Finally the return of the NFL Preview.
Music to listen to: Gallows Pole by Led Zeppelin
I wanted to post something from The Song Remains The Same, the seminal movie/concert from Zeppelin but couldn’t embed it. Instead, we’re going to go with Gallows Pole.
I wasn’t ignoring this post intentionally. Two weeks ago, my computer lost its membrane and got super wacky with some viruses. It was for the best because I went 6-8. Then last week, I got very busy and missed the deadline for posting my picks. I did even better, going 4-8-1 that week.
So for the season, I’m 28-39-1. Even better, with the suggestion of the People’s Champion, I starting keeping a hypothetical line of how much money I would have. I began the season with $1,600. Now I have only $500.
The message is to do the complete opposite of what I’ve been doing and you would be in the money. I’m going to keep plowing along.
On to the picks:
JACKSONVILLE (-6) Kansas City: Do you realize that Jacksonville will most likely have every one of its home contests blacked out because of lack of sellouts for games? I read this intriguing article about the lack of success in Jacksonville and its worth a look by you: http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/columns/story?columnist=garber_greg&page=hotread8/Jacksonville/Main
Now, I have family from Jacksonville and enjoy the city. In fact, at my work in Belmont, I had the pleasure of traveling to J-Ville several times the past year or two. However, its not going to succeed like it did in the past for three reasons.
First, the team isn’t very good. People aren’t going to pay hard earned money for a bad product. Second, the economic structure of the city isn’t good enough to support an NFL team properly. The article lays this out nicely.
Finally, its beautiful down there. If I had the choice of paying $50 to see a team lose or spend some time in the park or the beach in 80 degree weather in mid November, I think you know what wins that argument.
CINCINNATI (-3) Baltimore: Church’s Chicken is finally in Nashville!! Love their biscuits! If I had to rank my favorite chicken fast food joints it would be the following: 1) Chik-Fil-A 2) KFC 3) Church’s Chicken 543) Mrs. Winners.
I drive past Church’s every night coming home and I’m tempted to stop by and pick up a 10-piece and gorge silently at home.
INDIANAPOLIS (-9) Houston: The Colts are still undefeated and its been quite interesting to see Indy return to an elite leve.
You know what else has returned to an elite level? General Hospital. I know that none of you watch GH but the soap had been struggling the past year or two, actually to be fair, its been weak the past four or five. However, the past two months, especially with the storyline of Claudia ordering the murder hit that nearly killed Michael and his emergence from the coma has been badass.
How does this relate to the Colts? The mainstay of GH for the past decade has been Sonny , similar to Manning for the Colts. There have been times where Sonny has been the best actor in soap operas and then he has been disappointing, especially his supporting cast.
The brilliance of Sonny and Manning has been the incorporation of new guys into their systems. Sonny is working with only one person, maybe two consistently that was around from five years ago, Jason and Jax. Shoot, he has literally had THREE different women playing his wife, Carly. However, through his acting, he has brought an entire new cast up to his level and made GH a must see show again.
Manning started with Marvin Harrison, Marshall Faulk and some others. Faulk left and Edge James came in, then it was Joseph Addai and now Donald Brown. Harrison is gone, so now you have Reggie Wayne as the main guy at receiver and Dallas Clark at tight end. Manning even has two rookies catching balls from him this year consistently.
We know that Farve and Brees are getting the most attention at QB this year and deservedly so, but I couldn’t see either guy doing what Peyton is doing under those circumstances.
ATLANTA (-10) Washington: I completely understand why Jim Zorn is sticking to his guns and not quitting on the Skins. He definitely wants to get all of his money from the contract. My only question is why doesn’t he just air all of the dirty laundry. If the team loses on Sunday, and you know that they will, I would just tell the media that its not my fault and that my owner can go kick rocks.
TAMPA BAY (+9.5) Green Bay: Oh Tampa still loses, but by less than that line.
CHICAGO (-3) Arizona: Last season, I did a review of the previous week of the NFL season and had a section called “Jay Cutler’s March Towards Canton,” which meant exactly what it meant. I would give a rating of one to 10 about whether our favorite resident of Santa Claus, Indiana was going to enter the gates of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. It was pompous, pretentious and was an unnecessary promotion of my fellow Vanderbilt Commodore.
