One of the odd responsibilities of my job is that every week, I am supposed to pick which NFL team will win each NFL game. I say this is odd because, obviously, I have absolutely no idea which NFL team will win each NFL game. I mean NO idea.*
*When I was a young man who wrote sports columns in Augusta, Ga., the newspaper had this contest which, lamentably, was called, “Pound the Poz.” In this game, I would pick a bunch of random games — 20, if I’m not mistaken — and readers were asked to send in their picks. The games were not all NFL, there were some college games too … in fact, I remember that every week I would choose one very small but intense college game. I mean very small. I remember one game I always picked was the Colorado School of Mines against its biggest rival — Nebraska-Kearney? Colorado State of some kind? I don’t remember the rival. I’m sure we have at least one Colorado School of Mines fan here who can fill us in. I do know that a couple of times, I actually got interviewed by local papers that wanted to do short stories on the goofy guy in Georgia who was so interested in the St. Augustine-Shaw game or Colgate-Cornell.
ANYWAY, the readers would send in their picks and if they picked more games correctly than I did — a common occurrence, of course — they would get a free “I Pounded Poz” T-shirt ,which included a caricature of me getting booted through goalposts. My math could be wrong on this, but I believe there are 700 billion I Pounded Poz T-shirts circulating around the American South, though by now most of them, I suspect, are being used as wash-your-car rags. I’ve mentioned here before that we gave away SO MANY FREE T-SHIRTS that at one point Billy Morris himself, the multi-multi millionaire tycoon of Morris Communications, took time away from his busy schedule to tell me to “Pick better.”
I believe there are three wild misconceptions about sportswriters. There are actually more than three, but the three that come to mind are: 1. We can get free tickets to games; 2. We have some intrinsic knowledge that allows us to pick games better than the average person and 3. We are easily swayed by free golf.*
*The third misconception is probably not a misconception actually. Lots of sportswriters play golf. It’s just that I don’t play. I like golf … like writing about it, like going to the Masters and the British Open and such, like falling asleep in my recliner to various Buick Opens and Buick Classics and Buick Challenges. I just don’t play. At all. The last time I played a full-round of golf was when I played the Augusta National in, I guess that was 1992. And to be honest, come to think of it, that wasn’t a full-round either. OK, quick golf story (I will get to those NFL picks in a moment):
As you might imagine, it is pretty hard work covering the Masters when you work at The Augusta Chronicle newspaper. No exaggeration, it involved weeks of 18-hour days. The paper always puts out this massive special section — I mean massive. We wrote features on, more or less, every major golfer in the tournament. And, of course, we considered EVERY golfer at the Masters pretty major. About a month before the Masters started, I used to go to Doral with the great Chronicle writer David Westin — The Ghost, we call him — and we would divide the field, I would have to talk to 20 or so golfers for features**, he would talk to 20 or so golfers. Then we would have to write all those features. Then we would have to write various other stories for the section, arcane stuff about how they irrigated the 12th hole or how Amen Corner came about or the history of Ike’s tree. Believe me when I tell you, it was numbing work.
**For some reason, my list of golfers always included the famously crabby Curtis Strange. The Ghost was expert at giving me potentially prickly guys like Strange and Tom Kite and so on. I remember the last year I was in Augusta, I finally chased down Curtis on the Doral putting green after a couple of days of stalking him, and I asked him, “So, how are you preparing for the Masters this year?” And he snapped, “Come on! Every single year you ask me that same stupid question.” Well, seriously, what was I SUPPOSED to ask him? I was a kid columnist from Augusta writing a 12-inch Masters preview story about him. What did he think, I should ask him about potential peace treaties in the Middle East or how he felt about nuclear energy?
