Things That Won't Impact The Super Bowl's Outcome

I’m hearing/reading some things about the upcoming Super Bowl that are not true. It’s too long between now and the game for analysts to resist trotting out the same old, tired analysis. The fact of the matter is… these are the two best teams in the league all season long, and it should be a close game.

Here, for your reading pleasure, is my list of things being talked about that will have no impact on the game:

1. The Citizens’ of New Orleans love for their team

You cannot tell me—with a straight face—that the will of the citizens of New Orleans for their team to win can have any actual impact on whether their team wins or not. Ditto for the Katrina disaster playing any part. It’s a great story… great city… plenty of things to like about the Saints. But suggesting there is some karmic payday coming their way because of the hardship they’ve faced is dumber than dumb. And if New Orleans is owed any karmic payday—as they probably are—the idea that it should come in the form of a professional sporting victory is laughable. Stupid in fact. Would a Super Bowl victory for the Saints have any positive effect on the city? Sure… probably… in the form of hope and pride and bonding. But in terms of providing housing for people? Jobs? Not so much. Sometimes we greatly exaggerate the power of sports… and this is one of those times.

2. The Colts running game

I think the Colts have won enough games without stellar rushing numbers to warrant the assumption that they don’t need to run to win, at least this year. Also, they just beat the best defense in the league against the run—who is also the team with the NFL’s best rushing attack… and they outrushed them and averaged nearly 5 yards a carry. Please stop suggesting the Colts rushing attack is an important factor… it’s not. Also, even if it does matter, the Saints are 21st in the league against the run. Against the pass, if you’re curious, they are 25th.

This game is Peyton Manning versus the Saints… for the most part. If he has a bad game, which is rare this season, there’s probably nothing the Colts can do to win. If he has a good game, which is frequent this year, it can overcome a lot of possible mistakes in other areas of the Colts performance.

3. The color of the Colts jerseys

The hot comment to make now—last night on ESPN radio, this morning in Sports Illustrated—is reminding everyone that the Colts are undefeated in the Super Bowl when they wore the white jerseys… but lost the only time they wore the blue jerseys (the famous “guarantee” game against the Jets). The Colts will be wearing blue for the upcoming Super Bowl.

I’m perfectly willing to continue believing that colors on shirts have no bearing on sporting event outcomes… but if you have some sort of argument or proof that leads you to believe otherwise, I’m all ears.

4. The location for the game being Miami (where the Colts won last time)

I don’t think these players care one bit where the game is played. And I’m not sure there’s any scientific evidence that a team can get a “good vibe” off a stadium just because they won there recently.

5. The Colts travel plans and jetlag

A lot is being made of the Pro Bowl requirements the NFL is holding the Colts and Saints to—they have to be there and make an appearance. But the Colts want to travel to Miami together as a team. So some of the Colts will be flying to Miami for the Pro Bowl, flying back to Indy to meet the team and turn right around and fly back to Miami for the Super Bowl preparations. That’s kind of stupid. But I’ve read some suggestions that there will be jet lag that might affect the Colts players in the big game. But that’s almost stupider than the Colts flying arrangements. Jet lag doesn’t last for seven days. I think their bodies will acclimate long before the Super Bowl.

6. Whether or not I wear my Colts jersey

I received an awesome Peyton Manning jersey for Christmas from some awesome in-laws. It’s the only football jersey I’ve ever owned. I have a few friends who seem to seriously believe that I can jinx my team by not being careful about the timing and occasions I choose for wearing that jersey. Those friends are idiots.

7. The fact that a few players involved in the game have relatives in Haiti

I could simply say that both teams have a Haitian on their roster, so the effect is cancelled out. But I’m not sure there’s much to the idea that “players whose minds are on family that might be in trouble will play out of their minds” theory anyway. But even if you do… it’s cancelled out… offsetting penalties. No effect.

I could probably think of more, but I don’t want this to be some gigantic thing. It just annoys me that so much talk is wasted on stuff that doesn’t matter… and so many useless stats are thrown out as some sort of evidence of something. My favorite stupid stats are the historical ones that cover multiple decades… like Team A hasn’t won a playoff game when the weather is below 30 degrees in over 85 years!! Idiots. I hate that crap.

Thanks for reading my rant.

Championship City

So, the New York Yankees once again win the World Series, ending the decade as they began it. I don't care much for it, but that's another subject.

Instead, I'd like to focus on the decade's champions and the cities that got to celebrate them, because so much of the meaning of winning a championship has something to do with where the fans come from. New York has won the last championship of this decade.

Disclaimer: There are a great many people out there who love to point out that the decade has not officially ended, that because there was no year 0 that a decade starts with 1 and ends with 10. We had this argument in 1999 when everyone wanted to celebrate the new millennium the next year. Sorry, folks, the decade is determined by the first three numbers of the four-digit year, and why can't we just call the year before Year 1, Year 0 anyway? I'm not going to go through the motions of what Jayson Stark did in this article, where he felt the need to put quotation marks around every mention of the word "decade."

Besides, decade means ten years, and 2000-2009 is ten years.

Which city won the most championships in this decade?

Why, this one is easy if you think about it. Boston. Although the Patriots play in Foxboro, we know that the Patriots are the representatives of the closest metropolitan city. The Patriots (3), Red Sox (2), and Celtics (1) combined to score 6 championships for the city.

Los Angeles won 4, all by the Lakers. But if you want to encompass the entire L.A. area, you could include Anaheim's 2 combined championships from the Ducks and the Angels, and L.A. would also have 6.

