Eurovision 2011 odds Archives wiwibloggs

The Eurovision Song Contest might be the strangest phenomenon that I love watching. Imagine American Idol, but each country sends one act to perform, ranging from really good to really bad to this song which almost won. To give you an idea of how weird Eurovision is, this song sent by Lithuania in 2006 was a complete joke song… yet, that didn’t even come close to the strangest song of the night, which might be my favorite Eurovision performance of all time and ended up winning the thing.
So what does all of this have to do with the NFL? For the past few years, whenever I’ve posted weird stats, I like to make a Eurovision connection. As it turns out, you can make a lot of accurate predictions on how the season will go just based on what happens in this competition. Last year, I did a thread like this in the offseason; however, because I made the thread before the competition, a lot of the things that I said could not be true. I had stats about Turkey finishing last in the competition, even though they weren’t even in the competition that year. This year, I’m doing it after the competition with things that have actually happened. Everything that I’m writing down took place at Eurovision in 2018, and everything has a sample size of at least 4 (which is good for Bengals’ fans; last year, I made a post with Israel winning Eurovision three times, and the Bengals finishing with the worst record in the AFC all three times). With that being said, how will the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest impact this year’s season?

• Albania has sent a song in the Albanian language four times to the competition. All four times, the Colts made the playoffs AND won in week 17, while the Browns finished last in the AFC North

Year	Albania Song	Language	Colts Placement	Colts Week 17	Browns Placement
2006	Zjarr e ftohte	Albanian	Won Super Bowl XLI	Defeated Miami 27-22	4-12, 4th in AFC North
2008	Zemren e lame peng	Albanian	Lost wild card round	Defeated Tennessee 23-0	4-12, 4th in AFC North
2012	Suus	Albanian	Lost wild card round	Defeated Houston 28-16	5-11, 4th in AFC North
2013	Identitet	Albanian	Lost divisional round	Defeated Jacksonville 30-10	4-12, 4th in AFC North

This year, Albania sent their best song in years, sending “Mall” to the competition by Eugent Bushpepa. In Albanian, the word “mall” means “yearning.” It was just the fifth time that Albania sent a song in their native language. Bodes well for the Colts, and like most things, not so well for the Browns.

• Belarus has sent a song with a one-word title five times to the competition. All five times, the Seahawks not only made the playoffs, but ended up winning a playoff game

Year	Belarus Song	Words in Title	Seahawks in the Playoffs
2006	Mum	1	Won wild card round against the Cowboys
2010	Butterflies	1	Won wild card round against the Saints
2013	Solayoh	1	Won Super Bowl XLVIII
2014	Cheesecake	1	Won 2 playoff games and made it to Super Bowl XLIX
2015	Time	1	Won wild card round against the Vikings

This year, though it didn’t qualify for the finals, Belarus sent the song “Forever,” which has one word in its title. After not making the playoffs last season, this is a really good sign for Seattle this year

• Belgium has sent an artist starting with the letter “S” four times. All four times, the Browns not only won their final home game of the season, and not only won their second-to-last game of the season, but actually made the playoffs.

Year	Belgium Artist	Browns Final Home Game	Browns Second-to-Last Game	Postseason Result
1972	Serge & Christine Ghisoland	Defeated Buffalo 27-10	Defeated Cincinnati 27-24	Lost wild card round
1982	Stella	Defeated Pittsburgh 10-9	Defeated Houston 20-14	Lost wild card round
1986	Sandra Kim	Defeated San Diego 47-17	Defeated Cincinnati 34-3	Lost AFC Championship
2002	Sergio & The Ladies	Defeated Atlanta 24-16	Defeated Baltimore 14-13	Lost wild card round

Keep this in mind with the Browns. Since 1972, in years where Belgium sends an artist starting with the letter “S”, they have made the playoffs 4 times in 4 years. In that same stretch, in years where Belgium does not send an artist starting with the letter “S”, they have made the playoffs 6 times in 39 years. This year, Belgium sent the artist named Sennek with the song “A Matter of Time,” which was a poor man’s James Bond theme. It didn’t qualify for the finals (so if the Browns don’t make the playoffs, we can easily change the stat to “years where Belgium sends an artist starting with the letter ‘S’ and makes it to the finals”), but this is promising for the Browns. Only problem is that you have the Albanian stat working against the Browns, so one of these will come to an end in 2018.

