I was in my second year at the University of Guelph when the Guelph Gryphon football team won its one and only national title, taking the 1984 Vanier Cup in a thriller on the turf at old Varsity Stadium in Toronto against the Mount Allison Huskies. After that, though, the program had a long slow decline.
But with back-to-back upset playoff victories over the last two weekends, the program is back! Two weekends ago, the Gryphs upended the higher-seed McMaster Marauders and then, a few days ago, the Gryphs overcame a 24–0 first quarter deficit to score 38 unanswered points against the Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks to get a date in the 100th Yates Cup championship. The Hawks had lost just once all year and my guys were a very pedestrian 4–4.
Guelph had the second lowest seed in the OUA playoff pool but, despite that, gets to host the Yates Cup championship at Alumni Stadium next week. That’s because the University of Western Ontario Mustangs, who were seeded last in the playoff pool (they also went 4–4), beat the unbeaten number one-ranked University of Ottawa Gee-Gees, to continue their own Cinderalla playoff run.
So that’s my first and most ardent football loyalty.
Number two for me are those sad-sack Buffalo Bills who — don’t look now — just evened up their record at 4–4. They’ve now now won three in a row and four of their last five.
And my other football fave — the Green Bay Packers — kept rolling right along this weekend, as well, beating the Kansas City Chiefs.
It’s pretty rare that a football fan gets that kind of trifecta.
And now, for those football fans who really want do some deep thinking, there’s a new study out by an economist at the University of California named David Romer
… who has concluded that football teams are far too conservative in play calling in fourth-down situations.
You don't have to be particularly interested in sports to find Romer's conclusion intriguing: His hunch about human behavior in general was that although people say they have a certain goal and are willing to do everything they can to achieve it, their actual behavior regularly departs from the optimal path to reach that goal.In his analysis of football teams, Romer specifically looked at a single question — whether teams should punt or kick the football on fourth down, or take a chance and run or throw the ball. Romer's calculations don't necessarily tell teams what to do in specific situations such as yesterday's game. But on average, teams that take the risk seem to win more often than lose.