Category Archives: Football

It’s that time of year again! For those of you unfamiliar with this little feature, I enjoy football. So each week, I attempt to predict the winners of  NFL games, doing so with pop culture/geek references or other things I think might be funny.

Your mileage may vary on that last bit.

To kick us off this season, here are my playoff predictions, which I’ll revisit in week 9 or thereabouts to see how horrible I’m doing:

• AFC Division Winners: Baltimore, Denver, Indianapolis, New England
• AFC Wild Cards: Miami, Pittsburgh
• NFC Division Winners: Arizona, Carolina, Dallas, Green Bay
• NFC Wild Cards: Philadelphia, Seattle
• Super Bowl 50: Green Bay over Indianapolis

Of course, I could be very, very wrong. There are a lot of games. Here’s how my prognostication went over the last two seasons:

• 2014: 171-83 (.673) regular season, 8-3 (.727) playoffs
• 2013: 164-91 (.643) regular season, 6-5 (.545) playoffs

As you can see, I’m improving, and last season I did better than the majority of these guys, who are paid to prognosticate. Hey, ESPN…call me.

Without further adieu, on with the first picks of the 2015 season! (Winning pick is in italics.) Continue reading →

All right, people. It’s been a great season of strange prognostication with bonus geek culture references, and it all comes down to this Sunday in Phoenix — the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks, with the One Ring to Rule Them All on the line.

No matter which side you choose, you gotta know this will be a close one. Of course, we said that last year and Seattle surprised everyone by making Denver look like an ineffective squad of Star Wars stormtroopers. (That may have been a redundant adjective.) So anything’s possible, I suppose. Still…gonna be close.

Let’s break it down.  Continue reading →

Last week, shortly after I published my divisional picks, fellow author and football fan Wesley Chu let it be known he disagreed with my prognostication:

Now, last weekend’s picks were pretty conservative — higher-seeded home teams across the board — but I didn’t really see the upsets happening (and I was quite wrong about Denver over Indy). So when Wes suggested a Twitter bet on ‘Boys-Pack, I took him up on it, with the winner Tweeting nice things about the loser. The result:

That last one, man. That was awesome. That’s why Wes is a successful writer, because of creativity like that. (I have no comment about band camp.)

To be fair, I would’ve been the one singing his praises if Dez Bryant’s catch-that-wasn’t ended up being a catch, but saying good things about Wes is pretty easy because he’s good people. Wes has two books coming out this year: The Rebirths of Tao, which wraps up his excellent Tao trilogy, and Time Salvager, which promises to be just as awesome. Go pre-order those now — no really, now — then come back for my championship picks below.

Continue reading →

I’ve seen it touted in two separate places that this weekend represents the very best weekend of NFL football on offer this season — and honestly, it’s hard to disagree.

It wasn’t easy watching the Cardinals limp off the field in Carolina after that devastating loss, and we knew full well that the Colts would handle the Bengals. To my surprise, the Steelers weren’t really in it against the Ravens, either. In fact, the only awesome game was Detroit-Dallas, and even that was rife with officiating hijinks.

So yes, maybe this is it — the granddaddy of all weekends. Tried and tested teams battling it out for the right to face off for one more game, with the winner of that one going to the Super Bowl. It’s all very epic, like a giant space opera. Let’s hope it’s not Spaceballs.

On with the picks!  Continue reading →

Finally…no more filler games.

You know the type. They’re like episodes of Doctor Who or Star Trek that don’t really advance the overall series plotlines or character arcs, and yet don’t pull their weight as individual episodes. This season, most of the games featuring the Oakland Raiders, New York Jets and Jacksonville Jaguars were fillers. I feel bad for those teams, of course — nobody likes to lose — but competitive football games are simply far more entertaining.

