Odell Beckham and the Degradation of Journalism

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I don’t know about you, but I was watching Sunday night when Odell Beckham Jr. scored a touchdown.

Well, actually, he had two touchdowns, but the one that has the Internet in a tizzy was, well, just watch:

Brandon Carr is pretty much tackling Beckham to try to stop him from catching the ball. Does Beckham care? Do wolves concern themselves with sheep? Do gods care about mere mortals? Nope!

As he’s falling down under Carr, Beckham somehow reaches out with one hand and grabs the football with three fingers, staying in bounds and crashing into the end zone.

In practice, Beckham had been messing around and catching footballs with one hand, so it was clear he had the capability, but not with a 210 pound man draped around him.

I was watching it live with my dad. I cheered as the flag came down. My dad looked quizzically at me, “You do realize he caught it, right?” I went back and replayed the catch four times before it finally sunk in.

We spent ninety seconds just saying “Wow” and feeling happy that we drafted Beckham (and yes, I trashed that pick at the time. Don’t remind me).

The announcers were beside themselves trying to put the catch into historical perspective. “This was the greatest catch ever,” one said. The other exclaimed “This was the best catch I’ve ever seen!”

And therein lies the problem with modern journalism. People trip over themselves trying to use the most exclamation points and the most ‘bests’ and ‘greatests’ in an attempt to properly describe the situation.

Journalists, in an attempt to garner page views, come up with over-the-top views, saying things that are at best controversial and at worst blatant falsehoods (that’s Skip Bayless’ whole premise).

This mindset permeates throughout sports. In basketball, LBJ had a 48 point destruction of the Pistons in the playoffs a few years ago. Tripping over themselves to do justice to LeBron’s impressive performance, journalists said things like “MJ was great, but he never had a game like LeBron just did”. Really? Remember Jordan’s famous shrug game against Phoenix in the Finals, when MJ was pissed that people thought that Clyde Drexler was his equal so he went and scored six three pointers in the first half of one game, effectively putting an end to the Jordan-Drexler debate?

It’s a human thing to do. We already had the MJ experience. He took us to unprecedented places. LeBron is a beast, but he has yet to surpass Jordan. However, who wants to do the whole Jordan thing again? We want something new. That’s why we rush to appoint every decent new shooting guard the next MJ.
Heading back to football, was ODB’s catch really better than, say, the Immaculate Reception? Even heading back to more recent history, was Beckham’s catch better than the Helmet Catch? Was it even better than Manningham’s catch a couple of years ago in the Super Bowl? Yeah, it might be, but those catches led to the Giants winning the Super Bowl. The Giants didn’t even win the game!

Instead of pushing out the old to make room for the new, just admire ODB’s catch for what it was: an amazing play made by an incredible athlete.

Why Stanton’s Contract Makes Sense

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Well, it’s certainly been a long time since I’ve written on here. Hey, how are you? I’m good too. Anyways, I went undefeated in picks against the spread over the past few weeks and you can’t disprove me because I didn’t publish my picks. In reality, I hovered a few games over .500 which is about twice as good as I had previously done.

Giancarlo Stanton just signed the largest contract in the history of professional sports, a thirteen year, 325 million dollar pact with the Marlins, shattering Miguel Cabrera’s 292 million dollar extension with the Tigers earlier this year. The sheer numbers of this deal are jaw-dropping. 325 million dollars is more than the annual GDP of some Pacific By the time this contract ends babies born today will be looking at prospective high schools. Just… wow.

Still, this deal is more surprising because of who it comes from. Miami’s thrifty owner, Jeffrey Loria, is finally spending some real cash, as well as relinquishing some of the organizational policies that he had held to for years (we’ll get there later).

This deal is a huge win for Marlins fans. They get the best up-and-coming star not named Mike Trout for the foreseeable future. Loria will need to continue to spend to make this deal worthwhile because Stanton by himself isn’t enough to make the playoffs. Also, for the first time, the Marlins are finally paying the Miami-Dade County back for the 2.4 billion dollar debt over forty years that they incurred by paying for the team’s stadium.

Stanton’s contract makes a ton of sense for Loria and the Marlins. They lock down one of the league’s most recognizable stars for the foreseeable future. Why is this so valuable (other than the obvious baseball standpoint that Loria has shown time and time again not to care about)? Well, the Miami’s TV deal currently pays them in the range of 16 to 18 million bucks. For comparisons sake, the Dodgers currently make 280 million dollars a year from their TV deal. Now, the Marlins’ (comparatively) oppressive deal ends at 2020. You know what’ll help ‘em wrangle every last money out of their TV deal? A twenty-something star player.

This contract is best of all for the man himself. Stanton gets the largest guaranteed deal ever, ensuring that he’ll never have to work a day in his life. Over the next thirteen years, Stanton makes just over 68 thousand dollars… a day. Financial security? That’s an understatement.

Why would Stanton sign now? Wouldn’t he have been able to get a lot more on the open market in two years? Yes, but take a trip down memory lane with me, to September of last season. An errant pitch from Mike Fiers mashed Stanton’s face, criss-crossed bruises marring his features. Signing now removes the risk of a career-ending injury.

Additionally, Stanton has forced Loria to shed one of his main tenets of the organization: Stanton has a full no-trade clause. He’s not going to be another Jose Reyes or Mark Buerhle, signed by Loria for big money but traded away soon after. Even better for Stanton is that his deal has an out by 2020, meaning that if he’s not happy with the direction the team is taking, then he can leave, and hit free agency at 29, still in the prime of his career, and earn another big-money deal. If he does that, however, he’ll be walking away from over 200 million guaranteed dollars, but Loria will be forced to spend more to keep him.

Once you look past the absurdity of the numbers and delve into the underlying reasons behind them, as well as all the mitigating factors, Giancarlo Stanton’s massive contract makes a hell of a lot of sense.

NBA Preview: Part I (with Week 7 picks!)

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Today we’re going to get started on the lengthy NBA Preview. We’re gonna do the Eastern Conference today and then cover the Western Conference within a week or two. Let’s go reverse order of predicted standings, starting with the worst team in the NBA, the…

  1. Philadelphia 76ers

Sam Hinkie did absolutely NOTHING to improve their team this year. In free agency, they did nothing past signing minimum wage players to serve as warm bodies to fill their roster this year. In the draft, with their two first rounders they managed to get one guy who’s injured and will be out for most (if not all) of the season (Joel Embiid) and another who’s got a contract with a team in Turkey until 2016 (Dario Saric).

On the bright side, their exploits gave us two of the funniest moments of draft night. First, when they drafted Embiid, ESPN had a camera trained on him where he was in Los Angeles. As Adam Silver announced the pick, ESPN showed Embiid staring at his TV in a kind of stunned silence. Yeah, that’s how everyone feels about playing for the Sixers these days. Oh, how they must long for the days of Dr. J tearing it up with Moses Malone. Anyways, as it turns out, the “live feed” was on a slight tape delay which kind of ruins the story.

The second funny draft moment involving the Sixers is when Philadelphia drafted Elfrid Payton (to trade to the Magic, but we didn’t know it at the time) and ESPN interviewed MCW about the pick. Now, both MCW and Payton are PGs and by drafting Payton, Hinkie was signaling that MCW was no longer the point guard of the future. This led to a hilariously awkward interview with MCW doing his best not to say anything insulting. Moving on…

  1. Detroit Pistons

This isn’t hard. Obviously no one can come close to the Sixers in the Scale of Sucktitude (SoS, which is what their fans have been saying for years) but the Pistons are pretty dang bad. They’ve got three big men (Andre Drummond, Greg Monroe, Josh Smith) who they’ve got to play a lot (respectively, because he’s the centerpiece of the future, because he’s young and can improve, and because they paid him a ton of money) killing their spacing. They’re forced to play one of those three players at small forward which means that unless they want to have three guys all standing within eight feet of the basket, one of them is going to have to stand behind the arc and try to shoot threes. That’s bad as it is, but it’s made even worse by Smith, who chucks threes and seems to take pleasure in killing possessions with horrendous shot after horrendous shot. Despite Stan Van Gundy taking over as coach and president and presumably implementing more of a system than his predecessor, Maurice Cheeks, it’s not looking pretty this year in Detroit. Still, they have a shot at reaching the playoffs, just not a very good one.

Amusing note about the Pistons: they barely avoided the indignity of paying four guys as head coaches for them this season, between Stan Van Gundy, John Loyer, Cheeks, and Lawrence Frank.

  1. Orlando Magic

It’s getting sunnier in Orlando, just not sunny enough. Aaron Gordon and Elfrid Payton join Victor Oladipo, Tobias Harris, and Nikola Vucevic in the next iteration of great Magic teams, but it’s still too far away to become a reality this year, especially with the recent injuries to Oladipo and Channing Frye. They have an outside shot at being this year’s Raptors/Wizards/Blazers/Bobcats and miraculously jelling into a bona fide playoff team (at least in the East) but I don’t think that these Magic are going to be that team.

  1. Boston Celtics

The Celtics have followed a five step plan for the past year or two:

  1. Piss off Rajon Rondo, a notoriously temperamental superstar, by shopping him around the league while lying and saying they weren’t
  2. Trade away Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce along with any semblance of respectability to piss off Rondo
  3. Refuse to trade Rondo for anything less than the world, showing loyalty, but pissing of Rondo because he wants to go to a good team
  4. Piss off Rondo again by drafting James Young and Marcus Smart, two young guards, to compete with Rondo for the two starting guard spots
  5. Hope that Rondo doesn’t strangle Young or Smart

Yup, Danny Ainge is a genius…

  1. Indiana Pacers

This is my first truly surprising pick, but it’s warranted.

