The diligent researchers at VPI Pet Insurance (one of our sponsors here) turned their fine minds from actuarial tables to a pet name database for the third year in a row, and came up with a prediction: Green Bay Packers for the win.
And just as in previous years, they were right.
I called Darren Shannon at the pet insurance company and grilled him. How did they do it? Is there some science here? And did he place a bet on the outcome?
“Definitely no to the betting,” Shannon assured me. He then shared with me the in-depth mathematical analysis that allows them to obtain their incredible 100 percent accuracy rate, using words like “Excel database” and “word search” that probably make sense only to other statistical analysts.
In short, however, the “secret ingredient” is love. “People love their pets, and they love sports, and it makes perfect sense they’d name their pets after the teams and players they love,” Shannon said.
But, I pressed him, could there be more? Could America’s pet lovers be tapping into some big group consciousness, sensing a magic “something” one team possessed, and thus increasing the ratio of pet names shared with the ultimate Super Bowl champs?
“Uh, sure,” he said. “Look, it boils down to this: We had a lot of Packers fans in our database, and the Packers won yesterday. I don’t know. You do the math.”
I asked for his prediction for next year. “Four for four,” he said confidently.
It just goes to prove what I’ve always said: There’s nothing more powerful than the bond between people and pets. Not even math.
Photos: The “Packer Kits” featured in this post are looking for a home! You can find them on the Facebook page of our friends at The Shelter Pet Project!
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