Then during the week, it was a circus, I would write one or two columns and a long golf feature every day. It was pretty much madness. But everyone was doing it, which gets back to the point. Every year, as a reward, they would have a special Augusta Chronicle Day at the Augusta National (thanks to the aforementioned Billy Morris, who was and is a member at Augusta National). They would choose a group of people who worked the hardest and allow them as a perk to play 18 holes just as the course was about to close for the summer. Yeah, Augusta National has the sort of grass that makes it a fall/winter/spring course. You probably knew that. Anyway we would be allowed to play just as the grass was about burned out.
It was a special privilege, and because of my hard work and ability to talk with Curtis Strange, I was one of the people chosen to play Augusta National. I realize now that this only could have ended in disaster. I did not play golf then either, of course. I have never played golf. As a kid growing up, golf might as well have been polo. I think back now, and there’s no doubt that I was raised on the belief that golf was strictly for rich people. My Dad worked in a factory and, as such, did not play golf. He bowled. We all bowled. I didn’t know anybody who played golf. I remember there was a golf course on Warrensville Road, not far from our home, but what I remember is that there was green mesh on the fence which seemed to say to the world “Screw you, you’re not even good enough to LOOK at our land.”
So back to Augusta, I did not fully realize that it was an amazing thing to get to play Augusta National. I mean, I obviously knew about Masters history by then — I took a crash course when I first came to town — and I appreciated how beautiful it all was. And I knew that it was a private club. But I didn’t realize, for instance, that millions of people around the country would list playing at Augusta National among their greatest ambitions. I did not realize that for the rest of my life, when I would tell people, “Yeah, I played Augusta National,” their eyes would open wide in envy and wonder. I did not know that I was doing something that special. What I’m saying is that I did not appreciate the opportunity. I did not go to the driving range and practice. I did not call all my friends and say, “I’m getting to play Augusta National.” I just kind of showed up.
And, you can imagine the results. On the very first hole, I managed after considerable effort, to get the ball to the fringe. At that point i FIVE PUTTED the hole. That would be a five-putt, yeah. In other words, if they had allowed me to tee off on the fringe, I would still have bogeyed the hole. It was like that.
I shot a 72. On the front. That’s not a joke. I have the scorecard around here somewhere. Then we played the second nine, and I should say here that there was one more complicating factor. One of my great friends, Greg Barrett — author of this fabulous book — was getting married that weekend in Hilton Head. Greg was playing in my group that day, and we had to get to Hilton Head at a certain time to make the last ferry. So, because of the exorbitant amount of time it takes to play badly, we realized somewhere on Amen Corner that we would not have enough time to finish the course. You know what’s coming now — start your groaning here. We left after 16 holes.
There it is: The last time I really played golf, it was 16 holes at Augusta National. I have gone to the driving range a time or two since then, I took a golf lesson with Greg in Hawaii (the guy said I was a natural), I caddied for Tom Watson in a Pro-Am. But that was the last time I played a full round — or anything close to a full round.
One more thing, a postscript: I wrote about my experience in the Augusta newspaper a few days later. As you might imagine, it enraged the members that someone played the course who (A) Was awful at golf; (B) Did not appear to appreciate the honor and (C) Left after 16 holes. They changed the rules after that so people like me would never play the course again. Looking back, I can’t blame them one bit.
OK, man, how did we get that off-track? Where was I? Oh yeah, some people seem to think that, being a sportswriter, I should be able to pick games with some proficiency. And even though I keep making it very clear that I can’t, I still get emails virtually every week mocking some NFL pick I made. So, I thought it might be instructive to go through my NFL picking strategy this week just so you can see, once and for all, that I’m an idiot who should not be taken seriously.
Step 1. Pick a score for all the games.
I pick the same score for every game except for certain outliers (such as when Cleveland plays Baltimore — that’s personal). I do this because, as stupid as I think it is to pick games, it’s even DUMBER picking scores. In fact, to me, this is just about the dumbest thing going. How in the heck do I know what the score of the Raiders-Saints game? Please. This is like playing a bar game where you look around the room and guess, based on appearance, if someone is a Republican or Democrat. That’s the picking part. The score part is like trying to guess their phone numbers.
