The Lowest of the Low

I'm used to losing. In fact, I'm an expert at it. In every sport I play I have experienced my fair share of defeat. Cricket, golf, snooker, darts, badminton, football - I can lose at all of them. And no matter how insignificant the contest is (usually completely insignificant), winning is a much more preferable feeling.

I also experience my fair share of losing when it comes to watching football and cricket. So much so that I'm pretty good at taking it on the chin and moving on. Sure, there have been some moments when it's taking a while to get over the disappointment (Mentioning no play off finals against Man City!) but due to the frequency of defeat I can get over it before I even leave the stadium.

However, winning is rather more preferable and I wish that I had been shoehorned into supporting a more successful team. Not that I want to be a glory hunter at all. If I support a team and they become successful then great but I don't want to start at the top because whoever are the best team. That's cheating and wouldn't give me much satisfaction.

On the flip side, I definitely do not want to support a team who are regarded as being the worst. That would be a very unsatisfactory place to start and the gap between 32nd and 1st is something that takes a long time to bridge. So I won't be supporting any team regarded as being the worst.

The NFL regular season finished on New Years Day. As the NFL is split into 8 divisions it is not straightforward ascertaining the full ranking order of these teams and there are 2 methods that seek to solve this issue:

The Draft

One of my favorite things about the NFL is the fairness of it. The worse you are the better players you get to pick for the next season. Every year the teams can pick players coming into the league from Universities/Colleges and the team with the worst record the previous season gets first (and subsequently 33rd, 65th etc) pick. Followed by the teams next in line, all the way through to the Superbowl winners getting pick number 32 (64, 96 etc).

The systems helps the weaker teams get stronger and helps keep parity in the league. It's not an instant fix, but more of a long term investment. For example, 3 years ago Detroit had first pick after becoming the first ever team to lose all 16 of their matches. They picked quarterback Matthew Stafford and his play (along with that of the whole team) has steadily improved since then and they have just reached the play offs for the first time in over 10 years.

Of course it's a bit of a gamble and doesn't always pay off. They are a list of "draft busts" that have been picked early on and completely failed to become NFL standard players. Look up names like Ryan Leaf and JaMarcus Russell for evidence of this. But it does give teams a chance to build for the future and stops the top teams stockpiling the best talent.

Having said that, I don't want to begin my supporting career with the team ranked as being the worst in the NFL! The league decides the ranking order of the teams based upon their overall record and a number of tiebreakers. This season 2 teams finished bottom of the pile with 2 wins from their 16 matches. It then gets a bit more complicated as "strength of schedule" is taken into account, ie who played better teams over the course of the season. Personally, it seems a bit of a silly system but who am I to argue with it. This has lead to the Indianapolis Colts being awarded the first pick of the 2012 Draft and loses them the opportunity of having my support!

Although given that the first pick of the draft is likely to be Andrew Luck they are unlikely to be too unhappy with the outcome. Luck is regarded as being a once in a generation player and the best thing to come out of college football since Peyton Manning...who plays for the Colts and whose injury is the main reason for their terrible season. Cue some easy Luck based puns!

Power Rankings

The Colts may have had the worst record over the course of the season but that doesn't mean they are the worst team at the minute. In fact, their 2 victories were in their last 3 matches so arguably they are more in form than quite a few other teams in the league.

This problem is something of an obsession for nfl fans and journalists. Each week every NFL website , tv programme and journal publishes it current "Power Rankings", a list of the teams in order of how the journalist(s)/fan currently rates each team. It's entirely subjective and it's main function is to provide a talking point for fans and analysts.

The nearest equivalent in football would be trying to rank the 32 teams that qualify for a World Cup. Every team will have had a different set of fixtures coming into the tournament and there will be many different opinions as to the ranking order of teams. There's no right or wrong but it would prompt a lot of debate.

Of course, these rankings can fluctuate enormously. Just 8 weeks ago the Chicago Bears were been ranked around the 5th or 6th best team mark. Cue a couple of injuries and they are now languishing around at 20th.

Similarly to my desire to not pick the worst team based on Draft Order, I do not want to support the team ranked last in power rankings - especially as the regular season has now finished. Nfl.com do a combined Power Rankings based upon the overall consensus of their writers plus the rankings provided by users of their site. So, it's been contributed to by a vast amount of people. Therefore, it makes sense to use their rankings to eliminate my next team. As it goes, the general consensus is that the Indianapolis Colts are the worst team in the league despite their recent wins, instead I'm going to eliminate the team ranked 31st on the list so step forward the St Louis Rams.

