Election day on the sports page?

[resqgeek]

In an astonishingly credulous piece on the front page of the sports section of today's Washington post is a chart that correlates the pre-election day Washington Redskins game results to the outcome of the presidential election. The caption reads: In 16 of the 17 presidential elections since the Redskins moved to Washington in 1937, the incumbent party has kept the White House when the Redskins won their final home game before the election. The lone exception: President Bush's victory over Sen. John Kerry in 2004.

But I have to ask, what's the point? Is there any reason to expect any sort of causal relationship here? I certainly can't think of any plausible reason why these two sets of results have any meaningful causal relationship. While they have correlated amazingly well, it strikes me as a case of finding patterns because we want them to be there. Note for example, that the football results are the last home game results rather than the last game prior to the election. How does the pattern change if we use the road games instead of the home games? But nothing in the chart in the paper even hints at these questions, but leaves it up to the reader to figure out on their own.

For the record, this year's last home game before the election was last night's loss to the Steelers.

Comments

[lizmopuddy.livejournal.com]

Well if Obama wins, you'll know there must have been dirty dealings in 2004!!!!

[o-jenny.livejournal.com]

Silly.

I did watch the game though. ;)

[miketroll.livejournal.com]

I suspect there's a correlation between a high proportion of home games won by the Redskins and a high proportion of incumbent party wins. But that's not a lot more amazing than the observation that, on every single occasion the sun shone on election day, the sky was blue.

[emperor-fool.livejournal.com]

Oh, for heaven's sake! You know, my cat ate a leaf yesterday and threw up. In four of the last five elections, if my cat has thrown up the day before election day, the incumbant party has retained its majority in the Senate. *rolls eyes*

[resqgeek]

LOL! We've got to alert the media! A cat that can predict elections...now that's boost the ratings...

[elhamisabel.livejournal.com]

I guess this kind of pattern guess work is an integral part of sports. I cannot count how many times I was sitting in front of the TV listening to an idiot (aka presenter) telling the viewers that this or that team has won/lost the match every 5th time/10 years/ uneven year they arrived in the finals so this time they will probably lose/win.

You see, they have to fill up TV time/newspaper pages. They are bound to come up with some idiocy.