So, my protest against this inanity is to pick the same score for every team. This week my score is 12-10. You wonder how I came up with this score? It was a complicated mathematical process involving, well, the fact that Sunday is October 12. (That reminds me, I should make the Giants-Cleveland score 13-10 since it is on Monday).
Step 2. Pick the Chiefs game.
This week was tricky because the Chiefs have a bye. It seems to me like too easy a joke to pick the bye to win the game. So I picked the Chiefs 3-0 over the bye. That’s a late field goal. And it assumes Tyler Thigpen isn’t starting.
Step 3. Pick the games quickly, rashly and based entirely on gut reaction.
My goal is always to pick all the games in one minute or less. I mean all of them combined. I find the faster I pick the games, the better I do. I talk about how bad I am at picking games, but in the interest of fairness I should point out that I actually won our office picking game in back-to-back years using my pick-fast system.* Then, the next year, hoping for the three-peat, I started to think a little bit more about my picks, and of course finished dead last.
*This is because I’m not the only sportswriter who is lousy at picking games.
Chicago at Atlanta.
– I picked the Bears. I don’t have a good reason.
Dallas at Arizona
– I picked the Cowboys because I’m not buying that the Cardinals, at 3-2, are really better. I’ve fallen for this before. … Has any team in sports history, by the way, spent more time unveiling new and washed up stars and pretending like this will turn around the team’s fortunes? Ladies and gentlemen, here’s Emmitt Smith! Buy your Super Bowl tickets now. Here’s Kurt Warner! Get ready for some magic. Here’s Edgerrin James! Things are gonna change around here because now the Cardinals are coached by … Denny Green!
Jacksonville at Denver
– I almost always pick Denver to win at home because every year I used to climb those stupid Mile High Stadium steps and it reminded me that the air there really is light.
Miami at Houston
– Picked Houston. Don’t care.
Baltimore at Indianapolis
– Should have picked Baltimore for the karma. But picked Indianapolis because I’m still under the fading notion that the Colts offense can score points.
Detroit at Minnesota
– Picked Minnesota for all the obvious reasons. If the Lions go 0-16 that would mean some exquisite writing opportunities for my friend Michael Rosenberg. That’s something, anyway.
Oakland at New Orleans
– Picked the Saints — I’m always predisposed to pick against the Raiders because you never know when Al will just start pulling players off the field in some sort of Norman Dale like fit of rage. Ref: “Coach, you only have 7 out there.” Al: “My team is on the field.”
Cincinnati at Jets
– PIcked the Bengals. I always need one upset, and this one struck me. Though I will admit that when I made the pick, I thought Carson Palmer was going to play.*
*I will say this about Carson Palmer: He has had me entirely baffled his whole career. I thought he was incredibly overrated in college. He won the Heisman. I thought he was an absolute disaster waiting to happen when the Bengals took him No. 1 overall. He led the NFL in completion percentage and touchdowns his second full year. And then, finally, I came around to the thought: “You know what? The guy is a good quarterback. I’ve been way too hard on him. He’s good.” And that precise day, Carson Palmer began to play lousy.
Philadelphia at San Francisco
– Picked the Iggles because I like writing “Iggles.” Plus my friend J.J. Piccolo — who I think will be a baseball GM someday, by the way — is a huge Eagles fan going way back,* and we have a complicated standing bet that involves the Eagles and Chiefs and buying dinners. I believe at this point I owe J.J. 234 dinners. I figure we might as well just keep on going at this point.
*He’s such a big Eagles fan that he and his kids have a ritual of watching “Invincible” — maybe before every game, I can’t remember.
New England at San Diego
– I picked the Chargers but don’t feel good about it.
Green Bay at Seattle
– I think I picked the Seahawks, but I honestly cannot remember. I might have picked the Packers. No, I picked the Seahawks. Which one does Mike Holmgren coach now?
Carolina at Tampa Bay
– I just watched Carolina demolish the Chiefs 34-0 in one of the most one-sided professional football performances I’ve seen. So, naturally, I picked Tampa Bay.
