Teams of the Decade

Continuing an earlier post on NFL history, I wanted to comment on the teams of this decade.

First the best:
It's actually unbelievably close. The New England Patriots thus far have the best record of this decade, at 101-42. However, the Indianapolis Colts are close behind at 100-43. At distant third is the Pittsburgh Steelers with a record of 93-49-1. Philadelphia is also over 60% for the decade.

The race for the bottom is not nearly as close. At 40-103, the Detroit Lions need to have a perfect season next year to have even the slightest hope of catching the Houston Texans (39-72) for the bottom. Put it another way: Houston didn't enter the league until 2002. So their records indicate that Detroit could have lost every game in 2000 and 2001, and then essentially tied the Texans thereafter. Arizona, Cleveland, and Oakland are also below 40% for the decade.

Damn You Boston

So the Patriots beat the Rams in the Super Bowl a few years back. The Red Sox followed it up with a World Series victory over the Cardinals. No worry, I thought. At least the Bruins and the Celtics are terrible.

Well these days the Bruins are 2nd in the NHL in pts. They have scored more goals than any other team, and they've allowed fewer goals than any other team.

But as all Bostonians (?) know, the Bruins are the second best Boston team in session right now. The Celtics are 27-2 after winning their 19th consecutive game. (Who'd have thought the Patriots would be third, not to mention they're behind Miami via tiebreaker for the division lead!)

So I figured I'd do the work, and I found that the feat ties them with none other than the Los Angeles Lakers for 4th all time. The Celtics play the Lakers in their next game.

Upping the ante, the Lakers also hold the record for the most consecutive games won. In the 1971-72 season, the Chamberlain-led team won on November 5 and didn't lose until January 9, for a total of 33 games and good for a 50% longer streak than the second place team, 2007-08's Houston Rockets with 22. To beat the Lakers' record, the Celtics will have to win every game up through their home-and-home with Toronto on January 11 and 12.

Finally, their one-way magic number against the Nets (currently 2nd in their division) is 41 out of a total of 107 games. So if 38.3% of those games result in a Celtics win or a Nets loss, Boston wins the division. Wow.

To punt or not to punt?

When I read that some whacko high school football coach in Arkansas decided to stop punting for the year, I was a taken back a little.

As I read down the article, however, I came to find he's got a mind for probability and a Class 5A State Championship.

News and Notes

I'm sure you've thought to yourself before how annoying (and similar) the "extreme" graphics employed by CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News are.  Well, if you've ever thought the same thing about their sound effects, you're not alone.

In other news, the Arena Football League is cancelling its 2009 season.  It was, however, quick to point out that it is cancelling only the 2009 season.  Here's my favorite quotation: "This is the farthest thing from the league folding.  This is, in my opinion, just showing us the league will not fold."

Finally, despite my knowledge that it is grammatically imperative to use the word "quotation" where I did above, I felt like losing part of my soul for not using the more conversational "quote."

Football History

So, probably only Bart will be interested in this, but I'm working on putting an Excel spreadsheet together with a win-loss record for each team throughout its history. Long story short, Cleveland is officially regarded as being one team throughout its history. As part of the deal to move the Browns to Baltimore, Art Modell agreed to let the city keep the team's "history," so Baltimore is regarded as a 1996 expansion team and Cleveland is regarded as a 1946 expansion team that suspended operations from 1996-1998. I'd have never guessed.

Ugh

I know you're sad to see Tom Brady out this season, but at least you don't have the Rams. We've got two touchdowns in our last five games. We're also 2-0 this season when scoring 17 pts.

Obama's Increasing Influence

Ha! I go over to RCP and who's praising one of Obama's most recent policy proposals? ESPN blowhard Michael Wilbon. Turns out that after a solid decade of annual debate over the validity of the BCS, the current college football postseason system, Obama is turning the college football world upside with what amounts to a single sentence, uttered twice. Wow.