Last year the offense was absolutely atrocious but they managed to survive on the strength of an incredible defense. Of course, they completely sucked the latter half of the year, barely got by an under-500 Hawks team in the playoffs before eventually falling to the LeBrons in six games. That’s not too good.

Now, on top of that, they’ve lost two of their three best players (including their only two decent offensive players) to injury and free agency (Paul George and Lance Stephenson, respectively). Now, without George and Stephenson, what’s going to become of a team that was already an offensive morass with them? Not anything good, I’d bet, and that’s why I’d be surprised if they managed to get anything higher than 9th or 10th in the East.

  1. New York Knicks

They’re on the right track, at least. Hiring Phil Jackson, trading veterans for picks, and using their financial clout to buy late second rounders? That’s showing that maybe the Knicks are turning over a new leaf. However, the Triangle offense will take awhile to implement properly and the Knicks don’t even have the adequate personnel for it yet, so the timetable for a potential return to relevance is next season, not this one.

  1. Brooklyn Nets

*gasps of horror from all the Nets fans out there*

Yeah, I went there. The Nets, plain and simple, just aren’t very good. It feels like they’ve got no one younger than 35 on their team, between Deron Williams, KG, and Joe Johnson. Everyone’s overpriced so they’re paying a huge luxury tax. They don’t have any cap room for the foreseeable future and they’ve traded away every draft pick they can, so they have no avenues for improving their team. There’s going to be a couple of big injuries, be it from Williams, Brook Lopez, KG, or someone else entirely, and it’s gonna derail their season—if it weren’t derailed already. The only reason they’re this high is because everyone else in the East sucks. The future is bleak in Brooklyn.

  1. Milwaukee Bucks

I think the Bucks will do exactly what Herb Kohl wanted all along before he sold the team: get the eight seed and get slaughtered in the first round by the top seed. They’re my token lottery team that vaults out of nowhere to make the playoffs as they’ve got a ton of young talent that could coalesce to make something pretty good, or at least not too bad, which, as we all know, is enough to make the playoffs in the East. The Greek Freak, Jabari Parker, and Larry Sanders, as well as a couple of other players, could make the Bucks, if not good, at least pretty interesting this season.

  1. Miami Heat

Despite losing the best player in the league over the offseason, they’re still okay enough to make the playoffs in the East, although they’d lose 50 games in the West.
LeBron gets replaced at small forward by Luol Deng and with the extra cap space Miami freed up, they signed minor contributors who can play a specific role like Josh McRoberts and Danny Granger as well as drafting the LeBron-approved Shabazz Napier, shoring up their weak rotation at the point.

I feel like this season for Miami could be a lot like how it’s been for the Bulls the past two years. Both teams don’t have their best player and are counted out because of it. Both teams have a strong team philosophy and a very good coach. Chicago managed to put together a pretty good team despite all its tribulations and Miami will be able to do the same.

  1. Atlanta Hawks

Atlanta’s season is a very important one for the statheads. Every single one of their starters (including the center, Al Horford) can shoot threes. Even Houston, with all the threes it shoots, has Dwight Howard always down low. Will the Hawks be able to just have all five guys stand beyond the three point line and just keep on bombing threes, destroying the enemy from long range?

The past couple of years, Houston has taken three-point-shooting to an extreme, by shooting a ton of threes. Now Atlanta is taking it to a different extreme, having all five guys shoot threes. Will it work? Time will tell, but it should work well enough to get a six seed.

  1. Washington Wizards

The Wiz had a surprising run last year to a five seed and the second round, before falling to the Pacers in six. From there it can only get better. John Wall and Bradley Beal are young and improving, they resigned Marcin Gortat, the Polish Hammer, a big part of their postseason run last year, and they signed Paul Pierce, who’ll provide veteran leadership to this young team while also being a half-decent player. Also, the Wiz did the most un-Wizard thing ever by not resigning Trevor Ariza to a cap crippling contract that’d cap their upside at a five or six seed. Maybe Washington has turned over a new leaf. Never mind, I just thought about Otto Porter Jr., drafted third overall last year, who’s played about eight minutes with the team, Jan Vesely (6th overall in 2011), whose career highlight was being kissed by a hot girlfriend when he got drafted, and JaVale McGee (18th in 2008) whose main traits are being big, having long arms, and being crazy. So never mind about that new leaf thing.

  1. Toronto Raptors

For the record, I think the Raps will finish with a worse record than the Wizards but I have them here because they’ll win the Atlantic Division and winning a division guarantees a team a top four playoff seed. Toronto is very similar to Washington, though, because they were both surprises last year who made the playoffs last year after years of being complete and utter crap. We’ve already discussed how the Wiz managed to avoid destroying their team through foolish signings in free agency, but the Raps did the same thing. Rather than either letting their best player go or resigning him to a max contract that he didn’t deserve, they got him on a very reasonable four year, 48 million dollar contract. Anyways, with the expected improvement from all their young players, they should hold steady with about the same record as they had last year. Their main regret after this season will be drafting Bruno Caboclo, the physical freak from Brazil, 20th overall when they could have gotten him in the second round. Caboclo won’t be ready for four years and they could have used another player who could have helped them out this year. Alas.

  1. Charlotte Hornets

I’m a lot higher than most on the Hornets (it feels so weird to say that) this year. They’ve got a great defense that got even better with the addition of Lance Stephenson. They’re offense was passable last year and it should improve like the defense with Stephenson’s chaotic driving strategy adding to Al Jefferson’s post up game. They added PJ Hairston and Noah Vonleh, their two first rounders, as well as Stephenson, to Kemba Walker, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Bismack Biyombo, and Cody Zeller to create a stellar under-24 core of seven players. The Hornets should continue their rise this year and for years to come.

  1. Chicago Bulls

I’ve got Chicago this high, yeah, but not for the reason you might think. Sure, Derrick Rose is back, but there’s no guarantee that he’s good, or even remains healthy. The real reason why I like the Bulls this year is because of the three main additions they acquired this offseason. Doug McDermott, Pau Gasol, and Nikola Mirotic should combine to give the Bulls a big offensive boost—and that’s without factoring in whatever contributions Rose will provide. Combine that with Thib’s customary top five defense, and you’ve got a recipe for a good season. Unless Rose gets all the way back to his pre-injury form then they won’t be in the top tier of the NBA but they’re good enough to be the second seed in the East.

  1. Cleveland Cavaliers

In the most underwhelming prediction since way back with the Sixers, the Cavs will take the first seed in the East. Between LeBron, Love, Irving, and a very good supporting cast, Cleveland should dominate this year. There’s really not much else to say after that.

Quickie playoff picks:

Cavs over Bucks, Bulls over Heat, Hornets over Hawks, and Wizards over Raps. Bulls over Hornets, Cavs over Wizards, and Cavs over Bulls. And yes, I know I’m original picking the higher seed in almost every series.

Onto the Week 7 Quick Picks:

(Home team in caps)

NEW ENGLAND -9.5 over New York Jets

Cincinnati +3 over INDIANAPOLIS

WASHINGTON -5.5 over Tennessee

CHICAGO -3.5 over Miami

Cleveland -5 over JACKSONVILLE

Seattle -7 over ST. LOUIS
Carolina +7 over GREEN BAY

Atlanta +7 over Baltimore

BUFFALO -5 over Minnesota

DETROIT -3 over New Orleans

SAN DIEGO -4 over Kansas City

DALLAS -6.5 over New York Giants

Arizona -3.5 over OAKLAND

DENVER -6.5 over San Francisco

Houston -3.5 over PITTSBURGH

This Week: 0-0-0

Last Week: 6-9-0

Season: 41-48-1

Sushi’s Week 6 Quick Picks

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Hey everyone, sorry for the delay in posting this week. The three day holidays make it tough to write. Anyways, because of the holidays, this week we’re just going to do quick picks instead of the overly long version that I generally churn out.

Brief note about the MLB playoffs: remember my predictions in last week’s picks? Yeah, I got every single one of them wrong. Remember, as always, if you want to win money in Vegas, just go against every single one of my picks and you’ll be in good shape. Anyways, here are the picks.

Indianapolis -3 over HOUSTON

Denver -8 over NEW YORK JETS

CLEVELAND -2 over Pittsburgh

Jacksonville +5.5 over TENNESEE

ATLANTA -3 over Chicago

Green Bay -3.5 over MIAMI

Detroit -1.5 over MINNESOTA

CINCINNATTI -7 over Carolina

BUFFALO +3 over New England

TAMPA BAY +3 over Baltimore

San Diego -7 over OAKLAND

SEATTLE -8 over Dallas

ARIZONA -3.5 over Washington

NEW YORK GIANTS +3 over Philadelphia

ST. LOUIS +3.5 over San Francisco

 

This Week: 1-0-0

Last Week: 7-7-0
Season: 35-39-1

Sushi’s Week 5 Picks

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6-7. That was my record last week. Wasn’t great, but wasn’t too bad. Anyways, before we get started, let’s just go through my MLB playoff predictions quickly.

Going through the playoffs:

ALDS 2v3: Detroit over Baltimore

Reasoning: Detroit has a slightly a better offense and slightly better pitching overall, but they have multiple guys who they can turn to win a game for them between David Price, Max Scherzer, and even Rick Porcello, Justin Verlander, and Anibal Sanchez (if he’s back from injury).

ALDS 1v4: Los Angeles over Kansas City

The Angels have a huge hitting advantage which can overcome the slight pitching superiority of the Royals.

