Lets tee it up and kick it off

In 2006, the first year I made weekly NFL picks on this site, my record was 165-102. It was pretty good, 58%, but like every good football team, I wanted to improve the next year. So I set out to get at least 60% of the picks correct the next season.

Five months later, when the last drop of confetti had fallen from the Super Bowl sky and every last Patriots fan had sunk their heads into their hands, I checked my record again. 60 percent seemed a bit high, because I remembered that I’d had a few bad weeks in the middle of the season. And once again, just like in ’06-07, I had gotten the Super Bowl wrong. But still, I thought I’d made some improvement.

165-102.

The exact same record. How does that happen? It seems like it would be mathematically impossible to do. Yet here I am, two years in a row, picking every NFL regular season and playoff game, with the identical record each year. Only one team, the Buffalo Bills, had the same records in ’06 and ’07, as they went 7-9 each year. Not surprisingly, I have tabbed the Bills as my surprise playoff team this year. Coincidence? I think not.

On to week one of the 2008 NFL season, where once again, I aim to get 60% of the games right. (So far, so good, I already got the Thursday night game right.) Just like every year, my picks in bold.



Kansas City at New England

Tampa Bay at New Orleans

St. Louis at Philadelphia

Houston at Pittsburgh

Detroit at Atlanta

Seattle at Buffalo

Cincinnati at Baltimore

Jacksonville at Tennessee

New York Jets at Miami

Carolina at San Diego

Arizona at San Francisco

Dallas at Cleveland

Chicago* at Indianapolis

Minnesota at Green Bay

Denver at Oakland


* Also, because I don’t want anybody to say I changed my mind during the season, I expect the Bears to go 6-10, because I really don’t understand how they will score any points. And that’s with my homer glasses on. 6-10, mark it down.