• Croatia has sent a song with no Croatian language in it six times. All six times, a team scored a game-winner within the final 10 seconds of the game in the divisional round.

Year	Croatia Song	Language	Divisional Round Drama
2001	Strings of My Heart	English	Patriots defeated the Raiders in OT on a game-winning field goal by Adam Vinatieri (final play of the game)
2002	Everything I Want	English	Titans defeated the Steelers in OT on a game-winning field goal by Joe Nedney (final play of the game)
2004	You Are The Only One	English	Steelers defeated the Jets in OT on a game-winning field goal by Jeff Reed (final play of the game)
2011	Celebrate	English	49ers defeated the Saints on a game-winning TD pass by Alex Smith to Vernon Davis (9 seconds left; second-to-last play of the game from scrimmage)
2016	Lighthouse	English	Packers defeated the Cowboys on a game-winning field goal by Mason Crosby (final play of the game)
2017	My Friend	English & Italian	Vikings defeated the Saints on a game-winning TD pass by Case Keenum to Stefon Diggs in the Minneapolis Miracle (final play of the game)

This year, Croatia sent the song “Crazy” by Franka, which was only in English, and featured no Croatian language. What does this mean? Expect some drama in one of the divisional round games this year; based on recent memory, expect the Saints to be on the wrong end of history.

• Cyprus has finished inside the top six at Eurovision five times. All five times, the New York Jets had a winning record, and had a record good enough to make the playoffs

Year	Cyprus Song	Cyprus Placement	Jets Record	Postseason Result
1981	Monika	6th	10-5-1	Lost wild card round
1982	Mono i agapi	5th	6-3 (strike-shortened season)	Lost AFC Championship
1997	Mana mou	5th	9-7	N/A*
2002	Gimme	6th	9-7	Lost divisional round
2004	Stronger Every Minute	5th	10-6	Lost divisional round

*- remember that I said that they had a record good enough to make the playoffs. That year, the Jets finished with a 9-7 record, which was the same record that the Miami Dolphins had. However, the Dolphins won the tiebreaker. Either way, the Jets are going to be good this year if that holds up, because Cyprus’ entry this year, “Fuego,” finished second in the competition (and arguably should’ve won). This was Cyprus’ highest finish ever at the competition.

• Czech Republic (still going under that during this competition and not Czechia) has sent an English-only song to the competition four times. All four times, the Cleveland Browns finished last in their division, and the Super Bowl was held between an AFC team that had won consecutive Super Bowls in the past and an NFC team that had never won the Super Bowl before. Sound confusing? Let’s tackle the Browns part first, since that’s essentially the free space in Bingo.

Year	Czech Republic Song	Language	Browns Result
2008	Have Some Fun	English	4-12, 4th in AFC North
2015	Hope Never Dies	English	3-13, 4th in AFC North
2016	I Stand	English	1-15, 4th in AFC North
2017	My Turn	English	0-16, 4th in AFC North

The song for Czech Republic this year was a combination of Ed Sheeran and Jason Derulo that actually worked really well. The song, “Lie to Me,” finished sixth, and had some really good staging, resulting in Czech Republic’s highest ever finish. Unfortunately for Cleveland, their song was in English only, so that’s not good. In fact, if the song has any English in it at all, the Browns finish last in the division; in 2009, the song “Aven Romale” featured both English and Romani elements, and the Browns went 5-11, finishing last in the AFC North.
As for the second component regarding the Super Bowl, the AFC team had, at some point before, had won back-to-back Super Bowls in franchise history. The NFC team, meanwhile, had never won the Super Bowl before that game.

