A Loser Picking the Winners, Week 17

Nine and a half points? The Bills are favored by 9.5 points in Sunday's game? Look, I know that Lee Mays and Sean Morey might see significant playing time at WR, but Tommy Maddox, Kendrell Bell and Chad Scott aren't exactly scrubs (well, maybe Chad Scott). Not only that but don't the Bills still have Drew Bledsoe as their QB and Mike "I never met a trick play I didn't like" Mularkey. I was actually telling my buddy Andy that I hope the Bills run a trick play at least two or three times every series. I'm holding out for some new-fangled variation of the old statue of liberty play.

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Since one of my hobbies is beating dead horses, I might as well bring up my main man, the self-annointed genius, Brian Billick. In today's Washington Post, Billick is quoted as saying the following about the job status of Matt Cavanaugh:

"The status of my coaches is in my contract. Hiring, firing, the payment, the budgeting, is under my preview and is going to remain that way, thanks to the confidence [owner] Steve Bisciotti has exhibited in me,"

Um, for being a genius, Billick doesn't have quite the mastery of the English language that maybe he should have. Specifically, I don't think "preview" is the word Billick should've used in his comments above. I think the word he wanted to use was "purview", but hey, it's a lot of work being a genius; plus, with all the crazy stuff going on in that locker room, who has time to consult his word-of-the-day calender? Tsk, tsk (me shaking my head and chuckling).

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It's amazing how some people end up on this site based on the search terms they used. Here's a list of a few that gave me a good laugh:

"mark madden" high school girl "Ben Roethlisberger"

tom brady dating bridget

joey porter and todd heap

was Terrell Owens on January 2004 in the bahamas?

jerome bettis running over ray lewis

"plaxico burress" "ford F-650"

Plaxico Burress arrested girlfriend

jheri curls

derek jeter diving into stands

kyle boller girlfriend

Mark Madden, Ben Roethlisberger and high school girls? First, what's that about? Second, how the hell did that lead someone to this weblog? I've also gotten a lot of hits from people wanting to see the Bus run over Ray-Ray. In addition to Tom Brady and his romantic interests, there's also been a number of people looking for pictures of Kyle Boller and Tara Reid. Still, I'm glad to see that when he's not playing, Plax has time to make citizen arrests on his girlfriend. Anyway ...

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In the next to last week of regular season play I managed 8-6-2 record and am now a wimpy six games over .500 for the season. I'm going to need some good fortune to break even on my bets after week 17 is in the books. And with seemingly half the teams mailing it in because they're already in the playoffs, things will be more of a crapshoot than usual. Either way, I'm picking the Steelers -- one, because they're 9.5 point underdogs, and two, they could be favored by 40 points and I'd still pick them because I don't want to start mixing things up now and jinx a 14-1 season. Anyway, have a Happy New Year and here's week 17:

Home	Away	Line	Pick
PHI	CIN	-3	CIN
NE	SF	-13.5	NE
HOU	CLE	-9.5	HOU
TEN	DET	-3	DET
CHI	GB	-3	GB
BAL	MIA	-11	MIA
WAS	MIN	-4	MIN
CAR	NO	-8	NO
STL	NYJ	-3	NYJ
BUF	PIT	-9	PIT
SEA	ATL	-5	SEA
ARI	TB	-3	TB
DEN	IND	-8.5	DEN
OAK	JAX	OFF	JAX
SD	KC	-3	SD
NYG	DAL	-3	DAL

Season: 119 - 113 - 7
Last week: 8 - 6
Earnings to date: - $530

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