Expert Analysis

Sports experts and TV talent shows constantly remind us that the worst time to be eliminated is in a semi final.  If you reach the final and lose then at least you've had your day in the limelight, at least you've made the big one, at least you've had the glory of winning a semi.  Semi finalists are usually forgotten, and when they are remembered, it is for all the wrong reasons -  missing a penalty, dropping a catch, being a British tennis player.  This year we've seen Billy Cundiff and Kyle Williams join the roll of semi-shame.  People don't talk about the fantastic performances form the 49ers and Ravens, they talk about the missed field goal and the fumble.
This all make my penultimate elimination seem like the hardest, so hard that I'm not going to make it...

I'm no NFL expert - you've probably worked that out by now - sure, I know a fair bit and my knowledge is growing at a good rate, but there are plenty of people out there who can wipe the floor with me.  Some of them even get employed to share their views on the sport.  That's the calibre of person I want making this all important decision - somebody who really knows what they are talking about.  Unfortunately, I don't know anybody who falls into that illustrious bracket.  I've got a mate who's been in a few adverts and I saw Alan Pardew at Gatwick Airport last week, but that doesn't make me a friend to the stars.  Luckily, there's an easy way to contact the experts these days - you can tweet them!

Twitter gets a lot of bad press due to celebrities saying the wrong things and, in the wrong hands, a forum to talk openly to the world is a very bad thing.  But in terms of finding out what's going on in the world it's invaluable.  It also allows us to get the views of people who can give us interesting and intelligent opinions.  Which makes twitter perfect for me to get an NFL expert to carry out my semi final elimination.  All I needed to do was tweet an NFL expert and hope they were kind enough to reply.

One of the drawbacks of twitter is that 140 characters is pretty limiting.  As such, I spent a fair amount of time getting  the wording right so I didn't appear to be a nutter, a loser or a stalker (or a combination of the 3), in the end I settled for a succinct:

                 "Be great if you could just give me a short ans: Who would you least like to support - Jets,        Eagles or Lions?"

Add the blog and the recipients twitter address and you've got exactly 140 characters.  Who do I send the question to? Well, seeing as I spend my Sunday evening watching the NFL on British TV, why not ask the people who appear on my screens every week?  So, I sent my tweets to Neil Reynolds, Mike Carlson and Kevin Cadle.  The purpose being that I'd eliminate the team selected by the first person to reply.  But would any of them bother answering my very random and ever so slightly trite question?  Happily, the answer was yes, in fact Kevin Cadle replied very quickly

No man is an island?

Which means I can reveal that the team to miss out on a place in my personal Superbowl are the New York Jets.  "Jets, Same Division as the Bills" were Mr Cadle's exact words.  Which given his very open support of Buffalo comes as no surprise.  To confirm that I was making the right decision, Mike Carlson also replied with "Jets...obviously".  Nothing yet from My Reynolds, so either it's proving a tough decision or he's got better things to do on a Sunday afternoon. I'm thinking it's more column B than column A!

The Jets are the 30th team to depart my search. They are a team I'm fairly ambivalent about, I like Rex Ryan's personality, I think Darelle Revis is the best defensive player in the league but I'm not great fan of Mark Sanchez or Santino Holmes.  The whole Jets sideshow can get a bit grating when it seems to overshadow what's going on between the white lines, having said that it can provide good entertainment when the on field action is distinctly average.

If you've been keeping track, you'll know that my final 2 teams are the Detroit Lions and the Philadelphia Eagles.  One of those teams will earn my support for life, but in true NFL style, I'll be having a "bye" before the final!  I'll be recapping my entire process so far, talking about how the blog will continue and revealing the way in which the final will be decided.
Hopefully, I should have that up on Tuesday with the "Superbowl" to follow on Thursday night.