Next time you watch one, I bet on some level you want one of the teams/players to emerge victorious. This is not withstanding any gambling or fantasy league implications resting on the match!
It's usually not a strong urge but there is something that makes you prefer one team over another. And this urge can change from week to week, or even during the contest itself.
Tonight, Wigan play Liverpool in the Premier League. I have no allegiance to either team but I want Wigan to win. Why? No real reason, I just like the way they play and I have a slight deep rooted anti Liverpool bias that festers from the 80s' when the rest of my class at primary school supported them.
It's a largely illogical and intangible circumstance but one that clearly exists when we watch sport. So let's use that as my first method of elimination.
There are 32 NFL teams spread over 8 divisions (Winners plus 4 best runners up advance to the play offs) and the fixture schedule means that teams play each other from different divisions on a regular basis.
If we take a random fixture from last weekend - Buffalo v Miami - then I wanted Miami to win. Why, well first of all it's worth pointing out that it wasn't a particularly strong urge, just that I prefer Miami to Buffalo. I think I prefer the Miami kit and they've got a couple of players (Moore, Marshall, Dansby) that I like. And that's about the strength of it. As it turned out, Miami won fairly comfortable and it had absolutely zero impact on my mood!
It was the same story in all the other games....Indianapolis v Tennessee?... Tennessee please, as I want them to reach the play offs, Green Bay v Kansas, let's go for the Chiefs as I like an upset etc etc. So what if we looked at all the possible fixtures in the league, let's say the fixture computer worked on a week by week basis and just churned out everyone's next match 7 days before it happened, who would I plump for if say Arizona play New England this Sunday (Arizona)? This quickly builds up a table showing which teams I favour over others.
Currently at the top of my list are the Denver Broncos. It's not a massive desire to see them win but currently whenever they play I want them to win. This is largely due to the mystical phenomenon that is Tim Tebow. Even if you don't follow the NFL, chances are that you've heard of Mr Tebow. He's a deeply religious man, who takes every opportunity to advertise his Christian beliefs. He has even been in a Pro Life advert screened at half time in the SuperBowl and used to display bible verses under his eyes whilst playing at college. Usually, he's the sort of individual i'd find pretty annoying and would want to see fall on his face. But there's something magical about Tebow that cannot be logically explained.
He become the starting quarterback for Denver 9 weeks ago, the team were struggling and bottom of their divison. Tebow was known as being a powerful athlete but his ability at throwing the ball was questionable at best. In fact, in NFL terms, it was pretty awful - he takes too long to release and he isn't very accurate. However, since Tebow has started the broncos have won 7 and lost just 2 matches. And along the way, there have been some absurdly improbable victories. The typical Tebow performance involves 3 quarters of incompetence followed by a quarter of magic, luck and some inexplicable mistakes by opponents.
It has provided some amazing spectacles and despite my better judgement I find myself warming to the Denver no15. The expert opinion says that the magic cannot continue and soon he will get exposed for the below average player he is. But in the meantime it's a fantastic story and I'm firmly on his (and Denver's ) side. And when it's all over and they change quarterbacks and go back to being a middling team again? I'll probably be more ambivalent to their chances and they'll slip back into the middle of my rankings.
Other teams I generally route for include San Francisco and Seattle. San Francisco because they are greatly improved this season and in Alex Smith they have a quarterback who seems to be a genuine person who is getting the very best out of his talent. Previously regarded as a folop, Smith has been turned into a very serviceable NFL player by his coach and has helped the 49ers into the play offs. In many ways I admire that more in a sportsman than I do the uber talented stars who make everything look easy. Couple that with some other strong players and a penchant for making big plays and I'm definitely pro San Francisco this season.
There are similar insignificant reasons for liking a few other teams, it's nothing that will lead me to support them but it tips the balance when i'm watching a match.
Moving down the list of teams, there are the teams that i'm fairly ambivalent towards, like Tennessee, Atlanta and St Louis. Whether I want them to win or not largely boils down to who they are playing and the relevance to the season. For example, I'd like Tennessee to win their next games as it will make the race for the playoffs very close and lead to a more exciting end to the season.
Then you get to the bottom few teams, the ones I generally like to see lose for very minor reasons. Don't like their kit, got a player I don't like, fans are annoying etc. I think it'd be wrong to discount all of these teams from my quest, as my reasons are pretty small. For example, I currently like to see the New York Jets lose, for no other reason than I find their coach Rex Ryan a bit obnoxious. But i'm sure if they ended up being my chosen team then I would learn to see his antics in a more positive light.
However there is one team that seems to always invoke my dislike and who I always like to see lose and for that reason the first team i''m eliminating from my quest is the Pittsburgh Steelers.
My dislike of the Steelers goes back to the 2009 Super Bowl. The Arizona Cardinals were the underdogs going into the contest and generally regarded as the weakest team to ever reach a Super Bowl. I, along with almost every neutral, was firmly behind them and they played a superb game only to be denied by a last minute Pittsburgh touchdown.
From that moment on I've found myself firmly in the anti Pittsburgh camp. Their fans wave yellow towels to encourage the team, a largely innocent and unique gesture..but one I find irrationally annoying. Their quarterback Ben Rothlesberger is one of the best in the league, but for some reason I can't stand him. Ditto their defender James Harrison (pic) - great player but find him very dislikeable, mainly due to fouls like the one pictured!
So try as I might I don't think I could bring myself to support Pittsburgh, and whilst there's no real logic to that stance, I'm sticking by it! So Pittsburgh can be eliminated and that leaves me with 31 teams to choose from...
No comments:
Post a Comment