0-16

Part of being a librarian is having a familiarity with statistics. Knowledge of where and how to find statistics is part of the job description. Statistics are also a part of our everday lives, from the price of gas to stock prices.

One statistic that you have probably heard a lot about in the last week has been 0-16. This figure has been widely reported in all avenues of the news media, including on venues that are not sports related. 0-16 refers to the the record of the Detroit Lions football team of the National Football League. Losing Sunday, the Lions became the first team in league history to lose all 16 regular season games.

Several teams have had perfect losing seasons in the history of the league. Perhaps the best known is the 1976 Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Bucs went 0-14 that year. However, the Bucs had a bit of an excuse. That year the Bucs were an expansion team, not expected to compete. (Note that the NFL expanded its regular season to 16 games in the late 1970's.) The last pure 'defeated' season before the Bucs was during World War II.

Several teams have gone winless but have managed to get a tie over the course of a season. The Dallas Cowboys, in their first year, went 0-11-1. More common is the dreaded 1-15 season, a mark achieved by several franchises, including the Patriots, Colts, Dolphins, and Jets, all of whom currently or once played in the AFC East Division. The Miami Dolphins spoiled some fans idea of the ultimate season when they won their singular victory late last year, ending the notion of having one team go undefeated in the regular season, the Patriots, with another going undefeated. The Panthers once went 1-15, winning their first game and losing the rest. The 1989 Cowboys were perhaps the most famous of the 1-15 teams, winning the Super Bowl just three years later.

One great website for football statistics is Pro-Football-Reference.com. This website contains a plethora of information on coaching records, draft picks, and player stats. And most statistics are better than the dreaded 0-16.

JWF