New York City just won its 3rd championship of the decade, with 2 World Series wins and the Super Bowl-winning Giants. Of course, the Giants play in New Jersey as a New York team. If you would like to include all of New Jersey's teams as part of the NYC metropolitan area, New York came away with 5 championships if you also include the New Jersey Devils, who brought home two Stanley Cups.

Of the 39 championships (there was no Stanley Cup in 2005), these areas took 17.

So who else won multiple championships? Pittsburgh won 3 with the help of two Steelers wins and one Penguins win. Detroit won 3 with the help of the Pistons and twice with the Red Wings.

Tying St. Louis and Pittsburgh? Try San Antonio and those pesky Spurs, with 3 championships in a city that they own by themselves.

That leaves St. Louis (Rams and Cardinals), Tampa (Bucs and Lightning), and Miami (Heat and Marlins) with 2.

After all that, 15 more championships were taken by these 6 cities and that leaves 7 with individual championships:

Indianapolis (Colts), Chicago (White Sox), Phoenix (Diamondbacks), Denver (Avalanche), Philadelphia (Phillies), Baltimore (Ravens), and Raleigh (Hurricanes) round out the rest.

So now we know who won. How many championships did these cities have a chance to win?

Boston had 7 and came away with 6, the lone loss being that Patriots defeat at the hands of the Giants.

Including Anaheim with L.A., that metro area contended for an astounding 9 total, coming away with 6, the Lakers losing 2 NBA titles and the Ducks losing a Cup.

New York's metro area tops all of them, with 11 total attempts. The Yankees lost 2, the Nets lost 2, and the Devils lost 1. The Mets lost 1, but it was to the Yankees, so New York was both a winner and a loser there.

It gets a little more interesting and varied with cities like St. Louis (4 total attempts), which lost a Super Bowl and a World Series (and also won both those things), and Detroit (6), which lost a World Series, a Stanley Cup, and an NBA championship. Pittsburgh went to 4 and came away with 3, with the Penguins losing the 2008 Cup.

The city that had their hearts broken the most was Philadelphia, of course, with 4 total trips and coming away with only 1, losing a Super Bowl, a World Series, and an NBA Championship. Dallas would come away totally empty-handed with 2 failed attempts, the Mavericks and Stars.

The number of once runner-ups from individual cities is massive, starting with Nashville's Titans in 2000, Tampa (Rays), Charlotte (Panthers), Raleigh (Hurricanes), Chicago (Bears), Denver (Rockies), Houston (Astros), Oakland (Raiders), Indianapolis (Pacers), Cleveland (Cavaliers), Orlando (Magic), Phoenix (Cardinals), Seattle (Seahawks), and three Canadian teams who just couldn't bring the Cup back to the promised land: Edmonton, Calgary, and Ottawa.

So, then, I thought, what about the states? I would have to include college sports, too--strictly basketball and football.

It should come as no surprise that the state of Florida won the most. With 6 college wins, 4 of them from the Gators (2 per sport), 1 for Florida State (football), and 1 for Miami (football), combined with the 4 professional wins, Florida took home 10 total. They lost 5 more (yeah, the Gators actually lost in the NCAAs in 2000. It was a happier time). The state of Florida was involved with 15 title attempts.

Then it's California, with 7 wins. USC football won 1, combined with the 6 others previously mentioned. So they lost out on 5: USC (football) and UCLA (basketball), and the 3 other professional attempts, for a total of 12.

Texas went for 7 and got 4, when you include the Longhorns' win over USC to add to the Spurs. Houston and Dallas, what a bunch of losers.

Michigan: 8 tries. Michigan State won an NCAA, so 4 total wins for that state, and an extra loss when they lost to North Carolina this year.

Pennsylvania was all professional attempts: 8, coming away with 4.

North Carolina went for 6 and won 4, with Duke (basketball) and 2 UNC (basketball), along with the Hurricanes win. Losses came from the Hurricanes and Panthers.

And who knew the Sooners went for 4 BCS wins in this decade? Oklahoma came away with 1, over Florida State. They lost to LSU, USC, and Florida.

Ohio's only championships were with the Cavaliers and, perhaps, most memorably, with Ohio State. With the ignominy of losing to Florida in both football and basketball in the same year (2007), they also lost to LSU. They took their lone championship for Ohio when a referee decided some 3 seconds after a play was over to call pass interference in the end zone against Miami in 2003. I know what you're thinking. Screw Miami. That's 1 win with 4 crushing losses.

Maryland took 2 with an NCAA and the Ravens. They lost nothing. To hell with them.

Indiana had 3 tries, when you include the Hoosiers loss in the 2002 NCAAs. Indiana says Thank God for the Colts.

Louisiana won 2 with LSU (football) and that's it.

Kansas: 1 and 1 with a win and loss in the NCAAs.

Arizona: 3, with an NCAA, but still only D'Backs to celebrate.

Missouri: All St. Louis and their 2 wins, 2 losses. Sorry, Kansas City.

Massachusetts: all Boston of course. No need to delve further.

Washington: the lone Super Bowl loss from Seattle.

Illinois, 3, with the NCAAs. They still only had the White Sox actually win.

Connecticut, Georgia Tech (basketball), and Virginia Tech (football) were the lone representatives from those states in any kind of championship. UConn won, the Techs didn't. Sorry, Georgia, Virginia.

New York State, strictly to the letter, took 3 championships: 2 Yankees and 1 for Syracuse. New Jersey won the same amount, if you go strictly to the letter and give the Giants to Jersey. Overall the two states won 6 and had 12 tries between them. In other words, you just add Syracuse's win/attempt to all the New York metro area wins/attempts.

Tennessee went for 2, when you include Memphis, and came away empty-handed.