Well, its back! Its been a mixed year for Cutler. Statistically, he’s been better but he hasn’t been awful. Plus, the expectations are up with the new team and contract, which is completely fair.
Right now, he’s at a 4.
Miami (+10.5) NEW ENGLAND: There has been major talk about the NFL having a team in London after the Patriots and Bucs game there two weeks ago. This is completely pointless for several reasons.
First, as an ardent supporter of Arsenal, only the best team in the English Premier League, I know how that city works from a sports prospective. In London alone, you have five EPL teams, Arsenal, West Ham, Tottenham, Chelsea and Fulham playing contests on Saturday and Sunday during the same time as the NFL season. That’s not even mentioning teams in cities such as Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, New Castle and surrounding cities only a few hours apart.
If a fan has to choose between seeing the London Tigers face the Philadelphia Eagles and see Aston Villa face Fulham, soccer wins that battle. There’s only so much money a fan can spend.
The NFL team doesn’t draw more than 30,000 per game for eight regular season games, if its lucky.
Next, there’s the whole time zone difference, which can’t be ignored. The logistics are brutal.
Stick to getting a team in Los Angeles first NFL.
NEW ORLEANS (-13) Carolina: I know that’s a lot of points on a short week for the Saints after the emotionally enthralling win over Atlanta on Monday night, but as long as Jake Delhomme is manning the Panthers, I can’t pick them.
Detroit (+10) Seattle: Went to a Belmont athletic event and saw one of my buddies there and was finally able to congratulate her on being pregnant in person.
Its always weird congratulating someone for getting pregnant. You’re in essence giving them a thumbs up to having unprotected sex and procreating, which is always a cheers moment. Do you give them a high five, a chest bump and I’m just talking about the mother. For the father, do you give him a hand shake for having “guys that can swim?” Do you give him the chest bump.
Personally, I give the woman a hug and the guy a hand shake of approval.
If I ever impregnate a woman, I would personally like a pound and a cookie.
SAN FRANCISCO (-4) Tennessee: Nice win Titans and Vince, you looked good. Reality comes back this week. Potential blowout of the week.
Back to the pregnant stuff. In the past two years, I’ve had at least 15 friends be part of a couple that’s having a baby. Its almost to a point that if you’re in a serious relationship and you interact with me, you will be having a baby within six months.
I know that my age (28) has a lot to do with because it’s a period where a lot of friends have kids, but its odd that I’ve girlfriend-less this entire time frame and everyone seems to be getting knocked up.
NEW YORK GIANTS (-5) San Diego: OK, congrats to the Yankees for winning the World Series. As a Mets fan, I stated on this Blog that I would rather see the Yanks win over the Phillies. The reason for this was that I can deal with the Yanks winning and they were the best team this year from start to finish. However, the Phillies developing its own dynasty is not good under any circumstances.
Plus, I stopped disliking a lot of those guys on the team and accepted the brilliance. I’ve been saying for about two years now that Mo Rivera is the best postseason pitcher ever and he is finally starting to get the recognition. He’s a once in a generation player. He’s been a dominant closer for over a decade. You know who else is on that list in the history of baseball. Goose Gossage and Rollie Fingers and both of those guys are stretches if you look at time periods. Plus, Mo seems like a good guy who stays to himself and gets the job done.
Jeter gets love too. I used to think he was a pretty boy that grown men would lose their minds over gushing over his virtues. He started his career solidly rated, then became wildly overrated, became underrated after that and is now properly rated. He’s a Hall of Famer. It was also good to see Matsui get a moment of glory, he’s a gamer.
Of course, Alex Rodriguez finally has his title as well. I used to really, really dislike the guy and still think that he has some fakeness to him. But life’s too short to hold on to grudges against people you don’t know, unless the guy’s name is Charlie Weis. Anyway, I’m accepted Rodriguez for what he is and moved on.
PHILADELPHIA (-3) Dallas: The only time I cheer for the Cowboys every year is in this game. That just made me sick just writing that.
DENVER (+3) Pittsburgh: Broncos are still a good team.