ALCS: Detroit over Los Angeles

They’re even hitting-wise but Detroit outclasses the Halos’ pitching staff in every way.

NL WCG: San Francisco over Pittsburgh

They’re about even hitting-wise (although I’d give the slight edge to the Pirates) but the Giants have a pitcher or two upon whom they can rely to win a game for them while the Pirates have none.

NLDS 2v3: Los Angeles over St. Louis

The Dodgers surpass the Cardinals in every aspect of the game, with better starting pitching, relief pitching, and hitting.

NLDS 1v4: Washington over San Francisco

See the previous section and just change the names of the teams.

NLCS: Washington over Los Angeles

In the best series in this year’s playoffs (and probably in years) the Nationals beat the Dodgers behind their immense depth.

WS: Washington over Detroit

Either this one or the predicted NLCS will be the best series this year. The Tigers have the best two pitchers in the series as well as the best two to three hitters, but again, the Nationals’ depth will give them the World Series.

Now, onto the picks!

GREEN BAY -9 over Minnesota

I’m going to follow the recent trend and name this my Derrick Rose’s ACL blowout of the week.

Teddy Bridgewater looked really good last week against Atlanta but he hurt his ankle. Normally he’d be back the next week, but because of the short week, he’s questionable. I could go into the evils of Thursday night football, but that’s another story.

Without Bridgewater, whom are the Vikings going to be starting? Christian Ponder? Matt Cassel? Yeah…

Chicago +2.5 over CAROLINA

I’m coming back for more with this Taco Bell’s Upset Pick of the Week (because of what Taco Bell’s food will do to your stomach). After picking Chicago last week to upset Green Bay (and them getting blown out), I’m doubling up on them. Here’s why. Chicago has an amazing offense and score a ton of points. No matter your thoughts on Carolina’s defense this year (mine are that they’re inconsistent but will usually be pretty bad), they don’t have the offensive firepower to keep up with the Bears.

Cleveland +1.5 over TENNESSEE

I like the Browns this year. It’s inexplicable, but I have a good feeling about them this year. On the other hand, I hate the Titans this year. I can actually explain this feeling. They’ve got no defense and the little offense they have (Kendall Wright, Justin Hunter, Delanie Walker) is hamstrung by their lack of a functioning NFL quarterback. Bishop Sankey could run wild through Cleveland’s suspect run defense, but other than that, it should be all Cleveland.

By the way, if it weren’t for the Bears, this would be Taco Bell Upset of the Week.

PHILADELPHIA -7 over St. Louis

Gee, do I want the amazing offense playing against an underperforming defense, laying only seven points? Hmmm….

NEW YORK GIANTS -4 over ATLANTA
News flash: the Giants are for real. They look like they’ve finally picked up Ben McAdoo’s playbook and their offense is looking very good. Their defense has been better than expected, or at least good enough to keep them in games. Normally I’d pick Atlanta here but for two reasons. One, Rashad Jennings should rip through Atlanta’s paper-thin run defense and two, the Falcons are playing away from home. Dome teams have historically played much better at home compared to on the road. Just look at Drew Brees and the Saints’ home/road splits. They’re astounding. Speaking of New Orleans…

NEW ORLEANS -10.5 over Tampa Bay

…This week they’re playing at home. Against the Buccaneers. 10.5 points isn’t enough to stop me from taking them every day of the week plus twice on Sunday.

DALLAS -5.5 over Houston

This might be one of the best matchups in the league for the Cowboys. Arian Foster is hobbled by injury and Ryan Fitzpatrick can’t throw so Dallas’ defense won’t be exposed. On the other side of the ball, Romo and Dez Bryant will have a field day against the shaky Houston secondary and DeMarco Murray will rampage through the feeble defense that let Rashad Jennings run for 176 yards in Week 3. JJ Watt can’t play all 22 positions on the field, so the Cowboys are in good shape.

DETROIT -7 over Buffalo

Would you bet your life on Kyle Orton and Sammy Watkins being outscored by less than seven by Matt Stafford and Megatron? Yeah, that’s what I thought.

INDIANAPOLIS -3.5 over Baltimore

Andrew the Giant against Joe Flacco and 3-yards-per-carry Baltimore defense??? C’mon Vegas, try and make these lines a little more challenging. Actually, never mind. I’ll need a career when I grow up if writing doesn’t work out.

Pittsburgh -6.5 over JACKSONVILLE

This game worries me a little because Blake Bortles has a chance to have a classic rookie game, an out of nowhere 3 TD 350 yard performance. However, I’ll just keep on reminding myself that Jacksonville literally has no secondary (no seriously, they usually have a couple of plastic bags in there as their starting cornerbacks) and the Steelers have Roethlisberger throwing to Antonio Brown and Markus Wheaton.

Arizona +7 over DENVER

Honestly, I don’t like this pick much. I just hadn’t picked an underdog in awhile. Of course, picking Denver doesn’t really appeal to me though so I’ll go with the points and hope for the best and that Patrick Peterson and Co. can shut down the Denver passing attack.

SAN DIEGO -6.5 over New York Jets

The Chargers are at home. They are a very good team. They have a very good pass attack. The Jets have a bad secondary. The Jets start Geno “Apple” Smith, the Human Turnover. The line should not be less than 10. End of story.

Kansas City +6 over SAN FRANCISCO
Totally a gut call here. I hate the Niners this year and the Chiefs looked really good last week. Of course, it was against the Pats, but still.

Cincinnati -1 over NEW ENGLAND

The Bengals so far have looked like one of the best teams in football. The Patriots, quite frankly, have not. Sometimes it’s that simple.

Seattle -7 over WASHINGTON

This would be my Derrick Rose Blowout of the Week if it weren’t for the customary Thursday night blowout. Kirk Cousins looked horrendous last week against the Giants (I predicted it, didn’t I?) and the Seahawks have a secondary that’s twice as good as New York’s. Also, Washington’s defense is bad enough that it let up 45 points to the Giants. THE GIANTS. I think Russell Wilson and Co. can do better than that.

This Week: 0-0-0

Last Week: 6-7-0

Total: 28-32-1

Sushi’s Week 4 Picks

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This week’s picks are going to be a little shorter than usual due to the holidays. The hope is that it’ll mean that I screw up slightly less.
On second thought, my picks are actually quite useful. The trick is to carefully read my picks… and then to do the exact opposite. Then you’re pretty much assured of a strong week.

At least I didn’t do too badly in Week 3, going 9-7. I’ll try and build on that instead of letting it come tumbling down like Tampa Bay’s season.

(Home team in caps)

New York Giants +3.5 over WASHINGTON

As always, this section was written on Wednesday
Kirk Cousins seems overrated to me. He’s had about 80 great pass attempts and 240 bad to middling ones. That doesn’t scream “FRANCHISE QB” to me, let alone even whispering it to me with a hoarse voice. Of course, he may be better than RGII and half so there’s that.

The Giants looked good last week against the Texans and they may have finally figured it out McAdoo’s offense. Of course, I’m starting the Washington D/ST in my fantasy matchup this week so I guess I’m not too confident in them. Let’s just move on before I change my pick.

Miami -4 over OAKLAND (in London)

I’m going against the Raiders until they give me a good reason not to. Until a 45 years younger George Blanda flies out from the sky on a unicorn then I’m going to keep going against them.

CHICAGO +1.5 over Green Bay

The Bears have looked great the last two weeks while the Pack Attack has been toothless. I think that Chicago’s offense is really good and that Green Bay’s probably is too. Their defenses are both bad. In a matchup between two equal teams, I’m just going to take the home team and the points and run with it.

This is also my Upset of the Week, sponsored by Taco Bell because of what their food will do to your stomach.

Buffalo +3 over HOUSTON
Both of these teams could be this year’s “Came out of nowhere to be a surprise 10 win playoff team”. Whichever one wins this game has the inside track to taking that title. The two teams seem to be about even and, as with the last game, I’ll just take the points.

INDIANAPOLIS -7.5 over Tennessee

Andrew the Giant against a team that’s already lost whatever goodwill that it built up from its dominating Week 1 win against Kansas City? AND they’re at home? Pencil this in as this week’s Derrick Rose Blowout of the Week!

Carolina +3 over BALTIMORE

Remember last week in the Baltimore-Cleveland section where I talked about the teams that I hate this year and will be betting against as much as I can? Yeah, Baltimore’s in that group. Until they show me something better than their poor play since their Super Bowl win, I’m not bothering to believe in them.

Also, a big underlying storyline from this Ravens season is the Ray Rice saga. And yeah, I know it’s a tired old narrative, but remember what happened last year with the Dolphins? They were going along quite swimmingly (and yes, I may have forced that in because of the Dolphins. So sue me) and then the Incognito scandal hit and they ended up missing the playoffs. So yeah, this type of stuff has the capacity to derail a full season and I think it’ll do the same for this year’s Ravens season.

I can’t stress enough how scared I am of going against the Ravens in the STEVE SMITH REVENGE GAME (which works best if you write it in bolded all caps). Steve Smith is a psycho. However, no matter the odds of Steve Smith running through the Carolina defense to score a touchdown, knocking over three hundred pound defensive linemen left and right, before flipping a double birdie at the Panthers bench, (I’d peg the odds at 5:2) I’m not going to go against the clearly superior team.

Detroit -1.5 over NEW YORK JETS

The Lions are a good team. The Jets are not. Detroit should never be laying less than 7 points against the Jets, even when they’re on the road. This pick is just about as easy as could be. And yes, because I said that, there’s about a 99.37 chance that the Jets win by 20. You’re welcome New York.

