Our enquiry editor , Sandy Wood , reads the newspaper with a red pen – even theUSA Todaysports section , apparently , because in the course of study of his after - the - fact checking this weekend , he found a doozy of a misapprehension :
" Like many of you , I take part in a ' favorable ' fancy football league each week , so I made certain to pick up last Friday ’s USA Today , which included a 22 - Sir Frederick Handley Page trailer of the NFL time of year - and noticed something very , very wrong .
In 2005 , there were bad teams . atrocious team . Four of them , the Titans , Raiders , Packers , and 49ers , went 4 - 12 . The Saints went 3 - 13 , and the Texans went 2 - 14 . But USA Today predicted that 2006 would be attend up for , oh , just about everybody . The only teams they thought would go 5 - 11 this time of year were the Texans , the Bills , and the Rams . The 49ers were foreshadow to bring up the rear at 4 - 12.Okay , so fewer horrible teams must mean few great ones , right?Or at least a higher - than - normal share of team with middling phonograph record like 7 - 9 and 6 - 10 .
Per USA Today , the Colts will go 14 - 2 , the Panthers 13 - 3 , the Broncos , Patriots , pirate 12 - 4 , and the Steelers , Dolphins , Bears , and Falcons will end up 11 - 5 .
The overall numbers bring up to a mathematical impossibility .
To check the mathematics , I total up the profits and losses in USA Today ’s jut out final 2006 NFL standings . The AFC , the calculations revealed , will go 138 - 118 . That ’s potential with all the inter - conference games , but it would intend the NFC would have to go 118 - 138 , giving the conference a 256 - 256 overall disk . For every game an NFL squad wins , there has to be another NFL team that lose . But USA Today ’s NFC predictions also resulted in a 138 - 118 record . Huh . They’re seek to separate us that this year , NFL teams will make headway 276 games , but only lose 236 of them . Sorry , guys .
I ’d wish to believe that USA Today simply wants all of us to believe that all of our teams are move to gain a game or two more than they actually will . Fans feel practiced when their favorite team performs well than have a bun in the oven .
But really , I recollect they just did n’t do the math . "
