Football game simulation

I'm working on a text-based football simulation game along the lines of Football Simulator. Below is a subset of my total code, specifically the functions used to create a new player. I also have functions (not shown) to create a new coach, create the teams, create the weekly schedules, etc. I'm hoping to be able to use the feedback I get here to improve those sections as well.

Before anyone suggests storing the data in a database, I started out that way, but ending up opting for dictionaries/lists instead for several reasons, so please try to look past that.

Anyway, here goes. The biggest thing I'm struggling with is having to pass a list (person_data) of all the parameters needed by create_new_player. I don't feel it's efficient to have to build up a list before calling the function, pass it, then have to deconstruct it inside the function. I know using global variables isn't recommended, so I'm not sure if there are any other options. I have to do similar things (albeit using a list of different parameters) for my other functions. I appreciate all feedback you may have.

EDIT: I made a mistake in my original post, I use player_id_index to keep track of how many players have been created, so that the next time I call create_new_player it starts where the previous one left off, even though it's not shown below.

```
# python3
import csv
from random import choice, randint, gauss

def create_names_first_data():
'''
create a list of all possible first names using text file as source data
'''
first_names = []
filename_first = 'resources/names_first.txt'
with open(filename_first, 'r') as file_to_open:
for line in file_to_open:
data = line.split()
new_name = data[0]
first_names.append(new_name)
return first_names

def create_names_last_data():
'''
create a list of all possible last names using text file as source data
'''
last_names = []
filename_last = 'resources/names_la

You don't need to define and increment the player_id_index variable outside of the for loop:

player_id_index = 0
player_dict = {}

for _ in range(5000):
    player_id_index += 1
    new_player = create_new_player(person_data)
    player_dict[player_id_index] = new_player

Just do:

for player_id_index in range(1, 5000):
    player_dict[player_id_index] = create_new_player(person_data)

Or reduce it all to this dict comprehension:

player_dict = {id_: create_new_player(id_) for id_ in range(1, 5000)}

Unpack the tuple in the head of this for loop to make it more readable:

for i in zip(positions_list, probability_list):
    position_probabilities.extend([i[0]] * i[1])

for position, probability in zip(positions_list, probability_list):
    position_probabilities.extend([position] * probability )

Python 3.6 offers you the new random.choices function:

positions_list = ['QB', 'RB', 'WR', 'TE', 'OL', 'DL', 'LB', 'DB', 'P', 'K']
probability_list = [5, 6, 10, 5, 15, 15, 12, 13, 2, 2]
position = random.choices(positions_list, probability_list, k=1)[0]

In create_states_data I think this would look a bit more readable (you could also use a dict comprehension here, but it'd look a bit dense):

for i in reader:
    states[i['state']] = {'abbreviation': i['abbreviation'],
                          'population': i['population'],
                          'towns': {}}

Regarding the global variables first_names_list, last_names_list etc., since you don't mutate them later, they are global constants. You can just access them in the create_character function and don't have to pass them. The convention is to use uppercase names for constants to signal to other programmers that they mustn't be changed, e.g. FIRST_NAMES_LIST.

StackExchange Code Review Q#159360, answer score: 3