Tampa Bay +7.5 over PITTSBURGH

Yes, the Steelers are better than the Bucs. The question is, to what extent? Honestly, I’m not sure, but I’d put it at around a touchdown. However, the Buccos have the super-important half point on top of a touchdown, leading me to take them.

SAN DIEGO -13 over Jacksonville

This, inventively enough, is my blowout pick of the week (sponsored by Derrick Rose). Yeah, I know it’s kind of a copout, choosing the highest line of the week as the biggest blowout, but still. Jacksonville sucks. San Diego is pretty good. Put those two together, and you get a blowout. It ain’t rocket science, folks.

Philadelphia +4.5 over SAN FRANCISCO

Love Philly this year, hate the Niners. Chip Kelly’s offense will destroy San Fran’s weakened defense and I don’t think Colin Kaepernick is good enough (for my reasoning, read last week’s picks) to keep up with the Eagles’ offense.

Atlanta -3 over MINNESOTA

Great offensive team in a dome (albeit on the road)? And only laying three points? Has Christmas (or Chanuka) come early?

New Orleans -3 over DALLAS

The Saints have a top three offense (along with Denver and Philadelphia). The Cowboys have one of the worst defenses ever. You do the math.

New England -3 over KANSAS CITY

Since the Patriots of yore, in the early to mid 2000s, New England has been all about their offense. This year it’s finally starting to flip. Brady is getting older, his offensive line is lacking, and his only offensive weapons are a 75% healthy Gronk and Julian Edelman. Meanwhile, their defense is star-studded with guys like Vince Wilfork, Darrelle Revis, and Jerod Mayo. Of course, in this game, it’s all irrelevant against a Chiefs team that has been brutalized by injuries. Pats -3 all the way!
By the way, the last two weeks (including this one) have had their Thursday night games be the largest blowout of the week. This sucks for me because I generally post my picks on Friday which means that I can’t pick those games as the blowouts of the week. Can I preemptively pick the Thursday night game as the blowout of the week? At the very least, I’m doing it for this week with the Minnesota at Green Bay game being on Thursday.

Anyways, thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed this post. If you did, please share the link to this page. Muchas gracias in advance.

This Week: 1-0-0

Last Week: 9-7-0

Total: 22-25-1

Sushi’s Week 3 Picks

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Well, that didn’t work out too well. Armed with lessons from my 7-8-1 Week 1, I managed to get an amazing score of… 6-10. Ugh. Let’s see if we can do any better this week.

As always, the home team is in caps. Let’s get to the picks.

ATLANTA -6.5 over Tampa Bay

This section was written Wednesday

The Falcons are a surprisingly good team this year. I mean, they were expected to be better than last year but that’s not saying much as they went 4-12.

However, they’re a much better team than Tampa Bay and they should roll in this game. Hopefully Matty Ice will throw for five touchdowns and 400 yards as I’m starting him in fantasy.

San Diego +2.5 over BUFFALO

I don’t like this game. It’s generally wise to pick the better QB in a tossup, meaning that I’d go with Philip Rivers and the Chargers. However, I feel like there might be something special brewing in Buffalo. I mean, they upset the Bears in Chicago and dominated the Dolphins last week at home. Emotions are running high after the dedication of their newest stadium and the fact that the new owners in Buffalo have vowed to keep the Bills in Buffalo. Still, for at least one more week, I’ll have to go against Buffalo. If they destroy San Diego then I’m rolling with them until the playoffs.

Dallas -1 over ST. LOUIS

I’m amazed at how low this line is. Don’t they realize that Zac Stacy might be this year’s Trent Richardson 3.0., the highly touted running back who sucks? Don’t they realize that their vaunted defense hasn’t been particularly great so far this year? Don’t they realize that they’re either starting an injured Shaun Hill or Austin Freaking Davis?!?!?!? Well, luckily, I do. Cowboys are winning this week. Lock it down.

PHILADELPHIA -6 over Washington

Unfortunately, I couldn’t retroactively make the Thursday night game my blowout of the week so I’ll do it here instead. This game is my blowout of the week, sponsored by Derrick Rose, for obvious reasons.

The Eagles should dominate the WPFT with ease. The only thing that could stop them from rolling is the Ewing Theory (explained here at http://proxy.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?id=1193711). Kirk Cousins is the better fit for Jay Gruden’s offense and might actually be better than RGIII. However, I’m not willing to bet on him until I see at least one week of him being good.

Houston -1.5 over NEW YORK GIANTS

Let’s play this column’s favorite dumb game, Would You Bet Your Life On?

In this week’s edition of Would You Bet Your Life On?, we bring you this game.

Would you bet your life on…

  1. New York’s ramshackle offensive line or…
  2. JJ Watt

Case closed.

NEW ORLEANS -10 over Minnesota

I’m never going against the Saints at home. They’re a different team when they’re at home and when they’re on the road. Drew Brees and Jimmy Graham at home against the Adrian Beat-His-Son-less Vikings? This is my second blowout of the week, except that this time it’ll be sponsored by Adrian Beat-His-Son’s knee instead of D-Rose’s.

CINCINATTI -7 over Tennessee

Is it possible that the Bengals are somehow the second best team in the AFC? Before laughing, think about it for a second. Obviously the Broncos are better, but who else can compete with them? The Colts and Pats are the first names that come to mind but are we really sure they’re all that good? I mean, the Colts are 0-2 (albeit with losses to two good teams) and the Pats are 1-1 with a bad loss to a Miami team that just got blown out in Buffalo. Sure, they’ll make the playoffs but I don’t think that they’re particularly good. Of course, this speaks more to the quality of the AFC rather than the quality of the Bengals. In the NFC, Cincinnati would be in the 4-7 range, depending on how you feel about the Niners, Bears, Eagles, and Falcons.

CLEVELAND +1.5 over Baltimore

Sometimes you’ve just got to stick to your guns. This year I really like the Browns, Saints, Cowboys, and Bears compared to how most people view them. I hate the Chiefs, Titans, Ravens, Steelers, and the WPFT. Through the first few weeks, before anything has happened for long enough to be statistically meaningful, you’ve got to go with your gut and that’s exactly what I’m doing with this game. I hate the Ravens and love the Browns and until something happens to prove me wrong, I’m going with my gut feeling.

Green Bay +2.5 over DETROIT

The Lions might be a half-decent team after all. They’ve gotten rid of Jim Schwartz (that’s enough to swing a few games) and have a very good offense. However, under no circumstances should they EVER be giving points to Green Bay. Even at home. Even if Megatron turns into an actual robot. The only time it might be okay is if Aaron Rodgers ditches football to become a full time advocate for State Farm.

Indianapolis -7 over JACKSONVILLE
The Jags let up ten sacks last week. TEN! That’s unbelievable! At this point, I’d bet that Chad Henne wants to lose the job to Bortles to spare himself the incessant beatings he’s endured. Of course, my three year old brother could step in and be the Colts’ best pass rusher so the question is whether or not Indy can take advantage. If they can’t, which is a distinct possibility, then the game might be closer than it would have been otherwise. However, that’s the difference between a 21 point obliteration and a 14 point blowout so it won’t matter too much.

NEW ENGLAND -14 over Oakland

I’m not sure how much I like the Patriots. However, I know I don’t like the Raiders. Also it’s a 1 pm game. On the East Coast. And it’s the Raiders. No contest.

ARIZONA +3 over San Francisco

Just like in the New England-Oakland game, I don’t know how much I like the Cards this year but I know for a fact that I don’t like the 49ers.

Also, is anyone even that sure that Colin Kaepernick is actually good? He had two or three good games in the playoffs (most memorably that whupping against the Packers) but he hasn’t been the amazing QB he’s been made out to be. I’m not saying that he’s a bad QB. Rather, San Francisco is lucky to have a QB that’s pretty good as half the league doesn’t even have that, but all I’m saying is that Kaep might not be as great as we all think.

Fantasy question about the Niners: do you think that we’ll be allowed to use San Francisco player’s attorneys as our starting defense soon? I hope so. They and their clients certainly are racking up the points… on their driving license

SEATTLE -5 over Denver

Who knows? This game has so many separate story lines that it’s tough to figure them all out. Is it Manning’s revenge game or does Seattle have Denver’s number? Is it Denver’s offense or Seattle’s defense. Honestly, I have no idea. However, here’s another betting rule: when in doubt, go with the 12th Man, and that’s what I’m doing here.

MIAMI -4 over Kansas City

Yeah, I totally want the injury ravaged, Jamaal Charles-less Chiefs instead of the half-decent looking Dolphins. Yup, totally. And while I go make this bet, I’ll also go spend 500$ to buy 100$ and I’ll hire Isaiah Thomas to run my fantasy football team.

CAROLINA -3 over Pittsburgh

Somehow the Steelers have forgotten what made them great for the past decade: defense. That’s sometimes okay because of their star-studded offense, but what happens when a good defense shuts them down? They lose badly, like last week’s 26-6 beatdown at the hands of the Ravens. And the Ravens aren’t even good! Now they’re going up against a genuinely good defense on the road? No thanks.

Chicago +3 over NEW YORK JETS

Yes, this game is the long awaited Upset Pick of the Week, sponsored by Taco Bell because of what their food will do to your stomach. I don’t understand this line. Yes, the Jets looked really good last week on the road against Green Bay. Didn’t Chicago go on the road last against a tough (at least for now) team and win? The Jets have no secondary whatsoever while the Bears have two freaks of nature in Brandon Marshall and Alshon Jeffery. Again, this makes no sense.

Hope you enjoyed. If you liked this article, please share the link to this page on social media with all your friends. It would help a lot. Thanks in advance for your help and support.

