"Holiday Break": The Sequel

You know what I need? Another break. And fuck if I didn't earn it this year, right?

Anyway, seeing as how well things went over Thanksgiving, ™ decided to actually come back and see me again. So the whole Week 16 recap, Week 17 preview, and whatever other posts I had in mind are all going to have to wait until 2011.

I know, there will be plenty more thoughts to expand on besides all the fuckin' football stuff that's pretty much been the majority of the content here in the last quarter of the year, but I'm looking forward to having another week off from work to give ™ a little more time in the actual downtown Chicago rather than just the one day we got there the last time she was here.

In the meantime, dear readers, I hope you've enjoyed your own holidays and that you have a happy and safe New Year's Eve as well as 2011. I've already got a great number of things to look forward to in the coming year, but again, that's stuff that I'll expand on when I get back.

This 2010 certainly had its highs and lows just like every year seems to, but during this time away from BMC, I'm guessing it's going to go out on quite the high note and hopefully have me entering 2011 more optimistic than any other year in the past.

See you all in January.

Things I made while offline: "In the Company of Men"

Because this blog will be dominated by football-related content for the next five months, your author has decided to make an effort to regularly post pictures his lovely and talented sister took of some of his artwork. These posts will include a brief thought or two about when the piece was made. 

This week: An ink & color pencil drawing of characters from the 1997 film "In the Company of Men" 

Week 16 Picks: Un-Sexy Rexy

It was starting to feel like it had been a while since those New York Jets had made some of the league's biggest headlines off the field, but the team—the head coach, no less—sure made up for lost time this week. Never mind that Rex Ryan's team is still fighting for a playoff spot and comes into Chicago this weekend to play our local NFC North Division Champion Bears, who are also still playing for something—namely a first round bye in the playoffs.

And fortunately for us, in addition to, you know, the actual game of football, we're likely going to have some hilarious signs to be keeping an eye out for in the crowd. Assuming, of course, CBS is willing to show them.

Oh, and there's the 15 other games this week, one of which has already occurred as of this writing and was the total mismatch many of us expected. The question, as always, is which game will come back to bite me everyone else in the ass and help determine this week's pool winner.

Thursday Night Pick: Brain not necessary

The league lined up quite the mismatch for their Thursday finale. Once again, I'm assuming this will pretty much be a maximum bet for everybody in both pools—especially if the usual five hypothetical sheets I post each work are any indication. So far, four of those five have the Steelers being the biggest bet of the week, and I highly doubt it will be any less than those four.

So for the second straight week, my first pick is for the most it can possibly be:

16 points

Pittsburgh Steelers (10-4) over Carolina Panthers (2-12)

+42/-12 : +172/191/-19 : -7/+130

And since we have a Saturday game this week (because I guess it can't just be an NBA holiday?), maybe the rest of the picks will be up before that too? To be honest, I'm not totally sure yet.

Week 15 Power Rankings: What was I thinking?

I was among the many who had started the week off in the best possible way, but things went downhill on Sunday and I ultimately continued my steadily decreasing points trend by only ending up with 89 points with my picks for the week. Keeping in mind what I said when I came out on top in Week Nine and my point allocation looked brilliant that week, there were multiple spots on my sheet this past weekend that were quite suspect even going into the games and, as expected, cost me some ground.

In the first game on Sunday, I saw the Giants get out to an early lead and mistakenly assumed I had picked Philadelphia in that contest. I was reassuring myself that somebody this season was due to blow a big lead, and sure enough, that's exactly what New York did. And then I realized I had actually picked the G-Men.

And then I found out that Tampa Bay had allowed the Lions to win their first game on the road in more than three years. Most devastatingly, the same Miami Dolphins I had originally picked to go all the way to the AFC Championship this year as a wild card had their playoff hopes end in yet another loss at home, this one to the Buffalo Bills thanks in part to four missed field goals—which once again, seemed to have been the opposite end of the luck that went my way back when I won Week Three.

A Steelers loss later in the afternoon in addition to wins from the Patriots that night and the Bears on Monday that were both worth far more to others than myself ultimately made Week 15 an unmitigated disaster for me.

Things I made while offline: Jimi Hendrix

Because this blog will be dominated by football-related content for the next five months, your author has decided to make an effort to regularly post pictures his lovely and talented sister took of some of his artwork. These posts will include a brief thought or two about when the piece was made. 

