NFL 2009 parity wheel.

So there was an online post of an NFL 2010 parity wheel created by danchan22 at Reddit. It basically shows a cycle in which every team has won a game against the next team in the sequence. All 32 teams are present, so the wheel represents 32 games in which every team has one exactly win and exactly one loss. Here is a link to the wheel:

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/early-lead/2010/11/nfl_parity_exists_because_ther.html

Now I saw a post where someone stated "the complete win-lose circle actually happened for the first time ever in NFL history". The seemed extremely unlikely to me. The majority of teams in any given year end up with roughly the same number of wins as losses. Last year 13 out of the 32 teams ended with at least 7 wins and at least 7 losses. Thats about 40%. Those teams will be very easy to fit into a parity wheel

Now what is tricky is the teams with either very few wins or losses. But that just means finding those games that the teams with winning records lost and the games teams loosing records won and fitting those into a wheel. Now this might mean the wheel is not easy to find. But that doesn't mean it won't exist.

Clearly there are seasons that do not have such a wheel. The 72 dolphins were 12 and 0. The 2008 Lions were 0 and 16. If a team doesn't have one win and one loss a wheel won't exist. But last year the St Louis Rams were 1 and 15 with their only win over the Lions. That means if a wheel exists that Lions-Rams game must be in that wheel. So does a wheel exist for the 09 season? It turns out one does.


I haven't made it up as pretty as danchan22, but this is a parity wheel for the 2009 season. Each team won at least one game against the NEXT team on the list. The final team (the Rams) beat the first team (the Lions) as already mentioned:

1) Detroit Lions
2) Washington Redskins
3) Denver Broncos
4) San Diego Chargers
5) Cleveland Browns
6) Jacksonville Jaguars
7) Houston Texans
8) Cincinnati Bengals
9) Baltimore Ravens
10) Kansas City Chiefs
11) Pittsburg Steelers
12) Tennessee Titans
13) Miami Dolphins
14) New England Patriots
15) New York Jets
16) Carolina Panthers
17) New Orleans Saints
18) Buffalo Bills
19) Indianapolis Colts
20) Arizona Cardinals
21) Seattle Seahawks
22) San Francisco 49ers
23) Chicago Bears
24) Minnesota Vikings
25) New York Giants
26) Dallas Cowboys
27) Oakland Raiders
28) Philadelphia Eagles
29) Atlanta Falcons
30) Tampa Bay Buccaneers
31) Green Bay Packers
32) St Louis Rams

There is a quick way to check if my work here is right. Here is a link to the season:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NFL_2009#Final_regular_season_standings

Pick your favorite team and click the "Details" link by their record. Scroll down to season schedule. Teams in green are from games won and teams in red are from games lost. You should be able to find the NEXT team on the above list highlighted in green. Click on that team and repeat with the next team. This list should take you to all 32 teams exactly once.

Now note that the team you need to click might have split two games. So for 23) Bears the next team is the Vikings. The Bears lost to the Vikings on Nov 29th they won the second game on Dec 28th. The Vikings link will be red because of the first loss, but this won't be a problem because the second game where the Bears won will be the game on the wheel. Also the Giants won both there games over the Cowboys so either game would fit this wheel.


My next question would be does such a wheel exist for the 1985 season? That list would have the Bears at the top and the Miami Dolphins at the bottom representing the Bears only loss.