Saturday, October 13, 2007

Green Bay

In about 30 minutes I begin my trip to Green Bay, Wisconsin to see the Redskins play the Packers. The trip to Lambeau Field has been described as a sports fan's mecca. I have gotten ready for the trip by reading Rick Reiley: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/rick_reilly/10/09/reilly1015/index.html

And the Sportsguy:

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/060825

I am looking forward to giving my opinion on Lambeau Field and the atmosphere in Green Bay. Today I bought a small portable grill, a Packers shirt, and a cheesehead. Also, I have brats, chips, and whiskey ready. Thomas Jefferson once said "Luck falls on the prepared man" so I tried my best to prepare for this trip.

One thing that I think is interesting is that Packers vs Redskins features two Mississippi quarterbacks. That made me wonder what states produced the most Nfl starting quarterbacks. Here is a list of states and the number of starting quarterbacks they produced:
  • California: 7
  • Mississippi: 4
  • Washington, Texas, Pennsylvania, Oregon, Louisiana, Florida, and Alabama: 2 each
  • Tennessee, Ohio, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Iowa, Indiana, and Illinois: 1 each
Note: I used starting quarterbacks from either last week or this week. The starting quarterbacks from Mississippi are Brett Farve, Jason Campbell, Steve McNair, and Cleo Lemon. That means that 12.5% of the starting quarterbacks in the Nfl are from Mississippi. To put that in perspective Mississippi is ranked 31st in population size by state with nearly 3 million residents. The United States on a whole has around 300 million people. That means that Mississippians represent 1% of the United States population, but has produced 12.5% of the starting quarterbacks. By comparison California has around 33 million people, which means that a state that represents 11% of the total population has produced 22% of the starting quarterbacks. That is a very impressive number, but not nearly as impressive as the jump from 1% to 12.5%.

Another interesting stat about starting quarterbacks is that New York with a population of nearly 20 million (7 times as much as Mississippi) doesn't have a single starting quarterback in the Nfl. Neither does Michigan (with 10 million residents), Georgia (9 million residents), or North Carolina (9 million residents).

Now if only Archie Manning's (an Ole Miss legend to put it lightly) kids (Peyton and Eli) were born in Mississippi instead of New Orleans then we would be talking about 6 starting quarterbacks born in Mississippi. As it stands 4 people Qbs born in Mississippi and 3 Qbs who went to Mississippi colleges is an impressive stat no matter how you slice and dice it.

3 comments:

BC said...

You're a jack*ss for buying a Packers shirt and a cheesehead. You are a Dolphins fan. Just because they suck doesn't mean you can play dress up at Lambeau.
Please see Simmons, B. (2004) 20 Rules for Being a True Fan.

Anonymous said...

It's better he's a GB pretend-fan than a Viking one. At least it's a good team. Plus, who can go wrong with cheese and beer?

Kevin Malphurs said...

I read the Sportsguy's 20 Rules for being a true fan: http://proxy.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/020227

and didn't see anything about "playing dress up." I was rooting for the Packers because I was at Lambeau and when in Rome you know. Anyway, I will devout a blog post to your comment. Give me a little bit of time.