St. Louis at Washington
– The Rams are bad enough to get the outlier score. Instead of 12-10, I picked Washington 12-0. There’s some unbelievably bad professional football happening in the great state of Missouri. Maybe that’s the price everyone has to pay for a fun and successful Missouri Tigers team.
Giants at Cleveland
– I have said before that I do not consider these Cleveland Browns to be the Cleveland Browns of my youth. I can’t help it, really. I would LOVE to feel the same way about this team. But I just can’t. I’m happy when they do well. I’m happy that my hometown has a football team again. I’m happy that many people seem to have put the past behind them and are are rabid about these Browns as they were the old Browns. I feel sure that if I was growing up in Cleveland right now, I would love this team the way I Ioved those heartbreaking Browns of my youth. But, this one’s involuntary. The spark is just gone for me. In an unrelated note, I picked the Giants.
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41 Comments, Comment or Ping
Nate
Joe,
Use the following logic from now on when picking, and you will do better than every other sportswriter out there:
ALWAYS pick the team with the better record at the time to win. If the teams have the same record, pick the home team.
The only time to deviate from this, if you like, is during the last week (when the playoff teams are resting starters) or first week of the season.
Oh, and if the Vikings are in an important game, do not pick them to win.
Oct 11th, 2008
Mark Smith
I love the Augusta story, but I did groan when you said you only played 16 holes at Augusta … Okay, I’m over it now.
As for making picks, it doesn’t matter how much you know. When NCAA Tournament time comes up, my family always does a bracket pool. My mom usually wins by picking the favorites and adding in a few ludicrous upsets that no one picks. Of course, she wins. She has no idea what she’s doing, but she still beats my dad, my brothers, and I who actually care. It’s terrible and costs me a dollar every year.
Oct 11th, 2008
Dub
Joe - just look at the latest line on the agate page, go with what they go with, maybe change one or two …. that’s it. Won’t take any longer to make the picks.
Oct 11th, 2008
Southwest 4½
Great to see a J.J. Piccolo mention in the blog. I never knew he was an Eagles fan, but knowing that he came out of Cherry Hill, NJ I’m not shocked. When I was 17 and J.J. was just hanging around Northern Virginia and helping out with his alma mater George Mason, a group of four or so high school catchers (including myself) used to go up to Robinson High School and J.J. would work out with us and help us with our game. It was a good time and a learning experience. I remember when he went off to be a scout with The Braves. A couple of weeks ago I came across the news that he had been climbing up the ladder in KC and was happy to see it. I remember him as a nice guy and a good baseball man. It would be very cool to see him as a GM somewhere in the future.
Oct 11th, 2008
Daniel
Joe, if it makes you feel any better, they probably would have kicked me off of Augusta before I completed the front 9. I’m that bad. I have fun when I golf, but fun in the sense of “I’m awful and I don’t care” rather than “I want to win.” Augusta would be lost on me.
Oct 11th, 2008
james
I had a similar adventure at St. Andrews. A few friends went up to Scotland to play golf and drink whiskey. Great week. We played some great courses, including St. Andrews. The day before we played St. Andrews, I shot an 83, which is pretty good for me.
I shot a 117 at the Old Course. That is a generous 117, with some long gimme putts from 20 feet. I started on the first hole with a driver, find out what grouse is. Switched to a 3 wood, then a 3 iron. The last few holes, a 5 iron, just to get it out there.
Oct 11th, 2008
Justyo
All I gots ta say about “Picks” is them dudes pickin the Rays to beat Boston are dreamin’. Not this year fella’s. And personally I think a Philly / Boston series could be the best in years.
Oct 11th, 2008
Speedbird
It’s refreshing to hear from those on the inside track that sports journalists are humans, too, and that much of the time, they’re limited to same abilities or knowledge that we are. Regardless, I was cracking up all throughout the post; especially the bit about Republicans’ and Democrats’ phone numbers. Thanks.