And now we have full weekends of competitive games. Good stuff. But before I get into this weekend’s playoff picks, and in the interests of prognostication accountability, let’s see how my preseason and midseason playoff predictions held up:  Continue reading →

And so we have come to the final week of the season, wherein the vast majority of games are…well, meaningless. A few teams are jockeying for playoff positioning, but most everyone else is playing out the string. That strikes me as mildly depressing, but then, I live in the New York area. Football is depressing for us this year.

So to liven things up, I’m going to put an addendum onto my game listings. A (P) means there’s playoff implications for the team, while a (C) means that there’s a coach on the hot seat. Watching coaches squirm through what could be their final games may seem cruel to some, entertaining to others. It’s probably both.

Anyway, think of this as the intermezzo between the regular season and the playoffs next week. A little palate cleanser before we get to the entree.

On with the picks! (Winners in italics.)  Continue reading →

Well, look who’s getting hot late in the season — me.

I went 13-3 two weeks ago and 14-2 this time out, and my season record is better than most of these guys, who are paid to prognosticate about football. Will someone please pay me for this? Anyone? Bueller?

*crickets*

Fine.

We start this week’s slate with…potentially the worst game to ever be televised in prime time. I sincerely doubt that a pair of 2-12 teams have ever been featured in such a time slot. I remember getting excited to watch Star Trek: The Next Generation each week, back when it was first-run, but even that fine series had a clunker or two where they just talked about feelings and then dropped in a computer problem — no cool aliens, battles or alien worlds. The feelings I felt then are probably what you’ll feel if you watch tonight.

You have been warned. On with the picks. (Winners in italics.)  Continue reading →

I’m finally back in the greater New York City area after eight days on the West Coast, and despite the snow and cold that greeted me upon arrival, I’m glad to be home. And that means I can get this post done before the Thursday night game.

So you know how I said last week it’s officially panic time? There are definitely a few teams that were too busy playing Minecraft or binge-watching Red Dwarf to pay attention. Yes, I’m looking at you Cleveland, New Orleans, San Diego and especially San Francisco.

Niners…you lost to Oakland. Huge game, one you should’ve won, Bay Area bragging rights on the line — and you didn’t even show up. Granted, the traffic in the Bay Area is atrocious — worse than LA or NYC — and you might have stopped for coffee and fine SF/F novels at Borderlands Books on the way. Can’t blame you there. But still, that’s absolutely unconscionable. And it’s just going to get worse now.

Now that I’ve taken SF to task, on with this week’s picks! (Winners in italics.)  Continue reading →

I’ve been traveling this week and missed getting my picks out the door in time for Thursday night’s game, but I did throw out a pick on Dallas-Chicago last night via Twitter. And as you’ll see below, I got it right.

As for the rest, these are interesting times. The teams on the playoff bubble — and there are a lot — are looking like John Boyega in the Star Wars: The Force Awakens trailer. To wit:

Yep, it’s panic time. Specifically: Dallas (which took care of business), Philly, Detroit, Atlanta, New Orleans, Arizona, Seattle, San Francisco, Buffalo, Miami, the entire AFC North, Houston, San Diego and Kansas City. You all have a shot of going to the playoffs, but you all have to pick up your game. Time to make the Kessel Run in under 12 parsecs — every Sunday.

Now, on with the picks! (Winners in italics)  Continue reading →

First off, to all those in the U.S., Happy Thanksgiving. I hope you can enjoy your day with friends and family, and may you have lots to be thankful for.

And, of course, there’s football. I know I’ll be watching the early game on the iPad in the kitchen, toggling between the TV app and my recipes. I’ll probably miss the bulk of the second game, if only because it’s quite rude to watch football while at the table. As for game three…man, that looks good.

Indeed, this year’s Thanksgiving slate is excellent — nary a turkey among them, so to speak. Gone are the days when Detroit hosted the first game on Turkey Day and allowed teams to steamroll them. Competitive football is a beautiful thing.

Here’s my picks for Thanksgiving and the rest of the week. Remember, if you use these picks to wager money, I can guarantee you will lose money, and I don’t need that pressure. You have been warned! Here we go. (Winners in italics.)  Continue reading →