Snopes verifies the claim that "The outcome of Washington Redskins home football games has correctly predicted the winner of every U.S. presidential election since 1936": "If the Redskins win their last home game before the election, the party that occupies the White House continues to hold it; if the Redskins lose that last home game, the challenging party's candidate unseats the incumbent president." The Snopes entry closes with "On 31 October 2004, the Green Bay Packers defeated the Redskins in Washington, 28-14, which -- if the established pattern holds true — predicts that Democratic challenger John Kerry will unseat incumbent President George W. Bush in the upcoming presidential election."

But John Morris (an editor of The Deal, and sometime publisher of the Copyright Infringement Quarterly), points out an important twist:

I'm told that Snopes leaves out some crucial facts; namely that a Redskins touchdown was called back on a penalty in the closing minutes of the game. The Skins then threw a pass which was intercepted and run back for a touchdown for the Packers. It turned out, however, that the penalty was erroneous.

So, if this game is a predictor of anything perhaps it is that there will be litigation over the officiating after the contest.

Uh-oh.

(Note: I utterly refuse to entertain any arguments about the correctness of the referee's call, a subject on which I am completely, and rationally, ignorant.)