This week: A pencil sketch of guitarist Jimi Hendrix 

Week 15 Picks: Desperate measures

I don't know which start you'd consider more baffling, but either way it appears that both Tim Tebow and Rex Grossman will be under center for the Denver Broncos and Washington Redskins respectively as those two teams compete to be the national laughing stock for the week. My money's on dear old Sexy Rexy to be the bigger disaster, but I don't believe that's any sort of tiebreaker in either pool this week.

Of course, around these parts, we're a little more concerned with the college stadium that the Minnesota Vikings will be utilizing in order to host our hometown Bears on Monday evening. That whole situation would be extremely laughable (have fun picking which of the 63,000 ticket holders get to come into the 50,000 capacity venue—although the total absence of alcohol sales will probably help) if the field's conditions and the possible injuries it might cause weren't a real concern. The Bears could simultaneously win the division and see their playoff hopes crushed if, say, Jay Cutler were to suffer another concussion.

I'll try to think positive.

Keep on scrolling: Another fantasy update

Your author is hard-pressed to think of something that can cause an immediate loss of interest quite like hearing about someone's fantasy team. Having friends and co-workers recite their rosters with no real purpose other than to gloat about conquering leagues you're not involved in seems quite banal and pointless, no?

That said, the author knows full well that you the dear reader probably also couldn't give two shits about whatever fantasy team he's gone and created after so many years of taking that road less traveled where non-participation seemed cooler. Now the author has multiple fantasy teams, and while he tries mightily not to bring those into the other posts here on BMC that you might actually read, every once in a while, if for no other purpose than to help him remember who he had on such teams in a given year, he likes to keep a recorded entry of how he's done.

This is one of those times. Your non-interest in the remainder of this post is understood.

Thursday Night Pick: Finally going big

Ever since the Thursday games kicked in, I've been betting rather low each and every week. Excluding Thanksgiving—when there were pretty much three mismatches—it's been a single-digit wager most of the time. Yeah, OK ... that really only amounts to three weeks of Thursday bets (two were for four points and the first was just for one), but still, I'm excited to finally max out on the first game of the week instead of seeing everybody else bet double-digits and enter the weekend with a lead.

Aside from when they crapped the bed against Oakland in Week 13 (which I fortunately only lost two points on), San Diego seems to be in fine form to make their annual late charge for the AFC West crown now that they've got Vincent Jackson back and Malcom Floyd should be playing tonight (right? right?) won't play, I guess, but it doesn't really matter since Philip Rivers seems to be able to throw to just about anybody the Chargers throw out there.

The 49ers are making their own late-season move back to the top of the equally inept NFC West, but only seem to be able to win games against teams in that division. So, seeing as the Bolts get to host tonight's game:

16 points
San Diego Chargers (7-6) over San Francisco 49ers (5-8)

+3/+1 : +38/35/+3 : +2/+35

And as usual, the remainder of the Week 15 picks will be up on Saturday night.

"Holiday Break" follow-up: It's a long story (but a happy one)

I had always felt that people who claimed to find love on the internet were creating a sort of forced romance. Of the few people I knew personally who met significant others over the web, it was almost always through an online dating service. And my very first impression of those kind of those kinds of sites was forged by a former co-worker of mine, a nice enough fellow who had been engaged at one time but had things fall apart when his fiancee turned out to be something of a psycho. As a result, he seemed determined not just to seek a new girlfriend, but most certainly find a future bride.

When he spoke openly about testing the waters of online dating, his profile was public, and so of course, other co-workers and I had to check it out. What struck me most after viewing it was the overall sense of desperation that was conveyed in his "preferences." Height? Any. Religion? Any. Nationality? Any.

To me, the whole thing reinforced the notion that this entire approach equated to begging to get laid. It always seemed that a romantic interest was something you discovered unexpectedly, hence the joy of explaining how you met. Using a dating service not only seemed to encourage some dishonesty to make yourself sound more appealing, but forced you to probably place more pressure on yourself to make any potential match work.

So my conclusion based upon the few examples I knew personally—since I was determined never to try it myself—was that romance and the internet were two entirely different things. Any attempt to combine the two was manufacturing an emotion that's best enjoyed when it occurs naturally.