Year	Czech Republic Song	Language	AFC Team	Back-to-Back Champions?	NFC Team	Super Bowl Wins Prior to Game
2008	Have Some Fun	English	Pittsburgh	Yes (IX and X, XIII and XIV)	Arizona	0
2015	Hope Never Dies	English	Denver	Yes (XXXII and XXXIII)	Carolina	0
2016	I Stand	English	New England	Yes (XXXVIII and XXXIX)	Atlanta	0
2017	My Turn	English	New England	Yes (XXXVIII and XXXIX)	Philadelphia	0

As mentioned before, “Lie to Me” was the song this year for Czech Republic. This narrows the Super Bowl down to four teams in the AFC (New England, Denver, Pittsburgh, Miami), and five teams in the NFC (Carolina, Atlanta, Minnesota, Arizona, Detroit). In fact, we can even expand this stat a bit further; if we include any Czech Republic song to feature English and include all championships in the equation (which adds 2009 with “Aven Romale”), then the criteria still fits. The Colts went back-to-back in 1958 and 1959 (pre-Super Bowl era), and faced off against the Saints, a team that had never won the Super Bowl prior to that game.

• Estonia has finished inside the top 10 of the competition with a solo artist four times. All four times, not only did the Denver Broncos and New York Giants finish with a winning record, but the Arizona Cardinals finished last in their division

Year	Estonia Artist	Estonia Song	Placement	Broncos Result	Giants Result	Cardinals Result
1997	Maarja-Liis Ilus	Keelatud maa	8th	12-4	10-5-1	4-12, 5th in NFC East (out of 5)
2000	Ines	Once in a Lifetime	4th	11-5	12-4	3-13, 5th in NFC East (out of 5)
2002	Sahlene	Runaway	3rd	9-7	10-6	5-11, 4th in NFC West (out of 4)
2012	Ott Lepland	Kuula	6th	13-3	9-7	5-11, 4th in NFC West (out of 4)

This year, Estonia sent an operatic solo artist by the name of Elina Nechayeva to the competition. Her performance of “La forza” finished 8th, which is good news for the Broncos and Giants, and bad news for the Cardinals

• Finland has sent an artist starting with the letter “S” four times. All four times, the Dallas Cowboys not won the NFC East, but made it to at least the divisional round of the playoffs

Year | Finland Artist | Dallas Cowboys- NFC East | Dallas Cowboys- Postseason Result --- | --- | --- 1978 | Seija Simola | 12-4, 1st in NFC East | Lost Super Bowl XIII 1985 | Sonja Lumme | 10-6, 1st in NFC East | Lost divisional round 2014 | Softengine | 12-4, 1st in NFC East | Lost divisional round 2016 | Sandhja | 13-3, 1st in NFC East | Lost divisional round
This year, Finland sent Saara Aalto with the song “Monsters,” which surprisingly qualified for the final (largely due to good staging; I can’t tell you a thing about the song itself because it’s quite forgettable). However, seeing as her name starts with the letter “S”, the Dallas Cowboys will win the NFC East and make it to the divisional round. As it turns out, you can predict the entire divisional round on the NFC side of the bracket purely by Eurovision results. You’ll see what I mean as we get further along in this post

• Finland has sent a song starting with the letter “M” four times. All four times, the Minnesota Vikings won their home game against the Detroit Lions by 3 points or less

Year	Finland Song	Vikings Home Game vs. Lions Result
1963	Muistojeni laulu	Vikings defeat Lions 34-31
1972	Muistathan	Vikings defeat Lions 16-14
2008	Missa miehet ratsastaa	Vikings defeat Lions 12-10
2013	Marry Me	Vikings defeat Lions 14-13

This year, as mentioned before, “Monsters” was the song sent by the Finnish. In week 9, pick the Vikings straight up, but if the spread is anything more than 3, take the Lions. You can do that now, no matter what part of the country you live in. It’s perfectly legal.

• France has sent an artist starting with the letter “M” four times. All four times, the Sporting News MVP was a running back.

Year	France Artist	Sporting News MVP
1956	Dany Dauberson	Frank Gifford
1973	Martine Clemenceau	OJ Simpson (AFC)
1977	Marie Myriam	Walter Payton (NFC)
1998	Marie Line	Terrell Davis

Note that for a period in the 1970s, the MVP was split up by conference into AFC and MVP, so two MVP awards were given out in a year (similar to how MLB does it). I didn’t use AP for this one, since the Associated Press MVP did not become a thing until 1957. However, since sent Madame Monsieur to the competition this year, this looks like a year where a halfback will go off and get MVP consideration, even getting named MVP from one publication.

