Quick Picks: Week 6

Since last week's picks dragged on a little because of the number of games being played and since my fellow bingbonger Steve usually tickles the ivories when it comes to the weekly betting lines, I figured I'd throw you guys a quick article on my picks for some of Sunday's big games.  (Note: these picks are simply who I think will win the game, not cover the betting line...you'd be amazed how many people couldn't differentiate that last week.)

Ravens @ Vikings = RAVENS
-The Vikings are going to try to play mistake-free football with short passes from Favre and good running from AP.  The only problem with that is the Ravens are allowing 76 rushing yards per game and Ray Lewis is now doubly-pissed after being fined this week.  Once the Vikings are unsuccessful running AP and the Ravens get out to an early lead, my prediction -- as somewhat of a Favre expert -- is that he'll panic way too early, try to put the game on his shoulders, and start throwing the ball deep only to find the best receiver on the field: Ed Reed.

Giants @ Saints = GIANTS
-I'll choose defense over offense any day of the week and although New Orleans also has a good D, I'm going with the G-Men.  Eli Manning is playing with an air of confidence that could make him a downright scary quarterback.  I haven't seen the "Eli face" in almost a year now.  Though he'll never be as good as brother Peyton, in my opinion, he'll be better than Brees this week.

Cardinals @ Seahawks = CARDINALS
-I'm still not buying the Seahawks despite a blowout win over the Jaguars.  The Cardinals have to start getting in better sync on offense and know they have to notch a win this week before heading into New York next week to face the G-Men.  Though it pains me to watch Tim Hightower and his impressive career 2.9 ypc, I still stick by Kurt, Larry, and Anquan.  Watching Tim Hightower run is like watching a good runningback try to run through molasses -- god, I hate him.

Bears @ Falcons = FALCONS
-Things are only starting to heat up for Matty Ice and the Burner and they're not going to cool down against the Bears at home even following a bye week for Chicago.  Matt Forte had his typical 100-yard game against a terrible defense so Bear fans still consider him a god, but he should be penciled in for his typical 20-60-0 performance.  Fear not though Bear fans, you guys play the Browns in a few weeks, you can anoint him the next Walter Payton after his big game against them.  Word to the wise for any Forte owners out there: if you have your eye on a fantasy championship this season, you better take a good look at that Forte vs. Minnesota match-up in Week 16.

Broncos @ Chargers = BRONCOS
-I'll admit, I was impressed by the Broncos and McDaniels last week.  Perhaps I spoke too soon on the young coach, but he still has 11 games to go.  The Chargers have been "the team to beat" for the better part of this decade and every year Norv Turner shows his brilliant coaching skills by choking away their talent like Tommy Boy chokes away a sale.  I hope Champ Bailey gets a chance to make Philip Rivers stuff his foot in his big trash-talking mouth.

Lions @ Packers = PACKERS
-Okay, so this isn't a "big game", but what do you want from me?  I haven't had a chance to see my boys play in almost two weeks.  Megatron and Stafford aren't playing, we just re-signed Mark Tauscher, Rodgers hasn't been sacked in 11 days...I'm a little excited.  Besides, if the Packers DON'T win this game...well...you're probably not going to see or hear from me for a very long time.

Fantasy Sleeper of the Week: Bryant Johnson, WR Lions.  I know I'm expecting the Pack to win big this week, but that means there's going to be plenty of garbage time for Culpepper to be tossing the ball around and my boy Al Harris can never be ruled out to get beaten deep at least once.  Expect a line of about 5-80-1 out of the smaller and lesser Johnson.

Fantasy Worry of Week: Steve Smith, WR Panthers.  I love the guy, I just don't think him blowing up against the Bucs is as set in stone as you'd think.  Smith is a game-changer for sure, but John Fox might use him to distract the Bucs D while he pounds the run with DeAngelo and Stewart.  I also don't trust Jake Delhomme like I used to.

Enjoy the games.  I'll see you all again on Monday.