This week: 1-0-0

Last week: 6-10-0

Season: 13-18-1

Sushi’s Week 2 Picks

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Well that didn’t go well. In the inaugural version of “Sushi’s Picks” I pretty much crashed and burned. I went 7-8-1. *braces for cries of “You said you knew sports!”* *wipes rotten tomato off face*

Yeah, I know I did pretty badly, but maybe I’ll do better this week. Maybe…

By the way, the threshold for betting to make a profit gambling is making 55% of your bets. Why not 51%? Well, on bet the casino takes a vig, generally of 10% that ensures that it makes money on every bet. Generally any bet with a line is at -110 odds (for a long explanation of what that means along with other betting terms read https://sushionsports.wordpress.com/2014/08/12/the-nfl-gambling-preview/) meaning that you’ve got to bet 110$ to win 100$. The casino’s goal is to make the betting come down evenly on each bet so that for every 100$ they shell out to a winning better, they win 110$ from an unlucky loser, for a 10$ profit. That means that if you win 51% of your bets, then you’d lose money, because every 100 bets you’d win 5100$ (51 wins multiplied by 100$) but lose 5390$ (49 losses multiplied by 110$). To come out ahead you have to win 55% of the time.

Anyways, that long explanation was pretty much just to say that I’m aiming to get 55% of my picks right, because that means that I’ll be better than average because average people are why bookies drive around in Ferraris.

Anyways, let’s get to the Week 2 picks.

(Home team in caps)

Pittsburgh +2.5 over BALTIMORE

This section was written on Wednesday

Honestly, I have no idea to make of these two teams. Pittsburgh has historically been an elite defense (for those of you over 40, remember the Steel Curtain?) supported by an offense that does just enough to win. Now, the elite defenders behind Pittsburgh’s Super Bowl wins in 2005 and 2009 and their runner-up finish in 2011, such as Troy Polamalu, James Farrior, Larry Foote, James Harrison, and Ike Taylor, are all either ineffective or gone. Now, the offense is the strength of the team, led by Ben Roethlisberger, LeVeon Bell, Antonio Brown, and Markus Wheaton. Indicative of this new reality, the Steelers won last week’s game in a shootout, 30-27.

The Ravens’ vaunted defense is also no longer elite, but unlike Pittsburgh, their offense is still pretty bad. Between Ray Rice being released and Bernard Pierce being benched for fumbling, their running game is left in the hands of Justin Forsett (who’s the namesake of my fantasy team) and Lorenzo Taliaferro. Their passing offense is awful, led by Joe Flacco who continues to throw deep despite sucking.

Anyways, although I don’t like either of these teams this year, I think Pittsburgh is less bad so I suppose I’ll take them.

Miami PK over BUFFALO

This line was a PK a couple of days ago before it moved to one. I’ll explain what that means in the Giants-Cardinals section later on, but it’s very interesting.

Miami is superior to Buffalo in every facet of the game from QB to DB, save the lone exception of pass rushing. I’m happy to go with the Dolphins here.

Jacksonville +6 over WASHINGTON

Is it possible that we’ve all been severely underrating the Jaguars? I mean, they were frisky last week against the Eagles, taking a 17-0 lead at the half before Philadelphia ÅWcontender for the number one overall pick next year any more and they might even be just a regular run of the mill bad team (baby steps, people). Anyways, I like them a lot more than the WPFT (Washington Professional Football Team as I’m not calling them the R*dskins) and I’m more than willing to grab the points.

Dallas +3.5 over TENNESSEE

I don’t like Tennessee at all. I feel like they took advantage of a dumb Andy Reid who decided to give Jamaal Charles, his only good offensive player, only SEVEN carries (along with four receptions). That’s absolutely crazy!!!! I suppose you can’t expect much better from Reid though. However, the Cowboys don’t have the same coaching catastrophe as the Chiefs… Well, actually, Jason Garrett’s probably worse.

Here’s a better reason to bet on Dallas: they’ve got a couple of offensive superstars and Tony Romo bounces back after bad games. I suppose I can’t really explain why I kind of like Dallas this year. I mean, by any reasonable calculation, Dallas has a horrendous defense and a very good offense, but that generally results in a bad finish. I suppose I like them to keep things close nearly every week which makes it good for me to take the points when betting on them.

I’ve got this gut feeling about the Cowboys this year and I’ll keep going with them until I finally make it a rule to never bet on the trio of Jerry Jones, Garrett, and Romo.

Arizona -2.5 over NEW YORK GIANTS

Interestingly enough, this line started out at New York -2 before moving all the way to Cards -2.5. What does this mean? It means that the Arizona side was bet so heavily that the casinos had to move the line to try and make the bets come down 50-50 on each side. Lines will often move a half point or so throughout the week, but I’ve never seen a line move as much as this one.

Anyways, I like the Cardinals a bit this year, but I don’t think the Giants will be good at all making this a bet I like this week.

New England -3 over MINNESOTA

Minnesota is a sneaky-good team this year. They’ll stay competitive in many games with their defense headed by Mike Zimmer and the offense led by Norv Turner. Of course, New England lost last week. Under the Belichick-Brady duo, after a loss, the Pats almost always win. I’ve got to go with New England this week as there’s no way they’re starting off 0-2.

New Orleans -6.5 over CLEVELAND

I love New Orleans this year. I love their defense under Rob Ryan. I love their offense with a ton of playmakers under Sean Payton and Drew Brees. They’re good enough in my eyes that I picked them to emerge from the NFC gauntlet.

I’m also higher than most on the Browns. I think they’re an underrated team that could do well this year. However, against the Saints? I don’t think so.

Atlanta +5.5 over CINCINNATI

I have no idea what to pick with this game. I think the Bengals are better than the Falcons but I can’t put my finger on exactly how much. I suppose I’m hoping for a competitive game that the Bengals win with a last second field goal or else a Cincinnati domination that Atlanta barely manages to cover with a garbage time TD.

Detroit +3 over CAROLINA

Gee, do I want the team with a nonexistent offensive line against the fearsome defensive line of the Lions? Do I want the team who’ll either start a banged-up QB or Derek Anderson? Do I want the team that lost 75% of last year’s starting secondary going up against Megatron and Co.?

Yeah, that’s what I thought.

In the Taco Bell upset of the week (named for what Taco Bell’s food will do to your stomach) I think Detroit will prevail against Carolina. By the way, last week’s Taco Bell upset pick was correct—I picked the Bengals to beat the Ravens despite being a two point underdog. Maybe I’m not so bad after all!

TAMPA BAY -5.5 over St. Louis

…Or yes I am. I picked St. Louis to smash the Vikings, saying that picking Matt Cassel on the road against a good D-line was incredibly stupid, although I DID say that there was a 79.3% chance that those words would come back to haunt me.

Anyways, St. Louis’ first QB, Sam Bradford, went down with an injury before the season. Then Bradford’s backup, Shaun Hill, went down with an injury in Week 1. Now they’re starting Austin Davis. That automatically disqualifies me from betting on them (especially this week) unless the spread is over 35. That’s one of my rules of betting: never bet on a backup’s backup’s backup playing on the road against a good defense. Even Josh McCown is better than… Well, maybe not. But Tampa Bay has enough of an advantage elsewhere, especially at the skill positions, that they should be able to win this game.

Side note: My bet in the Sushi on Sports NFL Gambling Preview (https://sushionsports.wordpress.com/2014/08/12/the-nfl-gambling-preview/) on St. Louis under 7.5 wins is looking better and better.

Second side note: This is somehow the first home team that I’ve picked this week. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.

Seattle -6 over SAN DIEGO

Seattle beat a bona fide Super Bowl contender by twenty points. Translation: I’m not going against the defending champions until they play Denver. At that point, all that matters is the line.

San Diego played sloppily last week against Arizona and were lucky to only lose by a point. San Diego is a pretty good team and I think they’ll win nine to eleven games this year, but they’ve got no shot against the Seahawks.

Houston -3 over OAKLAND

Let’s try this week for a more successful version of everybody’s favorite gambling game (outside of the betting itself): Would You Bet Your Life On? *cue audience cheering and game show music*

Would you bet your life on…

  1. Derek Carr and his ramshackle line or…
  2. JJ Watt

I’m not going to make a joke insulting Carr because we all saw what happened last week when I insulted Matt Cassel.

GREEN BAY -8.5 over New York Jets

They could not make this line too high for me. In fact, let’s make this game this week’s Derrick Rose Blowout of the Week, named for what Derrick Rose did to his knee. We could also name it for Adrian Peterson, but that would imply that this game recovers in half the expected time before having a completely unprecedented career season. I’m not sure how to apply that to this game but you get the gist.

DENVER -12 over Kansas City

I don’t know about this game. Denver is a ton better than Kansas City but I’m concerned about the huge nature of this line and the risk of a garbage time cover is looming. Still, as with the Seahawks, I’m riding with the Broncos until they prove me wrong.

Chicago +6.5 over SAN FRANCISCO

This is a classic overreaction game in which everyone goes crazy because of an amazing (San Fran) or crappy (Chicago) performance the week before. Keep in mind that the Niners faced a self-destructing Tony Romo (who also destroyed my fantasy team—he scored 12 points for me after I started him over Matt Ryan who scored 31 and I lost my matchup by 1 point with the third highest score in my twelve team league) and the Bears lost Alshon Jeffery and to a Bills team that might be better than we all think. Also, there’s a 43.9% chance that Jay Cutler goes crazy and wins the game for the Bears. Of course, there’s also a decent chance that Cutler cutlers and throws the game away but let’s not think about that.