• Since first joining Eurovision in 2007, Georgia has not participated in the finals four times. All four times, the Cleveland Browns… you guessed it… finished last in the AFC North

Year	Georgia Result	Cleveland Browns Placement
2009	Withdrew/Disqualified	5-11, 4th in AFC North
2012	14th in semifinal (failed to qualify)	5-11, 4th in AFC North
2014	15th in semifinal (failed to qualify)	7-9, 4th in AFC North
2017	11th in semifinal (failed to qualify)	0-16, 4th in AFC North

You might be wondering how a country got disqualified at a competition like Eurovision. No political messages are allowed; it hasn’t stopped artists from trying before, but basically, you can’t make it blatantly obvious. Georgia’s song submitted that year was called “We Don’t Wanna Put In”. Combine the final two words of that title into one word, and you can easily see why Eurovision didn’t allow the song to compete. This year, Georgia didn’t qualify, as their song “For You” by the Ethno-Jazz Band Iriao (easily the most boring song of the entire competition) didn’t even come close, finishing dead last in its semifinal. Not good news for the Browns.

• Germany has finished inside the top 10 of the competition with an English-only song four times. All four times, not only did the Buffalo Bills finish last in the AFC East, but the NFL team playing in Baltimore at the time made it to at least the divisional round

Year	Germany Song	Germany Language	Germany Placement	Bills Placement	Baltimore NFL Team	Baltimore NFL Placement
1977	Telegram	English	8th	3-11, 5th in AFC East (out of 5)	Baltimore Colts	Lost in divisional round
2010	Satellite	English	1st	4-12, 4th in AFC East (out of 4)	Baltimore Ravens	Lost in divisional round
2011	Taken by a Stranger	10th	6-10, 4th in AFC East (out of 4)	Baltimore Ravens	Lost AFC Championship
2012	Standing Still	8th	6-10, 4th in AFC East (out of 4)	Baltimore Ravens	Won Super Bowl XLVII

This year, Germany sent an English-only song, “You Let Me Walk Alone.” It was a great turnaround for the Germans, as Germany came in dead last in 2015 and 2016, and finished 25th in 2017. However, with this song by Michael Schulte, they had the highest placement of any Big Five nation, and finished in fourth. Bad news for the Bills, and really good news for the Ravens

• Hungary has finished outside the top 20 of the finals (excluding times where Hungary did not qualify for the finals) four times. All four times, the Atlanta Falcons made it to the playoffs

Year	Hungary Song	Hungary Placement	Atlanta Falcons Postseason Result
1995	Uj nev a regi haz falan	21st	Lost in wild card round
1998	A holnap mar nem lesz szomoru	23rd	Lost Super Bowl XXXIII
2011	What About My Dreams?	22nd	Lost in wild card round
2012	Sound of Our Hearts	24th	Lost NFC Championship

This year, Hungary finished in 21st place with “Viszlat nyar.” Picture a Puddles of Mudd or Ataris song, and now picture it in Hungarian. Because of this, though, the Atlanta Falcons should be able to make it back to the postseason.

• Israel has sent a song starting with the letter “T” four times. All four times, the Colts made the playoffs, the Browns finished last in the AFC North, and the Ravens made it to at least the divisional round

Year	Israel Song	Colts Placement	Browns Placement	Ravens Placement
2006	Together We Are One	Won Super Bowl XLI	4-12, 4th in AFC North	Lost in divisional round
2008	The Fire In Your Eyes	Lost in wild card round	4-12, 4th in AFC North	Lost AFC Championship
2009	There Must Be Another Way	Lost Super Bowl XLIV	5-11, 4th in AFC North	Lost in divisional round
2012	Time	Lost in wild card round	5-11, 4th in AFC North	Won Super Bowl XLVII

This year, Israel sent “Toy,” which ended up winning the whole thing. That’s good for the Colts, once again good for the Ravens, and really bad for the Browns. If you’re betting against the Ravens after back-to-back stats saying they’ll make it to the divisional round, then you’re stupid just like your smartphone (yes, that’s an actual line from the song).