Oct 11th, 2008
JohnnyA
Only 16 holes at Augusta!! Say it ain’t so, Joe?
Oct 11th, 2008
Mike
As a Jet fan, I hate the fact that they’re the victims in your upset special of the week. To Ocho Nada and friends at that.
(But I understand it. And HATE it! Arg.)
Oct 11th, 2008
shake n bake
1 minute? If I have to think about a straight up pick for more than 10 seconds I just pull up the latest DVOA ratings and have my answer.
Spread picks take a bit more thought.
Oct 11th, 2008
Graphite
I’m not familiar with NFL teams but use a foolproof system for picking games in Australia’s NRL. Balmain Tigers playing the Brisbane Broncos? Easy. A tiger could take care of a bronco in the jungle but on an open field, in the dry, the bronco would have too much speed. Eels v Panthers — wet track Eels, dry track Panthers. Knights v Warriors? Another easy one — knights are all flash and dash; warriors do the real work and are the obvious way to go.
The system’s not only logical, it’s simplicity itself to operate.
Oct 11th, 2008
Southwest 4½
Graphite, your system sounds very similar to Balki Bartokomous’s Myposian Sheep Theory which he employed with great success in the office football pool on Perfect Strangers.
Oct 11th, 2008
Randy M
As a fellow alumnus of the infamous Morris Communications chain, I am shocked that the brothers did not dock your pay after T-shirt number 500.
Oct 11th, 2008
Alex
The ‘Skins-Rams spread is so big, Joe still doesn’t have the Rams covering.
Oct 11th, 2008
Aaron M.
Quote: Maybe that’s the price everyone has to pay for a fun and successful Missouri Tigers team.
Joe, you jinxed the Tigers.
Oct 12th, 2008
Graphite
Southwest, that doesn’t surprise me. New Zealand is a country of four million people with 40 million sheep — down from 60 million 20 years ago . . . we got hungry or cold or something. Anyway, must be the lanolin getting into the brain that promotes smooth thinking.
Oct 12th, 2008
Geoffrey
I was going to mention using Dianes system from the episode of Cheers where she constantly beats Sam week on week only to reveal thats how she chooses teams, by their matching up their names like that. You beat me to it Graphite. Obviously it is such a great idea (and comedy concept) that it got used on Perfect Strangers too.
Oct 12th, 2008
JEFF
I got to play Augusta National once, too. It was, coincidentally, the day Sam Snead died.
My situation was worse than yours. We had the last tee time on Media Day and I had to get home before my wife had to leave for work (child care being the issue that it was).
I only got to play the first nine and didn’t even make it to Amen Corner.
Oct 12th, 2008
Austin Rhodes
Greetings from Augusta old friend!
You made a slight mistake in your column…the Augusta Chronicle is the only media entity that requires its people to “qualify” to play Media Day at the course. The rest of us DUFFERS from TV and radio still get to stink it up…as i have done for close to 20 years now.
It is good to know that YOU were the one who inspired that Chronicle rule…forever now to be called “The Posnanski Effect”. Struggling AC golfers can now curse your existence for generations to come…
By the way…you have a large fan base here, and we are all quite proud of your work and continued success…
You were the best the AC ever had!
Regards,
AR
Oct 12th, 2008
FredX
Hey Joe, How bout them Braves!
Oct 12th, 2008
Jack O
As a Colorado School of Mines alum (there really is one in every crowd), I can confirm that you got it bang-on: Nebraska-Kearny is their main rival in football. Obviously, tensions don’t run as deeply through the student body as in, say, an Ohio State-Michigan rivalry, but from a football perspective, there is history.
Oct 12th, 2008
Monkeyhawk
I committed golf one summer. My housemate in college got the bug and insisted I join him. I was working on the radio ’til 6 pm but in May and June that gave us plenty of time to get in nine holes at the municipal course with a 12-pack between us on the cart.