Week 14 Power Rankings: Falling apart

You know nothing makes me happier than knowing that Vikings fans are suffering, so regardless of what else happens over the next couple months, this season's been a real win for me. Those purple-clad ninnies were officially eliminated from possibly getting into the playoffs this past weekend, their quarterback's consecutive game streak ended, and if he never plays again this season, his last pass will still be an interception.

Oh yeah ... and then, of course, this happened to their horseshit home facility. If that spells the end for that hellhole, then good riddance. 1991 still hurts, by the way.

I have to admit that when I first saw that video on Sunday, I thought it was an artist's rendering. But the bottom line would be that the roof collapsing is sort of a fitting metaphor for this Vikings team's season. Their home finale against my beloved Bears this coming weekend will be played in an outdoor stadium with a capacity of 50,000 despite the team having already sold more than 63,000 tickets. Man, that sucks—to be them. But you knew that.

I'm allowed to be this mean since nobody was hurt. And I'm hoping it doesn't turn into some sort of karmic payback and the foundation for my own prediction formula holds up, as last week it helped me earn 101 points.

The Bulls' First Quarter: Reason(s) to believe?

When we last left the Chicago Bulls, I was actually feeling sorry for Vinny Del Negro and there was still hope of landing LeBron James. And while the Bulls didn't make the biggest splash in the free-agent pool this off-season, they did improve exponentially just with the man they nabbed to coach their team while adding a few more pieces to surround their star player with. Thus, there's been admittedly just as much buzz for the basketball team that hasn't made it out of the first round of the playoffs the past two seasons as there is for the United Center's other resident—a hockey team that just won the biggest prize in their sport last year.

After having endured a few years in which so many of us felt we were only a player or two (and a coach) away from contending in the East again, does it look like the Bulls have made that stride forward to being contenders again? I think it's still too early to make any grand sort of prognostications about deep playoff runs, what with Chicago still being the No. 4 seed in the conference and looking up at two relative conference stalwarts and the oh-so-slightly-hyped group from South Beach. But overall, it's not as though there aren't some encouraging signs here. 

Things I made while offline: Jenny McCarthy

Because this blog will be dominated by football-related content for the next five months, your author has decided to make an effort to regularly post pictures his lovely and talented sister took of some of his artwork. These posts will include a brief thought or two about when the piece was made. 

This week: An ink & color pencil drawing of 1994 Playboy Playmate of the Year
Jenny McCarthy 

Week 14 Picks: Fun in the snow?

After a day of rain here in the Chicago suburbs, it's currently snowing as I type this. The weather this weekend has already been hyped up as being a factor in a number of games, so if you're like me and enjoy seeing football played in this kind of inclement conditions, tomorrow could be a real treat.

I would suppose that some crazy amounts of snow, slush and sleet might lead to some equally crazy bounces, fumbles and assorted other wackiness that might result in a few upsets, but here in Week 14 with only a few weeks to go in the respective confidence pools, where would I dare venture a guess as to which team would benefit?

It seems like a good weekend to sit back and enjoy the action for what it is, keeping my fingers crossed that the way I'm submitting my order of picks in happens to be the safest.

And perhaps if things don't go my way, I can whitewash a Vikings fan or something.

Thursday Night Pick: Could be ugly

Peyton Manning is in the midst of a highly uncharacteristic stretch that has seen him throw more interceptions in three weeks than rookie Sam Bradford has thrown all season. It's so bad that it even caused the bro-in-law to update his blog.

But tonight Manning's Colts get to continue fighting through this miserable Super Bowl runner-up hangover of a season with a Tennessee team that's in their own funk having lost five in a row. Maybe Randy Moss will actually, you know, do something tonight.

I'm not counting on it though:

3 points
Indianapolis Colts (6-6) over Tennessee Titans (5-7)

+27/+5 : +20/19/+1 : -4/-7

The rest of the Week 14 picks will be posted Saturday night, now that the "rolling deadline" appears to be working for both pools.

The Bears' Third Quarter: So much for that 8-8 talk

At the end of the last quarter of the Bears' season, I feared that there was still the possibility the team could finish 8-8. And now with four games left to go, we already know that won't be the case. Thanks to four more wins over the course of the four games since that last update, the Bears have secured a winning season and are leading the NFC North as the team enters its final four games of the year.