• Israel has sent a song that finished inside the top three of the competition six times. All six times, the Cowboys made the playoffs

Year	Israel Song	Israel Placement	Cowboys in the Playoffs
1978	A-Ba-Ni-Bi	1st	Lost Super Bowl XIII
1979	Hallelujah	1st	Lost in divisional round
1982	Hora	2nd	Lost NFC Championship
1983	Hi	2nd	Lost in wild card round
1991	Kan	3rd	Lost in divisional round
1998	Diva	1st	Lost in wild card round

Additionally, Israel has finished inside the top 10 of the competition eight times with a song that has one word in the title. Aside from the aforementioned six songs, Israel finished 7th with “Halayla” in 1981, and finished 8th with “Amen” in 1995. The Cowboys made the playoffs in 1981 (lost NFC Championship) and in 1995 (won Super Bowl XXX), so anytime Israel does well with a one-word title, it’s a good sign. And “Toy” won the competition this year, so the Cowboys have a lot of positive history on their side. When this season is done, their fans could be dancing on the motha-bucka beat (yes, another actual line from the song; remember that this was the winner).

• Italy has sent a song starting with the letter “N” four times that was strictly in Italian. All four times, the Green Bay Packers ended up tying one game

Year	Italian Song	Italy Language	Green Bay Packers Record
1958	Nel blu, dipinto di blu	Italian	1-10-1
1964	Non ho l’eta	Italian	8-5-1
1967	Non andare piu lontano	Italian 9-4-1
1980	Non so che darei	Italian	5-10-1

This year, Italy sent the purely Italian song “Non mi avete fatto niente,” which means the Packers will tie a game this season if history holds up. Who will that tie come against? This next stat involving Italy might help.

• Italy has finished fifth at the Eurovision Song Contest four times. All four times, the Detroit Lions ended up tying one game

Year	Italian Song	Italian Placement	Detroit Lions Record
1961	Al di la	5th	8-5-1
1965	Se piangi, se ridi	5th	6-7-1
1971	L’amore e un attimo	5th	7-6-1
1984	I trendi di Tozeur	5th	4-11-1

This year, by sending “Non mi avete fatto niente,” Italy finished in fifth place. If both the Lions and Packers have to tie a game this year under this rule, then if you’re going to pick a tied game this year, it’ll be Packers/Lions.

• Malta has sent a solo artist starting with the letter “C” five times. All five times, a team that had never won the Super Bowl before was in the game. This goes along with the earlier stat featuring the Czech Republic

Year	Malta Artist	Featured Super Bowl Participant
1998	Chiara	Atlanta Falcons
2000	Claudette Pace	Baltimore Ravens
2005	Chiara	Seattle Seahawks
2009	Chiara	New Orleans Saints
2017	Claudia Faniello	Philadelphia Eagles

Neither of those five teams had won a Super Bowl prior to playing in that game. This year, Malta once again sent an artist starting with the letter “C,” sending Christabelle with the song “Taboo” to the competition. Though she didn’t qualify for the final, the stat holds up regardless of qualification results, which means that a potential first-time champion will be in the game.

• Portugal has sent an artist starting with the letter “C” five times. All five times, the Denver Broncos improved on their result from the season before, either in terms of regular season record or postseason result

Year	Portugal Artist	Broncos the Year Before	Broncos the Year After
1968	Carlos Mendes	3-11 (1967)	5-9 (1968)
1972	Carlos Mendes	4-9-1 (1971)	5-9 (1972)
1976	Carlos do Cormo	6-8 (1975)	9-5 (1976)
1981	Carlos Paiao	8-8 (1980)	10-6 (1981)
1997	Celia Lawson	Lost in divisional round (1996)	Won Super Bowl XXXII (1997)

This year, Portugal pulled a first-to-worst. Salvador Sobral won the competition in 2017 with the beautiful “Amar pelos dois,” which not only gave Portugal its first win ever, but meant that Portugal automatically qualified for the final and hosted the competition. Claudia Pascoal finished in dead last this year with “O jardim.” Her name starts with the letter “C,” which is good for Denver, as they should improve on their 5-11 performance from 2017. I don’t think that was in doubt anyways, but if you wanted another reason to believe in Denver to turn things around, here you go.