Last week: 5-8
Season: 28-39-1
Money left: $500
Music to listen to: Gallows Pole by Led Zeppelin
I wanted to post something from The Song Remains The Same, the seminal movie/concert from Zeppelin but couldn’t embed it. Instead, we’re going to go with Gallows Pole.
I wasn’t ignoring this post intentionally. Two weeks ago, my computer lost its membrane and got super wacky with some viruses. It was for the best because I went 6-8. Then last week, I got very busy and missed the deadline for posting my picks. I did even better, going 4-8-1 that week.
So for the season, I’m 28-39-1. Even better, with the suggestion of the People’s Champion, I starting keeping a hypothetical line of how much money I would have. I began the season with $1,600. Now I have only $500.
The message is to do the complete opposite of what I’ve been doing and you would be in the money. I’m going to keep plowing along.
On to the picks:
JACKSONVILLE (-6) Kansas City: Do you realize that Jacksonville will most likely have every one of its home contests blacked out because of lack of sellouts for games? I read this intriguing article about the lack of success in Jacksonville and its worth a look by you: http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/columns/story?columnist=garber_greg&page=hotread8/Jacksonville/Main
Now, I have family from Jacksonville and enjoy the city. In fact, at my work in Belmont, I had the pleasure of traveling to J-Ville several times the past year or two. However, its not going to succeed like it did in the past for three reasons.
First, the team isn’t very good. People aren’t going to pay hard earned money for a bad product. Second, the economic structure of the city isn’t good enough to support an NFL team properly. The article lays this out nicely.
Finally, its beautiful down there. If I had the choice of paying $50 to see a team lose or spend some time in the park or the beach in 80 degree weather in mid November, I think you know what wins that argument.
CINCINNATI (-3) Baltimore: Church’s Chicken is finally in Nashville!! Love their biscuits! If I had to rank my favorite chicken fast food joints it would be the following: 1) Chik-Fil-A 2) KFC 3) Church’s Chicken 543) Mrs. Winners.
I drive past Church’s every night coming home and I’m tempted to stop by and pick up a 10-piece and gorge silently at home.
INDIANAPOLIS (-9) Houston: The Colts are still undefeated and its been quite interesting to see Indy return to an elite leve.
You know what else has returned to an elite level? General Hospital. I know that none of you watch GH but the soap had been struggling the past year or two, actually to be fair, its been weak the past four or five. However, the past two months, especially with the storyline of Claudia ordering the murder hit that nearly killed Michael and his emergence from the coma has been badass.
How does this relate to the Colts? The mainstay of GH for the past decade has been Sonny , similar to Manning for the Colts. There have been times where Sonny has been the best actor in soap operas and then he has been disappointing, especially his supporting cast.
The brilliance of Sonny and Manning has been the incorporation of new guys into their systems. Sonny is working with only one person, maybe two consistently that was around from five years ago, Jason and Jax. Shoot, he has literally had THREE different women playing his wife, Carly. However, through his acting, he has brought an entire new cast up to his level and made GH a must see show again.
Manning started with Marvin Harrison, Marshall Faulk and some others. Faulk left and Edge James came in, then it was Joseph Addai and now Donald Brown. Harrison is gone, so now you have Reggie Wayne as the main guy at receiver and Dallas Clark at tight end. Manning even has two rookies catching balls from him this year consistently.
We know that Farve and Brees are getting the most attention at QB this year and deservedly so, but I couldn’t see either guy doing what Peyton is doing under those circumstances.
ATLANTA (-10) Washington: I completely understand why Jim Zorn is sticking to his guns and not quitting on the Skins. He definitely wants to get all of his money from the contract. My only question is why doesn’t he just air all of the dirty laundry. If the team loses on Sunday, and you know that they will, I would just tell the media that its not my fault and that my owner can go kick rocks.
TAMPA BAY (+9.5) Green Bay: Oh Tampa still loses, but by less than that line.
CHICAGO (-3) Arizona: Last season, I did a review of the previous week of the NFL season and had a section called “Jay Cutler’s March Towards Canton,” which meant exactly what it meant. I would give a rating of one to 10 about whether our favorite resident of Santa Claus, Indiana was going to enter the gates of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. It was pompous, pretentious and was an unnecessary promotion of my fellow Vanderbilt Commodore.
