360 Degree Thinking

Amazingly, there are easier ways to find your perfect NFL team.  There was me, thinking that the simplest method was to spend months analyzing numerous categories, looking at lots of different aspects of the sport and eliminating teams one by one.  Then I discover there's a website called nfl-360.com that does it all in the space of a couple of minutes.

NFL-360.com is a great site if you are new to the sport or just want to brush up on the basics.  It's full of information on teams and players, as well as having videos and articles explaining the various positions on the field.  There's nothing too in-depth and if you're an experienced NFL fan you may find it a bit pointless, but for newcomers it's a great "NFL For Dummies" site.  Word of warning, some of the player videos are a bit out of date - Leon Washington at the Jets, Asomugha at the Raiders etc.

The aspect of nfl-360 that is most relevant to this blog is the "Pick a Team" function.  This provides you with 3 ways in which you can pick a team to support.  One of them is an extremely basic game involving you using the space bar to throw a towel in a basket, you are then allocated a random team.  Hmm, I've already done one completely random elimination (the coin toss) so I'm not going to do another one.

The other 2 methods involve answering 6 multiple choice questions and then being allocated a team based on your answers.  One of the roots is a series of sports related questions, the other involves lifestyle choices.  The aim is to find the team that best fits your personality.  Clearly it's not an exact science, but if you want to quickly land a team to follow, there are worse methods out there (I should know, I've used some of them!).  But, I'm not using the nfl-360 process to pick a team...I'm using it to eliminate a team!  I'll complete the surveys until the suggested team is one from my list of remaining franchises.  The questions vary each time you take the test, so I won't just get given the same team every time.  These "out of the blue" eliminations are my favourite as I have no way of making an educated guess as to the outcome, when I find out the winner/loser it's a complete surprise.   Let's begin with the sports questions...

1. Which Gold medal matters most?

One man who can escape from
Revis island

a. 100m  b. 4x100m  c. Long Jump.  Got to be a, it's the one event that everyone watches.

2. You get a free ticket to Wimbledon, who do you watch?
a. Federer  b. Nadal  c. Murray   Nadal annoys me with his time wasting, Fed is past his best so it's got to be the Brit.

3. What's your raquet sport preference?
a. Squash  b. Tennis  c. Table Tennis  I've never played squash, table tennis is fun but tennis wins just because it's better exercise.

4.  What's your favourite extreme sport?
a. Snowboarding  b. Kite Surfing  c. Mountain Biking   Err, none of them but at least I can ride a bike.

5.  Your team scores a Touchdown, what happens?
a.  Scorer shakes hands with teammates and jogs back to the sidelines  b. Scorer leaps over the hoardings and celebrates with the fans  c. Scorer does a dance routine and gets fined.   Boring answer but a is the only one that doesn't incur a fine or penalty! Unless you're at Lambeau.

6.  What is the "money shot" in golf?
a.  The booming fairway drive  b. The long putt  c. The flop shot from an unplayable lie  Got to be c, love it on the rare occasions when I do one of these successfully

I pause before hitting the final answer, this could be my next elimination. I hit enter and "Congratulations, you have picked the New York Giants".  Grr, I got rid of them at the start of February, this could take a while.  Time for some lifestyle questions...

1. What is your favourite thing to eat at a BBQ?
a.  Chicken  b. Ribs  c. Burger    Burger every time, but where's the sausage option!?

2.  You're hungry...
a. Pizza  b. Pasta  c. Steak     All good but if you're asking now then it's c.


3.  Pick a colour
a. Red  b. Blue  c. White    No thinking time, blue.

4.  Favourite Britpop band?
a. Blur  b. Pulp  c. Oasis  Liked them all but for longevity alone it's got to be a.

5.  Your mobile phones is...
a. PAYG  b. Monthly contract  c. Lost  

6.  The music CD is...
a. Awesome  b. Obsolete  c. Expensive   hmm, it's 2012 so got to be b

Again, I pause before hitting enter...the Cleveland Browns.  Man alive, I may have to cancel my evening plans.  Back to the 1st option and let's hope for some different questions! As it turns out I get 4 new questions:

Which of these would you rather be?
a. Wide Receiver  b. Running Back  c. Quarterback  


What's your sports superstition?
a. Socks on a specific order  b. Don't have one  c. Same breakfast on match days.  a, this extends to pads when I play cricket!

Who earns you respect in the Tour de France
a. Yellow jersey  b. Green Jersey  c. King of the Mountains   a - he is the winner after all, until he fails the drugs test.

You are a World Class footballer, are you...
a. Box to Box Midfielder  b. Goal poacher  c. Flamboyant wide player   c, which is ironic to anyone who's ever seen me play.

Time to see my destiny...the sodding Giants again.  Time for a coffee and some more lifestyle options!

Time to pay, do you use...
a. Cash  b. Credit Card  c. Debit Card  

The best drama on TV is...
a.  The Wire  b. Sopranos  c. The Bill   a, fo sho

The answer is...
a. 42  b. None of your business  c. On the tip of my tongue  a, hate sci-fi but have a soft spot for Hitchhikers Guide.

Verdict number 4 is...the Cardinals.  Getting annoyed now.

Matty Ice - He freezes in
January

Anyway, you get the gist, I keep finding another couple of new questions but keep getting given irrelevant teams, this pattern continues for lots more attempts, 3 cups of coffee and numerous shakes of the head.  The only thinking keeping me from giving up is the fact that I keep getting new teams, so it stands to reason that I must eventually get a hit.  Finally I do! After around 20 attempts I find my next elimination...the Atlanta Falcons.

Well, that wins the prize for the most frustrating elimination of them all!  It marked the first time I've come close to abandoning the method and picking something different.  But I stuck with it and finally got myself an elimination.
Big shame to lose the Falcons as I'd expected them to be in for the long haul.  They're a strong outfit and have had some good seasons of late without managing to make the big leap and becoming a Superbowl team.  All of a sudden, I'm down to just 6 teams:

Buffalo Bills, Minnesota Vikings, New York Jets, Houston Texans, Detroit Lions and Philadelphia Eagles.


Which means, I'm getting near the end of the process and my attention has turned to how I can carry on the Blog after finding my team.  I don't want to turn it into a team specific blog, as that will inevitably turn off a lot of people, besides there are some great team sites out there anyway.  Instead, I want to look at various aspects of the NFL and what they mean for supporters.  Some of these will be timely - such as Free Agency, the Draft and Training Camps, whilst others will be broader such as fan culture, rivalries and positions.  I'll also look at player positions, styles of play and predication for the new season.  Then when Week ! comes around I'll be all set to follow my team's Superbowl run. (Note to self - Edit this if Buffalo win)
Obviously, I will have a team to support so the blogs will have some references to this but I'll endevour to keep it in a similar style to my current efforts.

But first I need to find a team!