Philadelphia +3 over INDIANAPOLIS

I like the Eagles a lot this year. (Get ready for a crazy-long run-on sentence) I think that Chip Kelly is a great coach and that he can mold his scheme to fit his personnel and that injuries won’t affect his teams so much because if someone gets injured then he can just plug the next guy into the injured player’s spot and get the same results. *takes deep breath*

Also, other than Andrew the Giant, the Colts have got nothing. I think that Indy’s gonna be a lot worse this year than people think. I’m pleased to take the Eagles along with three points and, in fact, I think they’ll win outright.

By the way, I’ve only picked three home teams out of sixteen to cover. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. Actually, knowing me, it’s probably the latter. I can’t wait for Sunday to see exactly how badly I did. Enjoy football this Sunday folks.

This Week: 0-1-0

Last Week: 7-8-1

Overall: 7-9-1

Sushi’s Week 1 Picks

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As promised, I’ll be writing an article a week picking that week’s football games against the spread. Of course, I also promised that I’d write an NFL Preview but let’s not talk about that.

In lieu of a comprehensive four-thousand word NFL Preview, I’ll spend eighty words doing a half-assed job of it. Running through division leaders, I like the Pats, Bengals, Colts, Broncos, Eagles, Saints, Packers, and Seahawks with the Wild Cards being the Chargers and Dolphins in the AFC and San Fran (barely squeaking in) and Chicago in the NFC. I think Denver will make it to the Super Bowl against either New Orleans or Seattle, whichever one manages to get home-field advantage in the NFC. Since Seattle has a tougher schedule, I pick a Broncos-Saints Super Bowl, which I predict the Broncos will win.

Let’s get started with the Week 1 picks. Remember, each pick is against the spread. The home team is in caps.

SEATTLE -5.5 over Green Bay

This paragraph was written on Wednesday, the day before this game.

Super Bowl champs, playing at home, fired up and ready to defend their title and only giving six? Count me in! Yeah, I suppose Green Bay has a very good team and they’ve got Aaron Rodgers, but how are they supposed to compete with the Hawks, on their turf, on opening night?

I like Green Bay a lot this year, with Aaron Rodgers and the passing game, by and large Jordy Nelson and Randall Cobb, finally being supported by a strong running game in Eddie Lacy. I like them a lot, just not enough to defeat Seattle, even when getting 5.5 points.

New Orleans -3 over ATLANTA

Yes, Atlanta was wracked by injuries last year. Yes, Atlanta is now healthy. Yes, Atlanta now has Julio Jones and a full strength Roddy White. Yes, Atlanta will be better than last year.

However, this line seems to have overcorrected. While the Falcons got much better by merely getting back their injured stars, they also lost Tony Gonzalez, the future Hall of Fame tight end. This is all without mentioning the improvements that the Saints made. They traded up to draft Brandin Cooks, a wide receiver, in the first round. He’s been great this preseason and in camp, and while we all know that the preseason isn’t a good indicator of future success, he has gotten praise from Drew Brees which speaks to Cooks’ ability. In addition, Rob Ryan has gotten another toy to play with in Jairus Byrd, the star free safety signed away from Buffalo so their underrated defense should get even better.

There’s not even cold weather to mess with the Saints. The line should be higher than it is, but I’ll happily take New Orleans.

ST. LOUIS -3.5 over Minnesota

Let’s play a betting game I like to call Would You Bet Your Life On?

In this week’s edition of Would You Bet Your Life On? the question is:

Would you bet your life on…

  1. A fearsome defensive team at home giving only three points or…
  2. A team starting Matt Cassel (which in itself is enough) facing the aforementioned intimidating D-line?

If you want to bet your life on the shaky right arm of Matt Cassel then the real question is whether you’d like to die by lethal injection or by firing squad.

And by the way, there’s a 79.3% chance that Cassel leads a comeback win over the Rams causing me to lose whatever credibility I may have built up after my successful “Germany wins the World Cup” prediction.

Cleveland +6.5 over PITTSBURGH

Is it just me or does Cleveland seem like this year’s early favorite for the Sneaky Good Team, as the team that doesn’t necessarily have a great record but is surprisingly good and plays everyone close? (For reference, last year’s winner was the Rams.) I mean, they’ve got a top 5 corner in Joe Haden to shut down the opposing number one receiver, a pretty good defense overall, and a not-too-bad offense. Hamstrung by their offense, it’s unlikely they’ll win much, but their defense will at the very least keep things close.

That defense, against their overrated opponent, will make sure, if they don’t win outright, that at the very least they’ll cover the spread.

PHILADELPHIA -10.5 over Jacksonville

Let’s see, do I take a high-octane offense playing at home against a weak defense or the team starting Chad Henne? Hmmmm….

By the way, I’m all in on this game. In my main fantasy league I’m streaming both the Eagles’ defense and their kicker, Cody Parkey. Here’s to a 42-7 point old-fashioned ass-whupping by the Eagles!

NEW YORK JETS -5 over Oakland

New York’s intimidating run defense will swallow up MJD and Darren McFadden alive. Their impressive D-line (probably the second best in the league behind the Rams) should get after Carr enough to mask their deficiencies in the secondary. Last year’s horrendous offense should be improved with the Decker and Johnson signings, and again, Oakland isn’t good enough to stop even the Jets’ feeble offense.

Against superior teams to the Raiders (pretty much every team in the league) the Jets won’t be able to do much at all, but in this matchup, a 1:00 game on the East Coast, the Jets should roll.

Cincinnati +2 over BALTIMORE

This line mystifies me. The Bengals are superior to the Ravens in every single facet of the game. The only non-special teams position that isn’t clearly in Cincinnati’s favor is at QB, and even so, I’d rather have Dalton than Flacco this year.

Yes, the game is in Baltimore, but even so, having home field advantage is only an extra three points in your favor. I can’t believe that the Bengals are only considered to be a single point better than the Ravens at a neutral site. That makes this pick pretty easy for me.

This, by the way, is my Taco Bell Upset Pick of the Week, named in honor of what Taco Bell’s food will do to your stomach.

CHICAGO -7 over Buffalo

The Bears will have a top 3 offense, along with the Saints and Broncos. That’s one of my big predictions this the year. They’ve got Trestman running the show, Cutler’s healthy (for now), their offense has Matt Forte, Brandon Marshall, Alshon Jeffery, Santonio Holmes, and Martellus Bennett. That’s two superstars (Forte, Marshall), three studs (Jeffery, Trestman, Cutler), and two above average players for their position (Holmes, Bennett).

Last year, the Bills’ defense was criminally underrated. This year, it’s lost much of its luster. They’ve lost two important players off of last year’s squad in linebacker Kiko Alonso, who’s out for the year after an injury, and free safety Jairus Byrd, who went to New Orleans through free agency.

The Bears should smash through the Bills this game. Buffalo has no one to cover Marshall or Jeffery and their weak offense won’t be able to attack Chicago’s defense.

HOUSTON -3 over Washington

The Washington Professional Football Team (which will henceforth be known as the WPFT) is boom or bust this year. Their defense is okay, nothing special. Their offense has the potential to be a top 5 unit or a bottom 5 mess.

The WPFT has acquired a number of players to help RGIII shine on offense. Pierre Garcon, DeSean Jackson, Alfred Morris, and Jordan Reed all combine to form a formidable passing attack. However, they need someone to throw them the ball. If RGIII is hurt or ineffective, the WPFT will have to turn to Kirk Cousins, who, while he’s a good backup, is almost certainly not starting material.

Also, I’m looking forward to watching Jadeveon Clowney and JJ Watt in action. Not so much Ryan Fitzpatrick, but the WPFT’s defense isn’t good enough to properly take advantage of Fitzpatrick’s shortcomings.

KANSAS CITY -4 over Tennessee

Last year, Kansas City was the league’s Good-Bad team, meaning that they beat all the bad teams and lost to all the good ones. The only good team they beat last year that I can recall offhand was the Colts, 20-6, in Week 16.

Luckily for the Chiefs, the Titans aren’t a good team so they’re in good shape.

NEW ENGLAND -5 over Miami

Gronk is back! Gronk is back! Gronk is back! Gronk is back!

Seriously though, who are the Dolphins gonna use to cover Gronk? Dannell Ellerbee. Yeah, that seems likely…

For both my fantasy team’s sake and Tom Brady’s, GRONK IS BACK!!!! WOOHOO!!!!

TAMPA BAY -2.5 over Carolina

I was a little surprised at this line when I saw it. Last year’s Tampa Bay Staph Infections were favored at home against the 12-4 breakout team of the year! Then I thought about it a little and was kinda like “Huh”. Surprisingly, this line is actually quite reasonable.

Lovie Smith, the defensive guru, is now Tampa Bay’s head coach. He’s got a bunch of skilled players with which to mold his defense from Gerald McCoy to Lavonte David to Alterraun Verner. Now he faces the Panthers’ crappy offense, with a hurt QB who’s not going to run (which is his biggest skill), poor wide receivers, and a nonexistent line.

Carolina’s defense isn’t anywhere near as good as it was last year after losing three out of the four starters in their secondary, so they won’t be able to take advantage of Josh “The career backup who somehow parlayed a half season of playing unsustainably well into a starting job and a new contract” McCown and the rest of the Buccaneer’s offense.

DALLAS +4.5 over San Francisco

Dallas’ defense is nonexistent. They’ve lost players to injury, to free agency, and they’re hamstrung by cap concerns so they’re unable to sign any good new players.