I had a few of those moments that gave me an insight into the addictive quality of the game. Every once in a while you hit the ball exactly the way you want to and it goes generally in the direction you had in mind. And you think, like some junkie, you can get moments like that more often and the more you try it the more you can hear that sweet spot hit the ball and it goes where you had in mind.
I started out getting to the green in 7 but sinking twenty-foot putts and my friend encouraged me. I started five-putting the greens but had a knack for a while for getting on the green in 5 with some incredible chip shots. My tee shots never got much past 40 yards, I guess, but four 40 yard drives sometimes can get you on the green in 4. Sometimes.
By the end of the summer, though, with my game getting no better and the days getting shorter it dawned on me that I was wasting a lot of daylight and time getting off and on the golf cart. So I developed what can best be described as a golf cart version of polo. That way you don’t have to put down your beer.
In what was my last round of golf (and, most likely, my best round) the course manager stood out in front of the 9th green as I hit a perfect roundhouse chip shot at about 6 miles per hour. (He stood in direct line between me and the pin, knowing that was the safest place to be.)
As I got ready to 6-putt he came up to me and said, “Son, I think you need to find another game more appropriate to your sensibilities.”
I worked at a place for a while that had a company bowling team. I refused to join only because I never wanted to be in a situation where I had to tell someone I couldn’t go somewhere because “It’s my bowling night.” Yeah, I’m a snob.
Then again, I’ve noticed that the more time I spend away from a bowling alley, the better I get. I mean, after seven or eight years away from the game, my first line is positively brilliant! (Well, not “brilliant” brilliant, but pretty impressive.) And with each successive game I get further and further pathetic. So it’s been 10 years or so since I’ve strapped on the rented shoes. I’m holding out for a perfect game.
I won the office NCAA pool in 1988. I’m a KU grad and they always make it to the championship game on my brackets. But I picked all the other teams with this magic formula: whichever school’s campus is closest to last season’s better major league baseball team, go with them.
Even though the Jayhawks won last spring, the other side of the bracket was a mess. So I wouldn’t recommend my system.
But back in 1988, some co-workers thought I was a genius.
I’ve forgotten your prediction for the 2008 NCAA championship game, Joe. Was it Kansas 7, Memphis State 4?
Oct 12th, 2008
Josh L
I never understood picking the scores either.
Though this column does make feel not as good as I used to when I beat you, Randy, and Holly. There goes the pride.
Oct 12th, 2008
Mike
Hey Joe, assuming you picked the Vikings, nice call on the Minnesota-Detroit score for this Sunday.
Oct 12th, 2008
Padre
I don’t know what made me think earlier this week that this was the Rams’ week, but as soon as I saw Joe’s comment that this was his outlier score, I had no doubt that the Rams would win.
Oct 12th, 2008
chiefense
joe
as someone who has watched carson his whole pro career, i find him baffling also. however, i still think that knee injury was more serious than he let on because he still doesnt look the same to me and hasn’t for the last 2-3 years
Oct 12th, 2008
Brian Griffin Loves You
Hey Joe–
Minnesota 12, Detroit 10.
Ha!
Oct 12th, 2008
MarkH
Joe, I loved the Quote:
I remember there was a golf course on Warrensville Road, not far from our home, but what I remember is that there was green mesh on the fence which seemed to say to the world “Screw you, you’re not even good enough to LOOK at our land.”
When I was 4, my dad was stationed at Ft Gordon, and we lived in the little neighborhood just across from the main gate. My older brother used to take me with him to go the to mini-marts and whatever on Wahington Ave (I think that’s the name of the main st… I was 4 after all), and I remember seeing the stockade fence and thick shrubs all around the perminiter of the course on the other side of the street. The shrubs were so thick, you couldn’t even get to the fence to try to peek between the slats. It had the feel of a secret military post or something. I remember feeling and thinking the the same thing as you did… “We’re so special, you can’t even LOOK here”
Of course, that was back in the early 70’s when they still gave out practice round tickets to families at Ft. Gordon. So my Mom and brother and sister have at least seen the “other side of the fence”. I was 4… And at home eating my pixifood lunch and waiting for my Pixishows to start,
Oct 12th, 2008
Mikey
That Minnie-Detroit score is hilarious.