I'm not entirely sold that we should begin planning a Super Bowl party quite yet, but at the same time, I can't deny that the Bears certainly deserve to be in the conversation for favorites to come out of the NFC when the playoffs begin. The final four games to close out the year will be perhaps the toughest stretch of the schedule this year (visits to Minnesota and Green Bay while two of the AFC's best teams come to Soldier Field), but Chicago has set themselves up rather nicely by taking care of business in the third quarter.

If nothing else, it appears for the time being that Lovie Smith has saved his job.

Week 13 Power Rankings: A third time is not a charm

Alas, it appears that my strategy of using "my numbers" to determine my picks for Week 13 finally proved unsuccessful after back-to-back triumphs in the first two attempts. While the San Diego loss to Oakland was indeed a swing that worked in my favor, a number of other upsets around the league (with the most notable and costly being Indianapolis falling to Dallas) did not and I ended up with 104 points for the week.

So does this mean an end to using Week 13 for the numbers experiment in future seasons?

Hardly. This particular NFL season has had more upsets on any given week than the previous two (which probably played havoc with a number of the figures used in my math), and besides, I already swore I'd be following the Week 13 tradition until the logic has a losing record. Right now, it's still 2-1 in three attempts, which ain't half bad.

And if nothing else, at least this happened.

Things I made while offline: Janet Jackson

Because this blog will be dominated by football-related content for the next five months, your author has decided to make an effort to regularly post pictures his lovely and talented sister took of some of his artwork. These posts will include a brief thought or two about when the piece was made. 

This week: A pencil sketch of recording artist Janet Jackson 

The Other Week 13 Picks: Sure hope there's an upset or three

In case you didn't want to scroll down to the post where I put up my picks before Thursday's game kicked off (and I earned four measly points), this is the week that I've submitted "My Numbers" for my own sheet. So the column to the far right represents my own picks as well this weekend (fingers crossed real tight), but here's how the rest of the crowd's picks look as of 11:30 P.M. CST on Saturday night:

Week 13 Picks: Keeping the tradition alive

I tried explaining that line of numbers that appears under each one of my picks every week way back in Week Nine of the 2008 season, but I don't think the explanation was quite as clear as it could have been. So hopefully the little graphic to the left here, based upon the most recent Power Rankings, is somewhat more helpful in explaining how "the numbers" work for me.

It's relevant this week because Week 13 has officially become the one time of the season in which I crunch my numbers and go with with whatever they say, regardless of what my gut might be telling me. The result was first-place finishes in both 2008 and 2009.

So I'm including tonight's matchup for my example of how this formula works.

You couldn't care less: Another fantasy update

Your author is hard-pressed to think of something that can cause an immediate loss of interest quite like hearing about someone's fantasy team. Having friends and co-workers recite their rosters with no real purpose other than to gloat about conquering leagues you're not involved in seems quite banal and pointless, no?

That said, the author knows full well that you the dear reader probably also couldn't give two shits about whatever fantasy team he's gone and created after so many years of taking that road less traveled where non-participation seemed cooler. Now the author has multiple fantasy teams, and while he tries mightily not to bring those into the other posts here on BMC that you might actually read, every once in a while, if for no other purpose than to help him remember who he had on such teams in a given year, he likes to keep a recorded entry of how he's done.

This is one of those times. Your non-interest in the remainder of this post is understood.

Week 12 Power Rankings: Checkin' these twice

There were certainly a number of photo/video moments I could have used to accompany this post as it related to Week 12 in the NFL. The unfortunate dropped would-be game-winning touchdown in Buffalo was certainly a candidate, although a late missed field goal in Cleveland was another near-disaster in terms of possible points lost. Cortland Finnegan and Andre Johnson's entertaining little scrum was also considered, but I just used a punch being thrown yesterday "last week." In the end though, I think that this lovely image sort of relates to how my confidence pool luck has been going as of late, with myself hoping to creep back up into the lead like a warm fart. Sure, it'll cause some people to wince, but right now, nobody really notices.

My picks for the week earned me another 107 points, so they didn't stink too bad. But there were unfortunately some other folks who came out smelling like roses.