Monday, January 01, 2007

Warning... Football Talk Ahead

I shied away from too much talk about the NFL during the regular season. After all, that's what multiple conversations during the week with my brother are for. But as the playoffs -- possibly the greatest month of sports aside from the NCAA hoops tourney -- loom on the horizon it's time to start the NFL chatter.

But before we get into the playoffs, I'd like to know how it is that some of these so-called "experts" keep their jobs or can even be taken seriously.

Casual readers of this blog are well aware of my love for Bill Simmons, aka The Sports Guy. With a week to go in the regular season, Simmons was 3 games over .500 for the season while his wife, who openly hates sports, was plus 11. But at least they're picking every game against the spread.

SI.com's Paul Zimmerman, whose "Dr. Z" title should surely be stripped or at least put on probation, was three games over .500 going into Week 16. Sadly, he went 1-4 that week, bring his record to 58-58 going into the final week.

Know what's worse? Zimmerman picks only a handful of games each week, usually involving the league's marquee teams, and does so straight up. Yep, this NFL expert is as reliable as a coin flip when it comes to picking each week's winners and losers.

Me? Well, I've got nothing to brag about. Picking against the spread for the entire season my record was sub-.500, clocking in at 125-131 for the season, though I was 61-51 during the last seven weeks. But at least it's not my job!

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