Scott Linehan is their new offensive coordinator and he throws a ton. Also, they’re going to have to score to keep up with their horrendous defense, leading to more passing. Luckily, their offense is well built to account for that defense. Their O-line, led by Tyron Smith, is great, and should give DeMarco Murray a chance to run. They’ll also keep Tony Romo upright so he can throw to Dez Bryant. The Cowboys won’t be good this year per se, but they’ll stay in games, and will be able to steal a few. Anyways, the Cowboys are great at the two most important things in football: they’re gonna be fun to watch because of their high-scoring games, and because of their prolific offense and horrible defense, they’ll likely be the team that swings the most fantasy matchups (including mine as I’m starting Tony Romo and my opponent is starting the 49ers D/ST).

However, I don’t like San Francisco at all this year. Their defense is overrated after the defections in their secondary, the suspension of Aldon Smith, the injury to NaVorro Bowman, and the increasing age of Justin Smith and Patrick Willis. Their offense is okay, but nothing special. I think they’ll squeak into the playoffs, but barely.

Anyways, in this game, Dallas, even if they don’t win outright, should keep it close enough to cover the spread.

DENVER -7.5 over Indianapolis

The .5 scares me. I can’t lie. It’s the difference between getting your money back from the casino if Denver wins by a touchdown and losing it all. While we’re here, the two most important milestones in football lines are 3 and 7, as those are the most common margins of victory.

Still, I think Denver will mash Indianapolis. If you look at the Colts, their whole team is bad other than Andrew Luck. Only Luck (and luck) prevented the Colts from being a crappy team the past two years. The Broncos, on the other hand, upgraded their defense a ton this offseason with the acquisitions of TJ Ward, DeMarcus Ware, and Aqib Talib, and their offense is still great, even if it’s not necessarily going to be the unstoppable force it was last year.

The scary thing is that Denver might even be a little underrated this year, if that’s possible for the preseason favorite to win the Super Bowl.

Also, an important lesson for a fledgling bettor to know is to never bet against Peyton Manning in a night game. Would you like to take the “unless it’s in the playoffs” joke, or should I?

DETROIT -6 over New York Giants

Can anyone cover Calvin Johnson? A double or triple team usually can (although not always (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8tCdCWB1LM), which is why Johnson is probably not quite reaching his immense potential stats-wise. Now he finally has the opportunity to dominate because of his teammates finally being able to take some defensive attention off him. Instead of the likes of Nate Burleson lining up opposite him, he’s now got big free agent signing, wide receiver, Golden Tate, and first round pick Eric Ebron, a tight end, playing with him, along with Reggie Bush and Joique Bell.

Of course, that whole last paragraph is irrelevant in this game. The Giants have a bad defense and won’t be able to stop Matt Stafford and Co.

San Diego +3 over ARIZONA

Arizona’s impressive defense of last year is no longer as spectacular after defections and injuries. San Diego’s defense was never good in the first place.

The Cardinals’ offense is improving. Their offensive line could finally be more than a turnstile, and they’ve got three good receivers in Larry Fitzgerald, Michael Floyd, and John Brown. Their rushing attack is led by Andre Ellington and Carson Palmer hasn’t been too bad on the downside of his career.

The Chargers have a three-headed committee and running back between Ryan Matthews, Donald Brown, and Danny Woodhead. They’ve got Keenan Allen leading the pass attack and a couple of good tight ends in Ladarius Green and Antonio Gates.

Based on talent alone, Arizona has a slight edge over San Diego. However, as far as I can tell, they’re more or less equal, leading me to take the points as the deciding factor.

Or maybe I should take the Cards with Peterson. Or the Chargers with Rivers. Or ‘Zona with Mathieu. Or San Diego with… You know what? I think I’m just gonna end this article before I go crazy trying to figure this game out.

Last Week: 0-0-0

This Week: 1-0-0

Total: 1-0-0

The NFL Gambling Preview

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The NFL season is coming up soon. Woohoo! With that American pastime coming up, let’s take a look at another one of our favorite things to do: gambling.

Now, most of you are probably aware of game lines, (i.e. Team X -7) but although you can bet on individual games at this point, it’s a crapshoot for the most part because the games are too far away.

Luckily, before the season starts, you can bet on bets called “Futures Bets”.

Note for people who know all this stuff already (either geniuses or degenerate gamblers): the next paragraph is just explaining about betting so you can skip it if you want to.

What are futures bets? I’m glad you asked. Futures bets, as the name implies, are bets on the future (I’m happy I could clear that up for you). Specifically, you bet on something to happen far in the future. Also, futures bets aren’t on specific games, but on overall events. A future bet wouldn’t be predicting the Jets to win a game in Week 17, but picking the Jets to make the playoffs would be.

As an example of futures bets in practice, some of my regular readers might remember that I mentioned a few weeks ago that if I had followed my hunch on Germany before the World Cup, a futures bet on them to win the World Cup would pay out something like 1100$ for a 200$ bet. Another example is betting on the, let’s say, the Athletics to win the World Series. Again, you’re gambling on something for the future.

Okay gamblers (and geniuses)! Come back for this paragraph!

So we’re going to go through the best futures bets that are available right now. For the fun of it, let’s pretend I’ve got 2500$ with which to make bets (I end up using 2320$ of my allotment). At the end of the season we can check back with these picks to see how much money I would’ve lost and what lessons we can learn from my failures (other than the fact that I’m an idiot).

Just so you know, in the third to last paragraph of this column, there’s information on a football games picking pool for Sushi on Sports, if you want to check it out before reading the rest of the article.

(All lines are according to Bovada. All lines are accurate as of the writing of this article.)

Let’s start with a sample bet, just to show you how it works:

Kansas City Chiefs: 8 wins

Over: +105

Under: +135

Now that we have this sample line let’s take each part step by step.

The first part says that the over/under win total for the Chiefs is 8 wins. The next two lines show the odds on each bet. Let’s say I bet the under. If the Chiefs win more than 8 games, I lose. If they win less than 8 games, I win. If they win exactly 8 games, it’s a push, and the casino would give me my money back.

The numbers next to over and under refer to the odds on the bet. It’s pretty simple. The odds refer to a bet of 100$. If you bet the over, you’d bet 100$ to win 105$, because of the plus sign in front of the 105. If you bet the under, because of the minus sign, you’d have to put 135$ to win 100$. Not too hard, huh? With that, let’s get started!

Oakland Raiders

UNDER 5 wins: +105

500$ to win 525$

The logic is simple here: the Raiders have a crappy team, are stuck in a division with three good teams, and they play the NFC West this year. Then the casino gives you +105 odds to take them? Count me in. This, for me, is one of the easiest bets of the year, which is why I’m betting a lot of my (admittedly, fake) money on them.

Saint Louis Rams

UNDER 7.5 wins: +120

150$ to win 180$

In almost any other division, I’d take the over, but in the NFC West, every team’s win total is pushed down by having four good teams in the division. Sam Bradford is shaky and usually gets injured, when combined with the odds of +120 makes this a pretty easy call.

Dallas Cowboys

OVER 7.5 wins: +105

100$ to win 105$

The Cowboys have gone 8-8 for the past three years and always seem to be competitive down the end of the season. The NFC East is always wide open and has a lot of parity, meaning that it’s more likely than not that the Cowboys will win about 7 to 9 games. If a couple of bounces go their way, then they win 8 or 9 games and I win my bet.

Detroit Lions

UNDER 8.5 wins: -125

125$ to win 100$

Let’s just put it this way: it’ll be a lot more fun to watch Detroit self-destruct when I’m winning money (albeit nonexistent) out of it.

Pittsburgh Steelers

UNDER 8.5 wins: +120

100$ to win 120$

Pittsburgh’s old, with a QB who always misses at least two games a year. In their division are three solid teams. The Steelers have been on a downward trend for a couple of years, now, and it’d be surprising if they turn it around.

Also, Pittsburgh has to be over .500 for me to lose this bet, something I find laughable. I suspect that this is an instance of where the public has shifted the lines. The Steelers are a recognizable brand with recent success, meaning that the public is more likely to bet in their favor. That much is clear; the over on this bet is all the way up to -150. Anyways, here’s a gambling rule of thumb: always go against the public. They’re the ones who let bookies drive expensive cars. Always go against the grain when gambling.

Green Bay Packers

OVER 10.5 wins: -115

115$ to win 100$

Put simply: as long as Green Bay has Aaron Rodgers, they’ll be fine.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

WILL make the playoffs: +400

50$ to win 200$

I like this bet for two reasons:

  1. The odds are great, especially for a wide-open division and
  2. The Buccos have a sneaky-good team, with a great defense and a decent offense.

See, gun to my head, I’d say that Tampa Bay won’t make the playoffs. However, gambling isn’t always about what you think is going to happen. Instead, it’s about finding value in bets. Let’s say Tampa Bay wins their division 25% of the time, an average projection. Then, let’s say that the Bucs win a wild card 10% of the time. That adds up to 35% for those of you out there who aren’t exactly math geniuses. Now, the odds of +400 say that Tampa Bay has 4:1 odds to make the playoffs, implying that the Buccaneers will make the playoffs 25% of the time. Well, 35%>25%, which means that we’ve found value in this bet. Now, you can quibble with the specific numbers (which were rough guesses), but the overarching idea is the same.

Quick side note: I wrote this section one day and then a couple of days later I checked back for the odds to see if they had changed. They had. The line on this bet was moved down from +400 to +350. What does that mean? Glad you asked. It means that the bettors are betting heavily on Tampa Bay, meaning that they need to adjust the lines in an attempt to spread the bet evenly on both sides in order to ensure a profit, or at the very least not a huge loss.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

WILL win the NFC South: +550

100$ to win 550$

The biggest reasons are the same as before: a wide-open division and great value. Going back to the last section, the odds of +550 imply that Tampa Bay will win the division just over 18% of the time. That means that if the likelihood of the Bucs making the playoffs that we stated earlier was correct (or at least reasonably close), then we’ll have found value.

