FRIEND PICK: CHICAGO BEARS

Elizabeth Singer gets the honor of being the first friend to write a guest editorial for this blog. Her comments on my Team Ticker article were a passionate, reasoned appeal for Chicago Bears Fandom. I have re-posted here with added illustrations and links.

LISTMAKER: LARGEST VENUES

Perhaps one of the most important things to consider when choosing an NFL team is ticket availability. If I'm going to be travelling out of state to go see my team, I would want to make sure there were seats available for my, my family, and crew! That's why I'm making a list of the top ten NFL stadiums by capacity for football seating*. Additionally, I took a look at the stadiums with a bird's eye view, courtesy of Google Maps.

*some stadiums have differing seating for concert venues, or multi-sport arrangements. For the purposes of this list, only seating for football games is considered

Information on stadium football capacity from wikipedia.org
Stadium photos from Google Maps

Team Ticker: JAX, NYG, and WAS drop

The Jacksonville Jaguars (JAX) trended down on news that video may exist of Maurice Jones-Drew punching a security guard in the head.

The New York Giants (NYG) dropped slightly with Hakeem Nick's second straight skipped voluntary Organized Team Activities.

Washington's (WAS) stock dropped dramatically after ESPN's scathing opinion piece calling for an end to the organization's continued use of a racist name and logo, and owner Daniel Snyder's refusal to even consider a name change.

FIRST CONTACT

THE EXPERIMENT: SOLICITING A RESPONSE

Yesterday I searched the "Contact Us" sections of several NFL team websites, and wrote inquiries to a few of the teams that are near me, telling whomever reads the comments they receive that I am searching for a team to support, and asking them if they knew of a reason why I should support their team. If a team even responds, that could really add some points in the PROS column.

LISTMAKER: Fattest NFL Cities

What does the weight of the population say about the team? Does the girth of the citizenry indicate the deliciousness of the stadium food, or the awesomeness of the tailgating? This list breaks down the ten NFL team cities that have the highest rates of obesity. See if you can guess the number one, and feel free to comment.

Information on metropolitan obesity from www.governing.com.
Original art by Russell Carey

Team Ticker: JAX up, SF down

TEAM TICKER:

The Jaguars (JAX) trended up yesterday after Chuck Norris advised their GM.

The 49ers (SF) trended down as details of Crabtree's injury were released.

The Redskins (WAS) stayed even as Robert Griffin III said it's his goal to play Week 1, but stipulated "I'm not going to risk my career to play in one game".