Heads or Tails?

I've debated whether to include this elimination method since I started the blog. It's a pretty inane topic and I wasn't sure I'd be able to get much out of it.  In the end I decided I'd go with it, as luck is a key element in picking a team - after all, it's just be chance that somebody turns on a TV, watches a team play and starts supporting them, it's by chance that somebody gets taken to watch a team play and starts supporting them.  On another day, something else would happen and that person would support another team.  With that in mind,  I'm going to eliminate a team by pure chance. More precisely, by the toss of a coin.

A coin toss is part of many team sports. In some, it is largely insignificant, but in others, like cricket, in can help to shape the course of a game.  If conditions are going to deteriorate then it's wise to bat first. If it's a gloomy morning then have a bowl.  It's often the difference between winning and losing.  The importance of the toss was taken to it's extreme in a club cricket match I played in when I was about 17.  Our captain went out for the toss with the opposition captain.  He tossed the coin.  Other skipper calls. The coin lands and our captain picks it up immediately and declares that he is going to bat first.  He gets about 5 yards before the he's called back, as the opposition captain didn't see the coin after it landed, so thinks he is being lied to!  After a brief argument, there is the unusual spectacle of a "re toss".  I'm not revealing whether or not our captain was lying, but let's just say that he returned to the pavilion with a rather embarrassed look on his face.

Toss fans gather at SuperBowl 42

In the NFL, the coin toss is more of a ceremonial procedure and in regulation time it's not very significant to the game, sure it gives one team a choice of whether to start with the ball or not but that's doesn't matter overly in the context of the game.  That doesn't stop a multitude of players and officials standing in the middle of the pitch for it. Some fans even cheer when their team wins the toss!  I can only assume these people are so overcome with excitement that even the slightest thing will push them over the edge. "Oh my God! Its heads! We're going to win this game now!"
Of course, if a game goes to Overtime then the coin toss is a lot more vital.  Getting the ball first is a massive advantage when it's a "first score wins" scenario.  This point was illustrated in the Denver-Pittsburgh play off game in January. Denver win the toss, some bloke called Tim Tebow throws the ball 80 yards from the first play and Denver wins.

The most famous toss in the NFL (insert your own joke here) occurred on Thanksgiving Day in 1998.  At the start of overtime, the referee heard Steeler's captain Jerome Bettis call heads, so awarded the toss to the opposing Lions. Bettis claimed he'd called tails and a controversy was born.  Naturally, the Lions went and won the game and the incident is still a bone of contention in Pittsburgh.

The only other toss of note I could find from NFL history was this from the Green Bay Packers v Chicago Bears
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x30zecUWhMc


I can confidently predict that will be no controversy during my tossing. To eliminate a team I will be conducting a 16 team knockout competition in which the "winning" team will be knocked out of contention. All teams winning their toss will progress to the next round.  To bracket the contest I have simply put the 16 remaining teams in alphabetical order and made the top team heads.  Please note that nobody else is in the room with me to witness this sad spectacle:

1st Round
Atlanta v Buffalo                                Houston v Minnesota
Carolina v Cincinnati                          New York Jets v Philadelphia
Dallas v Denver                                 San Francisco v Seattle
Detroit v Green Bay                          Tennessee v Washington

Quarters Finals
Atlanta v Carolina                             Houston v Philadelphia
Dallas v Green Bay                           San Francisco v Tennessee

Semi Finals
Carolina v Dallas                               Houston v San Francisco

Final
Dallas v Houston

Winner and team to be eliminated is...

Dallas Cowboys

Sorry Dallas, bit of a harsh elimination but I had committed to the idea.  For fans of coin tossing I used a 50p piece for the earlier rounds but upgraded to a £2 coin for the final to give it a bit more gravitas.  I was flicking with my left thumb and the coin was landing on a wooden table.  No animals were harmed during the contest.

Dallas are a team I'm not particularly endeared to so I can cope with losing them from the hunt.  There's something a bit grating about a team with an owner who has his own press conferences post match!  On the flip side, if I ever happened to go to a match in the US then Cowboy Stadium would be number one on my list.

After that somewhat dull exercise, I'm down to 15 teams and ahead of schedule. This is a good thing, as the more time I've got to build up my support before the 2012 season the better.  Next time, I'll be writing about the things that really annoy me in the NFL...