Fun, Fun, Fun

I've established that winning is important when I come to selecting my team or, more to the point, not getting thrashed every week. But, winning isn't everything, I want to have fun as well whilst supporting my team.

A good team sport requires a form of scoring that has some form of rarity value - football has goals, rugby has tries, cricket has wickets or boundaries. I don't like basketball and one of the prime reasons is that there seems to be a score every 30 seconds - how can you get excited about your team scoring when you know it's probably going to happen again in the next couple of minutes.

In American Football, touchdowns (6 points) are the aim of the game. The only other means of scoring is via a field goals by the kicker (3 points or 1 point for the kick after touchdown), but it's touchdowns that get people excited. On average there are around 5 touchdowns per NFL match, and I want to see my fair share of them!

Luckily, the NFL is about the most stats heavy sport I've ever encountered, you can find out virtually anything about every team and player in the league. Want to know the average kick by the Carolina Panthers punter? No problem. Got a bet concerning which member of the San Diego defense has made the most pass deflections? Easily resolved.

It's an area that has grown beyond comprehension in the modern era. It's useful for coaches when planning for matches and for analysts when talking about them. It's also useful for fans as it gives them a suggestion of what to look for and expect in matches. On a personal level, it's going to be useful in helping me find a team...

I want to cheer for touchdowns...but what's more important than seeing loads of them is avoiding a chronic lack of them. I've sat through more than my fair share of dull sports encounters - the slow, wicketless session of cricket, the drab 0-0 draw, I've even experienced the mind numbing boredom of the longest frame in snooker history! An experience that lasted 83 minutes, during which I was trapped in a silent, dark room, unable to leave my seat. If they ever make another Saw movie, it'd make a great opening sequence.

So, I'm going to eliminate the team that scored the least amount of touchdowns in the 2011 NFL season, in other words the team that generated the least excitement in the league. As it turns out, number 32 on the list is the St Louis Rams - which helps to justify my elimination of them last week.

At the number 31 on the list are the Kansas City Chiefs with just 20 touchdowns in their 16 matches, so unfortunately I'm eliminating them from their search. I say unfortunately because they are the first team to be eliminated that I actually quite like and it's been an unfortunate season for them on the injury front. The lack of touchdowns is partially down to losing their best quarterback, best runner and best defender for large chunks of the season, but I've got to have rules so I won't be supporting Kansas next season...