I bet there haven’t been five 12-10 games in the last 50 years of pro football. Amazing.
Just shows that pro sportswriters have astounding powers of observation and insight that they rarely reveal to us mere mortals.
Oct 12th, 2008
Mitch Overbye
Mikey, I doubt that. I have no idea how to find out, but it seems normal enough. The 3-2 halftime score, on the other hand…
Oct 12th, 2008
Mitch Overbye
Ok, so I checked the schedule for every season until I found five (not including today). Counting today’s MN-DET game, there have been six since 1994, including two in consecutive weeks in 2003.
Oct 12th, 2008
Dub
12-10 sounds like every Ohio State-Michigan score of the Bo-Woody years.
Oct 12th, 2008
Jeremy
I couldn’t care less about golf, but I laughed out loud at picking the bye over the Chiefs. Thanks, Joe.
Oct 12th, 2008
Mikey
Good job, Mitch. So it happens about once every 500 games. How silly of me to think it was an unusual event.
Oct 13th, 2008
matt
a fairly common football score is home team 20, visiting team 17. pick that every game and you’ll do better than every ‘expert’ out there.
Oct 13th, 2008
George
Once back in college, I was, basically compelled to enter into a Final Four pool run by my Residence Hall director. About a hundred entries or so all told. His office was across from my room.
Now, I loathe basketball. Just loathe it. So to show my disdain for the whole exercise, I filled out one pick sheet with the team with the best record winning every game. I then filled out a second sheet with a few tweaks (Georgetown over some no-name place in the first round was one of them).
Anyhow, as the tournament progressed my picks were doing well. Very well. And my boss would glare into my room every day. The deeper we went into the tournament, the better my picks were doing…and the angrier and angrier my boss was getting that a guy who proudly expressed his complete ignorance of college hoops was driving toward a victory in his office pool.
In the end, my picks placed number one (the tweaked set) and number three (the simple best record picks). Now think about that for a minute. Over 100 picks made, most by people who styled themselves fans of the game–some rabidly so–and over 95 percent of them couldn’t beat a simple system that picked using win-loss record!
Oct 13th, 2008
Tim
“Has any team in sports history, by the way, spent more time unveiling new and washed up stars and pretending like this will turn around the team’s fortunes?”
Well, as a Red Sox fan, in the days before the good times, the Sox would annually land some singularly unexciting (washed up) player and tell us that this was the man to lead us to the promised land.
Andre Dawson, Jack Clark, Tom Brunansky, Jeff Reardon, Jose Canseco, Jose Offerman…
Oct 13th, 2008
Learned Hand
“This is like playing a bar game where you look around the room and guess, based on appearance, if someone is a Republican or Democrat…” Are you not familiar with the phenomenon known as Republican Face?
http://frontier.cincinnati.com/blogs/gov2/uploaded_images/mcconnell-753483.jpg
http://www.billadler.com/reed/feature_tmpltimage.jpg
http://www.foxnews.com/images/326215/3_61_lott_trent.jpg
http://www.clevelandleader.com/files/dennis-hastert.jpg
Oct 13th, 2008
Nate
Wow, Joe picked the exact score for the Minnesota - Detroit game http://www.nfl.com/gamecenter/boxscore?game_id=29606&displayPage=tab_box_score&season=2008&week=REG6
Sportswriters are so good at picking NFL games…
Oct 13th, 2008
JBLoper
Colorado School of Mines has a football team?!?!?! Wow, who knew? certainly not a Nebraska-Kearney fan. It’s Chadron State, Nebraska-Omaha, Wayne State and then everybody else. CSM isn’t even a blip on our rivalry radar.
Not that anyone reading this cares…
Oct 14th, 2008
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