All things sporting [3]

Cheers Bungo- but now I feel thicker than usual even for not thinking of tie instead of draw a game
Apart from that similar to a football league chart (PF would be GF - goals for, and PA would be GA- Goals against and we tend to also have GD for goal difference- as this can be crucial in a close season come the end if points are tied between teams)) no streak equivalent though (football fans are assumed capable of working that out themselves!) and I'm still lost as to percentage.
Percentage of what and why are they all '.' something numbers?

Percentage of wins.

So for the Vikings they've played a total of 9 games, and they've won 7. 7/9 = .778

Is there a reason for needing to know that? Like the way knowing the goal difference in football can be important for the final result.
As otherwise surely just wins and loses columns would give all the info you need? (And if you really needed a percentage for some reason you could work it out yourself)

Maybe American fans just like a lot of pointless stats- you certainly get given a lot when watching a live game- possibly so everyone has something to do whilst the bloody game stops for five minutes yet again

Still more entertaining than soccer.

 At least you know roughly when you get to home with proper football- no wonder American football needs cheerleaders and marching bands and singers- its to make up for the game being a sideshow event thats hardly ever actually being played!
It might be a good game but its hard to tell as it never goes on long enough without another bloody break to find out and you have to give up half a day to watch a match Sport designed around tv ad breaks is never a good idea!

There's no significance to the win percentage stat but it can be useful during the middle of the season when, due to bye weeks, not all teams have played the same number of games.  Also, while most games are on Sundays, Thursday and Monday night games make it even harder to compare stats directly at times.  So if you want to compare teams with records of 6-1, 6-2, 5-2, 5-3, and 5-1 (all simultaneously) the win percentage column makes it easier to do so at a glance.

Point differential does show up in some charts showing NFL results, but it's very rarely used as a tie-breaker (there are a lot of other factors considered before it) that a lot of places don't bother listing it.

Pettytyrant101 wrote:Maybe American fans just like a lot of pointless stats- you certainly get given a lot when watching a live game- possibly so everyone has something to do whilst the bloody game stops for five minutes yet again

Football, both fandom and the coaching/playing culture, has definitely been influenced by the prevalence of sabermetrics in baseball.  The rise of fantasy football has pushed stats to even greater prominence just in the last few years.

Cheers for the info Eldo.

what a strange boys thread.

Yankee football does stop and start a lot but I don't mind as the breaks normally show what is going on in other games. I also quite like the tactical element of the whole thing and seeing how it all plays out.

Much prefer it to silly rugby.

DA BEARS!!!!

Had the opportunity to play Football USA style as a kid, we had a US Nuke sub base next to us, so having several thousand USAers on hand really expanded your sports potential. We normally just played touch, but grew bored of that as we grew older. Full contact, no gear other than a ball. Was a lot of fun. Very different from other contact sports like rugby.

For best results, play during a nice Scottish winter, frozen ground, rain, and hail. Good times.

ETA:

RB/WR

I played organized football only for a single year when I was younger, but I did love playing full contact informal football with friends and my brother. I don't think my mom understood why we thought it was fun even though it usually ended with people getting hurt.

Also, that video is great

THE KING IN THE NORTH!!!!!!!

Now that the Ravens have nothing to play for but pride, we were at least still able to pull out a win against the Steelers. At least that rivalry still gets the team fired up. As for the Cowboys ... no comment.

I thought of bungo a couple times when watching the Pack get slaughtered by Arizona and again when Minnesota put a whupping on the Giants. I imagine the NFL has to pick the Minnesota-Green Bay game as next week's Sunday Night feature. That ought to be a good one (unless Rodgers and co. just don't show up again like they did tonight), and probably has the highest/most immediate stakes of any of next week's match-ups.

Quite a mess, but the Vikes are NFC North Champions!

{{{but they'll probably get creamed next week by the Seahawks. Stupid bird teams! [[[Sorry, Eldo ]]] }}}

Congrats, Vikings and bungo! I was thinking of you while watching that game last weekend.

Did Wild Card Weekend always have put both AFC games on their own day (and the same with the NFC games)? I coulda sworn they had one game from each conference on each day.

Gah! I can't watch!

Thanks for nothing Blair Walsh.

Well, NFC North Champs which is what I wanted. Wasn't expecting much, or anything, in the playoffs. And at least they didn't have to play Green Bay again.

{{{Man, but what a tease. Jeez!}}}