My secondary reasons are the strong defense led by Lavonte David and Lovie Smith and the offense filled with playmakers, although it’s led by a prime candidate for regression: Josh McCown.

By the way, you may be wondering why I didn’t bet on the Tampa Bay over/under for wins if I’m so confident in their ability. To answer the question you didn’t ask, the main reason why is because of the odds. For the making the playoffs and winning the NFC South bets, I feel like I’m getting good value. However, the over/under is 7 wins, which I don’t feel great about in the first place, but the line is -140 to take the over. Those odds are too steep for my taste, especially as I’m not exactly enamored with Tampa Bay.

Indianapolis Colts

WILL NOT make the playoffs: +175

40$ to win 70$

As with the bet on Tampa Bay, if pressed, I would pick Indy to make it to the playoffs. However, I think that there’s a decent shot they don’t, for two reasons:

  1. Houston will be rejuvenated and as long as Ryan Fitzpatrick doesn’t suck, they’ll ride a great defense and a solid running game to a playoff spot. Now, the caveat of needing Ryan Fitzpatrick to not suck is a rather big one, but on the off chance that he’s half-decent, I want to be there to take advantage of it.
  2. The Colts have been incredibly good in one-touchdown games, going 14-2 over the last two years. Teams are expected to win 50% of one-touchdown games over the long run. No matter how much of Indy’s success in one-touchdown games you attribute to Andrew Luck, they’re due for some regression to the mean, which could push their record down a couple of games.
  3. Outside of Luck, the Colts are horrible. Their horrible-ness includes their offensive line which has done everything other than put out a welcome mat for marauding defensive ends to get past them to maul Luck. If Luck gets injured for any significant period of time, they’re screwed. Now, you might say something like “Oh, Luck isn’t injury-prone. He’ll be fine”. However, even QBs that are considered to be healthy can get hurt in the violent game of football (see: Rodgers, Aaron, 2013 season). If Luck gets hurt for six games, the Colts will not make the playoffs.

Overall, I think those two concerns combined are enough to make it a decent bet to gamble against the Colts making the playoffs. However, the odds aren’t that great which is why I’m not making this bet a very big one.

Philadelphia Eagles

WILL NOT make the playoffs: +120

100$ to win 120$

Here are five reasons why I don’t think the Eagles will make the playoffs:

  1. They lost their biggest offensive weapon (outside of LeSean McCoy) over the offseason when Washington signed DeSean Jackson.
  2. Nick Foles, owner of an impressive 27-2 TD/INT rate last season, is guaranteed to get worse, due to the Plexiglass Principle and regression to the mean. It took that superhuman effort to pull Philadelphia into the playoffs, an effort that’s unlikely to be repeated. When Foles gets worse (even if he’s still a good quarterback overall) the Eagles will have to have other players on their roster get better. With Jackson gone, that task gets harder and harder.
  3. They play the NFC West.
  4. The NFC East, as it usually is, is pretty much a tossup. All four teams are more or less equal. If a couple of bounces don’t go their way, Philadelphia won’t win the division, meaning that they’ll have to win a wild card to get into the playoffs but…
  5. The wild card race is STACKED. One of the two spots is going to the loser of the dogfight in the NFC West between San Francisco and Seattle. That leaves one spot for the other two teams in the NFC West, the loser of the Chicago/Green Bay battle for the NFC North, and the second place team of the NFC South. If they don’t win the division crown, Philadelphia has almost no shot at winning a wild card, making this a great bet for me.

Miami Dolphins

WILL make the playoffs: +250

200$ to win 500$

This is a pretty high confidence bet for me. If you look at the AFC, you’ll see that it’s very top heavy and after the two or three elite teams, it’s a scrum for the rest of the playoff spots. As far as I can tell, Denver will win their division, New England and Indianapolis almost certainly will, and… well, that’s it for guaranteed playoff participants in the AFC. That leaves three spots for the rest of the teams, although one is earmarked for the AFC North. For the sake of this exercise, let’s say that the Bengals win the AFC North. That means that four teams (Houston, San Diego, Kansas City, and Miami) are competing for the two wild card spots.

By the way, I’m counting out the rest of the teams because they’re either too old (Pittsburgh, Baltimore) inexperienced and counting on an unproven QB (New York, Buffalo, Cleveland), or because they just plain suck (Tennessee, Jacksonville, Oakland).

Anyways, of those four teams in realistic contention, let’s pick nits with each of them:

San Diego: Tough schedule, facing the NFC West and KC and Denver twice.

Kansas City: Ditto, except they (obviously) play San Diego twice instead of themselves.

Houston: Relying on an unreliable QB (Ryan Fitzpatrick) and are unlikely to rebound from last year by winning eight extra games that they’d need to win to go 10-6 to win a wild card.

Miami: Relying on a porous offensive line, had a negative point differential last year, are starting an unproven QB.

All of these concerns are valid and warranted, but I believe that Miami’s are more easily surmounted.

Cleveland Browns

WIN the AFC North: +500

20$ to win 100$

The Browns, along with Tampa Bay, are my two big sleepers for this year. I doubt that Cleveland ends up winning their division but I think they’re the second best team in the AFC North (behind Cincinnati) and the odds were too good to pass up.

Cincinnati Bengals

WIN the AFC: +1600

30$ to win 480$

Again, if I were betting my life, I’d bet on the Broncos to win the AFC, however, the Bengals offer the most appealing combination of good odds and a good team…

Denver Broncos

WIN the AFC: +225

200$ to win 450$

…But I might as well go with the almost sure thing too, just to cover my bases.

San Francisco 49ers

WIN the NFC: +450

100$ to win 450$

Seattle Seahawks

WIN the NFC: +375

100$ to win 375$

I know that it’s uninventive to pick the two best teams in the league to win the league, but the main tenet of gambling is that you’re just there to make money. There’s no need to be a hero by betting on the huge underdog. If you do that then you’re just throwing your money away. Here’s a good tip for life: don’t throw your money away.

Anyways, the road to the Super Bowl runs through the NFC West. Whichever team comes in first place in the division will have the upper hand and will be favored to advance to the Super Bowl. Because of the importance of the division title, the two games between Seattle and San Fran will be even more hard-fought than usual (if that’s possible). It’ll be like having an extra two playoff games.

However, while I’ll bet anything that it’s one of those two teams that represents the NFC in the Super Bowl, the question is which one. To eliminate that question, I bet on both. Now, it doesn’t matter who wins; I make money either way.

Denver Broncos

WIN the Super Bowl: +650

100$ to win 650$

Seattle Seahawks

WIN the Super Bowl: +700

100$ to win 700$

San Francisco 49ers

WIN the Super Bowl: +750

100$ to win 750$

As far as I can tell, there are three genuine Super Bowl contenders: Seattle, San Francisco, and Denver. I’m almost completely certain that the eventual Super Bowl winner will be one of those three teams. There are no underdogs this year that I like enough to back them for a Cinderella run. There’s little parity at the top; after the top three teams, there’s a steep drop off to teams like New England, Indianapolis, and Green Bay. I figure that one of my bets will hit, which means that I’ll win between 450$ and 550$.

For the player props I don’t really like any of the choices. I feel like player props are even more of a crapshoot than the other kinds of bets. However, for the sake of completeness, here are my favorite bets for each of the player props, which combine a chance at winning with good odds:. Just keep in mind that I’m not making these bets personally because I don’t think they’re very good, I just think that these are the best of the bunch. Anyways, here they are:
MVP: Matthew Stafford +2800

If he cuts down on his interceptions and his team has a good season, then he’ll have a decent shot at the MVP. The odds make this a good bet, though.

Most Passing Yards: Matthew Stafford +750

It’s either Stafford or Drew Brees for this (with Peyton Manning looming as a dark horse), except that Stafford’s odds are at +750 and Brees’ are at +275, making Stafford a decent value play.

Most Rushing Yards: C.J. Spiller +3300

In a bet like this one, you’re looking for an explosive back who’s indisputably the starter and who plays for a team that won’t be a throwing very much. Spiller checks all those boxes and has decent odds to boot.

Most Receiving Yards: Antonio Brown +2000

Checks the same boxes as Spiller: explosive, the clear number one on the depth chart with no close competitors on a team with a good quarterback who throws a lot.

I was also intrigued by A.J. Green (+1600), Larry Fitzgerald (+4000), and T.Y. Hilton (+4000) before ultimately deciding against them.

At the end of the season we’ll follow up on these bets and see what happened, where we went wrong, and what we did right.

The next NFL related article to come out on this site is probably going to be some massive NFL Preview. That’ll be out by the end of the month.

Throughout the football season, I’ll be keeping our betting tradition alive. Each week I’ll pick each game against the spread. At the end of the season we’ll tally up the score and see whether I know nothing about football or almost nothing about football.

Speaking of which, I’m starting a Pigskin Pick‘em tourney on ESPN for Sushi on Sports. If you’d like to join (so you can show me how much smarter you are than me), the name of the pool is “Sushi on Sports Pool”. The passcode is (inventively, I know) SushiOnSports. If you’d like to join, feel free. It should be a lot of fun.

Anyways, if you enjoyed this article, a great thing you could do is merely click follow (I think it’s on the right hand side) and to share the link to this site with your friends, family, coworkers, and random people on the street.

Thanks for your help and I hope you enjoyed the column!