field for the period to which the data applies (DCAT-US Schema). A football article does not need catalog-style metadata, but its plain-language note should preserve the same differences.

Link the edition or snapshot, not an organization’s homepage

A link to “NFL.com” identifies an organization, not the evidence behind a row. Link to the exact record book, statistics page, gamebook or historical document used.

For a source that changes continuously, add the date it was accessed. DataCite’s guidance for dynamic datasets recommends citing a specific slice or snapshot where possible. If the continuously updated dataset itself is cited, the guidance calls for an access date and time (DataCite guidance on dynamic datasets). A concise football-table note can usually use the access date:

Source: NFL player statistics, accessed September 22, 2026. Data through: Games completed by September 21, 2026. Table updated: September 22, 2026.

Name the last included game date, week or season only after checking what the table actually contains. If the figures were calculated from downloaded data, retain the file or record the query parameters internally; the values at a live URL may later change.

State the boundary that can change the leader

A date cannot repair an undefined category. Football tables also need a short scope note whenever the answer depends on boundaries such as:

• regular season or postseason;
• NFL only or NFL plus AFL, AAFC or another league;
• franchise history or one city and nickname;
• solo, assisted or combined tackles;
• scheduled games or games actually played;
• official league records or a third-party statistical reconstruction.

This is why a tackling table should not merely say “all time.” Pro Football Reference titles its solo-tackle career leaderboard “since 1994,” making its coverage boundary visible (Pro Football Reference). Our account of the NFL’s recorded career tackles leader likewise explains why incomplete early tackle data limits all-era comparisons.

A suitable note would be:

Source: Pro Football Reference career solo-tackle leaderboard, accessed September 22, 2026. Data through: Games completed by September 21, 2026. Table updated: September 22, 2026. Coverage: Regular-season solo tackles recorded since 1994; not an all-era measure.

Match the wording to the table

Use a full date—“September 22, 2026”—for live statistics, corrections and changing venue information. A season label is enough only when the source and table are genuinely season-bound. Avoid ambiguous numeric dates such as 9/10/26.

For a static historical table, use “verified” rather than implying that the underlying event changed:

Sources: Contemporary game report and official league history. Historical coverage: 1920–1922. Table verified: September 22, 2026.

For a comparison built from conflicting current sources, give each source its own access or publication date rather than assigning one date to a compromise. That approach is useful when authorities publish different venue capacities, as in our Forest Hills Stadium capacity comparison.

The minimum source line

If space is tight, retain three elements:

Source: [exact linked source and edition], accessed [date]. Data through: [game, week, season or historical endpoint]. Updated: [date].

Add a scope or methodology sentence whenever a reasonable reader could otherwise misunderstand what is counted. The note should let readers reconstruct what the table meant when it was published—and recognize when a later game, correction or source edition may have changed the answer.