• Spain has sent an artist starting with the letter “A” four times. All four times, the San Francisco 49ers made it to the divisional round, and the Pittsburgh Steelers finished at least tied for the division lead

Year	Spain Artist	San Francisco 49ers Postseason Result	Pittsburgh Steelers Division Result
1990	Azucar Moreno	Lost NFC Championship	9-7, 3rd in AFC North*
1994	Alejandro Abad	Won Super Bowl XXIX	12-4, 1st in AFC North
1995	Anabel Conde	Lost in divisional round	11-5, 1st in AFC North
1996	Antonio Carbonell	Lost in divisional round	10-6, 1st in AFC North

*- I said that they finished tied for the division lead, which is true. That year, the Steelers missed the playoffs at 9-7, and although they finished third, the two teams ahead of them were both 9-7. Cincinnati won the division with a 9-7 record, and the Houston Oilers finished second at 9-7.
This year, Spain sent Amaid y Alfred, and they didn’t do too well, as “Tu cancion” finished 23rd in the final. That’s now four straight years that Spain has finished outside the top 20 (unfairly deserved in 2016 with “Say Yay!”, and completely deserved in 2017 with The Lazy Song “Do It for Your Lover”). That’s pretty good for both San Francisco (as if people needed another reason to hop on the Jimmy G hype train) and Pittsburgh.

• Sweden has sent an artist starting with the letter “B” four times. All four times, the AP MVP was a QB who led his team to the Super Bowl/NFL Championship

Year	Sweden Artist	AP MVP	Team	Postseason Result
1959	Brita Borg	Johnny Unitas & Charlie Conerly	Colts/Giants	Both teams competed in the 1959 NFL Championship
1978	Bjorn Skifs	Terry Bradshaw	Steelers	Won Super Bowl XIII
1981	Bjorn Skifs	Ken Anderson	Bengals	Lost Super Bowl XVI
1997	Blond	Brett Favre	Packers	Lost Super Bowl XXXII

This year, Sweden sent Benjamin Ingrosso to compete, as he finished in seventh place with “Dance You Off.” Sweden is like the Alabama of Eurovision; they’ve finished inside the top five in six of the past eight competitions, and have won the competition six times. The winner of the AP MVP will be a QB who goes to the Super Bowl, and the winner of the Sporting News MVP will be a halfback, if these stats hold up.

• Ukraine has sent an artist going by one name four times. All four times, the Atlanta Falcons made it to at least the divisional round

Year	Ukraine Artist	Atlanta Falcons Postseason Result
2004	Ruslana	Lost NFC Championship
2010	Alyosha	Lost in divisional round
2012	Gaitana	Lost NFC Championship
2016	Jamala	Lost Super Bowl LI

This year, Ukraine sent Melovin to the competition, who is an artist that goes by one game. The Hungary stat already showed that the Falcons would make it to the playoffs, but this is showing that the Falcons will go pretty far. And just like that, you can predict the entire NFC divisional round off of Eurovision

• And finally, the winning song of the competition has started with the letter “T” four times. All four times, the Arizona Cardinals finished fourth in their division, and the Kansas City Chiefs had 2 more wins than losses (which would come out to a 9-7 season in 2018)

Year	Winning Song	Cardinals Result	Chiefs Result
1960	Tom Pillibi	4th in NFL Eastern (6-5-1)	8 wins, 6 losses (8-6)
1973	Tu te reconnaitras	4th in NFC East (4-9-1)	7 wins, 5 losses (7-5-1)
1996	The Voice	4th in NFC East (7-9)	9 wins, 7 losses (9-7)
1999	Take Me to Your Heaven	4th in NFC East (6-10)	9 wins, 7 losses (9-7)