Can't say I'm overly disappointed by this as they have been perennial struggles for the last 10 years and seem to be one of those clubs that suffers from poor decision making at all levels.

All of which leaves me with 29 teams to choose from...

I Hate You

Are we ever completely neutral when we watch a sporting contest?

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...

Desperately Seeking a Team

Unlike most things in life, the team that you support doesn't come down to a choice. It's thrust upon you. When it comes to football, I'm unfortunate enough to support Gillingham FC. Why? Because my dad took me to a couple of games when I was 6 years old. When it comes to cricket, substitute my dad with my Nan and you've got the reason I support Kent CCC.

There was no real choice in the matter, when you're a child these things just happen. And unfortunately I got addicted to sports, and this became a lifelong pursuit rather than a childhood obsession. I'm always partially jealous of the Man Utd/Chelsea/Whoever's top of the league "supporters" parading around town in their new shirts and ringing Talksport to complain about how they only spent £70m in the summer. For them, Saturday afternoon equals a few hours in a pub watching an illegal feed from Norway or an occasional glance at score updates on a phone. I'm even more jealous of the fans of these clubs who go to every game, they go in expectation of a victory and some high quality entertainment. Last Saturday I went to Macclesfield and sat in the snow watching a dire game of football between two largely incompetent teams who could have played all day without troubling either goalkeeper.

But, and it's a fairly illogical but, I wouldn't swap positions. It's all about caring. I don't go to watch football every week, but when I don't, I still care deeply about the the outcome. And I have done for the best part of my life.

Of course, I wish my dad had taken me to an Arsenal or Liverpool game when I was 5 but he didn't...and that's just the way it is.

And I'm the same as millions of other sports fans. Watching games as a neutral is all well and good (and a lot more relaxing!) but it doesn't beat the drama and emotion of watching your team play. Until recently cricket and football were the only 2 team sports I avidly followed. I watch a lot of other sports like snooker, golf, darts and tennis, but it's harder to develop a support for an individual. The individual is a snapshot in time and won't be around for too long, whereas the team is a constant. True, I do cheer for individual players on occasion but the reality is that I'm cheering for the club. The club will be around long after the players have left and forgotten they even played for the club.

But what if you could choose who to support? What is it wasn't thrust upon you? What if it was entirely up to you?

It's an unlikely scenario as most people develop their love of a sport at a young age. Usually introduced by family or friends, by the time we become adults we've usually decided which sports we like and don't like and subsequently who we follow.

This was the case for me, until 2007 when I started watching American Football. I'm not entirely sure why I started. There's no great moment when it clicked for me. All I know is that I watched the first half of the Superbowl and I enjoyed it. I'd never previously giving the game a chance and had no real idea of the rules or the players. I knew a quarterback threw the ball and a receiver caught it, but that really was the extent of my NFL knowledge. I'd heard of some of the teams, but, as I'd only recently got Sky Sports, my access to the sport was minimal at best.

Since then I've slowly developed a great affinity with the NFL, I've been to 3 Wembley games, play in 3 Fantasy leagues each season, regularly listen to NFL podcasts and spend my Sunday evenings avidly watching Sky Sports whilst following all of the games on my laptop. In fact, in my hierarchy of favorite sports I'd now rank American Football 3rd behind football and cricket.

But I've still not found a team to support. I've tried to get behind a team but I can't pick one and thus can't develop a passion for any of them. Sure, I sometimes watch games and sway towards wanting one team win, but I'm never that bothered about the outcome. I want to support a team because I want to watch matches and be partizan, I want to care about the outcome and develop an attachment that will stick.


So, I've got 2 objectives. Firstly, I need to find a team to support and secondly I need to support them! For the uninitiated, there are 32 NFL teams and I'm going to include all of them in my list of potential teams. The current regular season finishes in early January, followed by the playoff and Superbowl. I don't want to start supporting a team this late in the season so my aim is to find a team to support before the start of the 2012 NFL season in September.

I will try and eliminate one or two teams per week based on various criteria, before finally finding my ideal team so I can start supporting them in time for the start of the season. A bit like a serial killer movie with 31 teams on the hit list! The season is scheduled to start on the 6th Septemember so I want to find my team before the start of August. Thus giving me roughly a month to get to know the players and the club a lot better. Then it's support all the way. Don't get me wrong I'm not planning on flying out to the US much, my fandon will be pretty much exclusively armchair based! but who knows what will happen in the future!

I'll try not to be too technical about the sport during the process (although sometimes it's inevitable) but instead try to make it a look at how I make my choice and stick by it. And I honestly have no idea whatsoever who I will end up supporting


So time to begin...