Well, its back! Its been a mixed year for Cutler. Statistically, he’s been better but he hasn’t been awful. Plus, the expectations are up with the new team and contract, which is completely fair.
Right now, he’s at a 4.
Miami (+10.5) NEW ENGLAND: There has been major talk about the NFL having a team in London after the Patriots and Bucs game there two weeks ago. This is completely pointless for several reasons.
First, as an ardent supporter of Arsenal, only the best team in the English Premier League, I know how that city works from a sports prospective. In London alone, you have five EPL teams, Arsenal, West Ham, Tottenham, Chelsea and Fulham playing contests on Saturday and Sunday during the same time as the NFL season. That’s not even mentioning teams in cities such as Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, New Castle and surrounding cities only a few hours apart.
If a fan has to choose between seeing the London Tigers face the Philadelphia Eagles and see Aston Villa face Fulham, soccer wins that battle. There’s only so much money a fan can spend.
The NFL team doesn’t draw more than 30,000 per game for eight regular season games, if its lucky.
Next, there’s the whole time zone difference, which can’t be ignored. The logistics are brutal.
Stick to getting a team in Los Angeles first NFL.
NEW ORLEANS (-13) Carolina: I know that’s a lot of points on a short week for the Saints after the emotionally enthralling win over Atlanta on Monday night, but as long as Jake Delhomme is manning the Panthers, I can’t pick them.
Detroit (+10) Seattle: Went to a Belmont athletic event and saw one of my buddies there and was finally able to congratulate her on being pregnant in person.
Its always weird congratulating someone for getting pregnant. You’re in essence giving them a thumbs up to having unprotected sex and procreating, which is always a cheers moment. Do you give them a high five, a chest bump and I’m just talking about the mother. For the father, do you give him a hand shake for having “guys that can swim?” Do you give him the chest bump.
Personally, I give the woman a hug and the guy a hand shake of approval.
If I ever impregnate a woman, I would personally like a pound and a cookie.
SAN FRANCISCO (-4) Tennessee: Nice win Titans and Vince, you looked good. Reality comes back this week. Potential blowout of the week.
Back to the pregnant stuff. In the past two years, I’ve had at least 15 friends be part of a couple that’s having a baby. Its almost to a point that if you’re in a serious relationship and you interact with me, you will be having a baby within six months.
I know that my age (28) has a lot to do with because it’s a period where a lot of friends have kids, but its odd that I’ve girlfriend-less this entire time frame and everyone seems to be getting knocked up.
NEW YORK GIANTS (-5) San Diego: OK, congrats to the Yankees for winning the World Series. As a Mets fan, I stated on this Blog that I would rather see the Yanks win over the Phillies. The reason for this was that I can deal with the Yanks winning and they were the best team this year from start to finish. However, the Phillies developing its own dynasty is not good under any circumstances.
Plus, I stopped disliking a lot of those guys on the team and accepted the brilliance. I’ve been saying for about two years now that Mo Rivera is the best postseason pitcher ever and he is finally starting to get the recognition. He’s a once in a generation player. He’s been a dominant closer for over a decade. You know who else is on that list in the history of baseball. Goose Gossage and Rollie Fingers and both of those guys are stretches if you look at time periods. Plus, Mo seems like a good guy who stays to himself and gets the job done.
Jeter gets love too. I used to think he was a pretty boy that grown men would lose their minds over gushing over his virtues. He started his career solidly rated, then became wildly overrated, became underrated after that and is now properly rated. He’s a Hall of Famer. It was also good to see Matsui get a moment of glory, he’s a gamer.
Of course, Alex Rodriguez finally has his title as well. I used to really, really dislike the guy and still think that he has some fakeness to him. But life’s too short to hold on to grudges against people you don’t know, unless the guy’s name is Charlie Weis. Anyway, I’m accepted Rodriguez for what he is and moved on.
PHILADELPHIA (-3) Dallas: The only time I cheer for the Cowboys every year is in this game. That just made me sick just writing that.
DENVER (+3) Pittsburgh: Broncos are still a good team.
Last week: 5-8
Season: 28-39-1
Money left: $500
1 comment:
perspective hoss, not prospective
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