As mentioned a few times, “Toy” won the competition this year, so that means that the Cardinals will finish last in the NFC West and the Chiefs will finish with a 9-7 record
What Does This Mean?
It can be tough to keep track of all of that, so what do all of these stats mean when put together? Let’s go division by division.
AFC East: Jets will finish with a winning record, while the Bills will finish in last
AFC South: Colts will make the playoffs and beat the Titans in week 17
AFC North: Steelers will have at least a tie of the division lead, the Ravens will make it to at least the divisional round, and the Browns will either make the playoffs or finish last in their division (two stats contradict each other); however, the Browns will win their final home game (which comes in week 16) against the Cincinnati Bengals on 12/23
AFC West: Chiefs will go 9-7, Broncos will have a winning record and improve on last season’s total
NFC East: Giants will finish with a winning record, Cowboys will win the NFC East and make it to at least the divisional round
NFC South: Falcons will make it to at least the divisional round
NFC North: Both the Lions and the Packers will tie a game, and the Vikings will beat the Lions at home in week 9
NFC West: Cardinals will finish last, the Seahawks will win a playoff game, and the 49ers make it to at least the divisional round
General: There will be a dramatic finish in one of the divisional round games, the AP MVP will be a Super Bowl QB, the Sporting News MVP will be a running back, the AFC will be represented in the Super Bowl by either the Patriots, Broncos, Steelers, or Dolphins, and the NFC will be represented in the Super Bowl by the Falcons*
*- the four teams in the divisional round out of the NFC from these stats are the Cowboys (Finland stat), Falcons (Ukraine stat), Seahawks (Belarus stat), and 49ers (Spain stat). However, the Czech Republic stat states that the NFC team will be a team that has never won the Super Bowl. Of those four teams, only the Falcons have never won the Super Bowl. Therefore, the Atlanta Falcons will be in Super Bowl LIII in their home stadium according to these stats
Whether or not these weird stats will be right or not remains to be seen. However, I’ll leave you with this song that I have not mentioned yet from 2008, where Ireland sent a turkey onto the stage. That’s Eurovision for you.

I've checked the archives of the website oddschecker.com and went through the betting odds before each contest from 2009 to 2018. Here are the nonqualifiers that had the lowest odds to win the final aproximately one week before the date of the grand final, i.e. about three days before the first semi-final.
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Rank	Year	Country	Artist	Song	Average odds to win the final
1	2015	Finland	Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät	"Aina mun pitää"	16
2	2010	Sweden	Anna Bergendahl	"This Is My Life"	16
3	2011	Norway	Stella Mwangi	"Haba Haba"	20
4	2010	Croatia	Feminnem	"Lako je sve"	25
5	2014	Israel	Mei Finegold	"Same Heart"	33
6	2013	San Marino	Valentina Monetta	"Crisalide (Vola)"	33
7	2014	Belgium	Axel Hirsoux	"Mother"	34
8	2018	Belgium	Sennek	"A Matter of Time"	40
9	2011	Turkey	Yüksek Sadakat	"Live It Up"	40
10	2015	Iceland	Maria Olafs	"Unbroken"	40

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As we can see the three nonqualifiers that were considered the biggest favourites before the contest are all Scandinavian acts. PKN might not have been fan favourites but they had odds as low as 16 and were predicted to place 6th in the grand final of 2015. Anna Bergendahl was also predicted to place 6th in the grand final in Oslo and was considered a safe qualifier. However, she narrowly missed the final by just 5 points and became the only Swedish act in the history of Eurovision not to pass the semi-final. The bookies predicted a top 10 position in the final for Norway's Stella Mwangi but her journey ended in the first semi-final in Dusseldorf where she placed 17th. Interestingly, these three songs would've all qualified if only the televotes had been taken into account.
Another point worth mentioning is that two of the most shocking nonqualifiers come from the same semi-final. In 2010 Sweden and Croatia were considered big favourites by both fans and bookmakers but ultimately crashed in the semi-final of death.
We also see that most of the songs that made the list were either heavy fan favourites (Israel 2014, San Marino 2013, Iceland 2015) or controversial songs (Finland 2015, Belgium 2014). High expectations for Turkey in 2011 can be explained by the fact that they had qualified every year before and placed 2nd with a rock entry in 2010.