-Dave

Gamblers Anonymous: Prop Bets Part II and Week 6 NFL Picks

Lots of nonsensical prop bets to discuss so let’s get right to Part II:

Name of Prop: Pot Belly Belly Buster Challenge
Amount: Completion of the bet covered a day’s worth of food (roughly $150), losing the bet required the competitor to pay for two lunches ($30).
Description: Between takeoff and the end of the fasten seat-belt sign, eat 4 Pot Belly breakfast sandwiches with ingredients chosen by the financers.
Story: As we saw from 'Shirtless at 3,500 feet,' an airport waiting area is a disaster for hungry gamblers on the way to Vegas – especially at 8 am. My friend Ari and I bet prop veteran Kevin Johnson he could not eat four breakfast sandwiches between take off and the fasten seat belt sign going off (roughly 30-45 minutes). The catch was Ari and I got to create the sandwiches and KJ wouldn't know what was in them until biting into them on the plane. The sandwiches contained variations of the following: egg, cheese, mushrooms (lots of mushrooms), sausage, bacon, ham, peanut butter.

What we learned: The mushrooms and peanut butter didn't nearly throw KJ for a loop as much as the relentless taste of greasy eggs. The end result was KJ begged us for mercy after being unable to get past the 2 1/2 sandwich mark. To get out of the bet, Ari and I agreed that he had to take two shots of Jack Daniels (10am mid-flight). I've never been so disgusted in my entire life (I took out my doggy bag it got that bad) while hysterically laughing at the same time. KJ took down the two shots literally holding a barf bag up to his mouth.

Name of Prop: Don't Drink the Water, There's E Coli in the Water
Amount: $60 for completion of the bet

Description: Very simple: Drink the water in a vodka bottle where dead flowers sat for roughly 10 months.

Story: This one is a tad anti-climatic, but scary to think about. We offered KJ (who else) $60 to drink what can loosely be described as water after having dead flowers sit in a bottle for 10 months. The water could only be described as a cloudy mixture of bacteria, fungus and who knows what else. The CDC is currently investigating if this is where Swing Flu originated. Fortunately (or unfortunately for the end of this story) KJ did not suffer any kind of health issue that would be funny to end this column with. In retrospect, this was borderline dangerous...which leads us to...

Prop bets nixed to safety (but funny ideas…ok maybe only funny to me don’t judge me!):

'I’ll have the roast duck with the mango salsa, and a side of pennies': This bet almost happened right after the flower water, where KJ was going to swallow a penny. After some extensive Googling, we found out that swallowing a penny after 1971 could lead to a hole in your stomach. Thankfully, you can find anything on the internet these days.

Right Wing Revenge: Ari and I are a bad influence on each other, and one has to question why KJ is friends with us after this proposed bet. We wanted to bet KJ to have unprotected sex with a girl who is known to be VERY pro-life. The terms of the bet were:

- Father a child
- $10,000 a year for the first 18 years of the kids life
- Ari and I get to be present at all birthdays through the age of 18

I think it goes without saying why this was nixed. We felt $10K a year wasn’t enough money for the kid to have KJ as a father, given his higher death potential from taking our prop bets.

Finally, here are two bets for the readers if anyone is interested:
8 to 1 odds on $800 for each:
1) We are looking for someone willing to stand in a sidewalk square in NYC (square can be negotiated) for 24 hours without leaving the square. Bathroom breaks may be negotiable.
2) An offer I made to fellow BingBonger David Silverstein – live in our building elevator for 24 hours without leaving, getting kicked out or telling anyone what you’re doing in there. Again, bathroom breaks negotiable.

On to week 6 in the NFL:

LOCK OF THE WEEK: Chiefs +6.5 over Redskins – Well, if this is what it takes to jump start the Skins, so be it.

GMEN FTW: Giants +3 over Saints, Giants money line – I know why the Saints are favored by 3 at home (this game is essentially a pick’em), but to me the Giants are the best team in the NFL.

I’m Bringing Hassel-back: Seattle -3 over Cardinals – Seattle rolled the Jags last week, and they are one of the toughest teams in the NFL at home.

I think I went to High School with Josh McDaniels: Chargers -3 over Broncos – everyone is taking the Broncos and the points on early betting, but the Chargers at home off the bye should prevail and cover.

Over 3:1-Rod! Yankees over the Angels in 6 (pays 13/4): Bet it!

Goodell has been fine

I personally think that Roger Goodell has been fine as a disciplinarian for the NFL. His idea to handle everything on a case by case basis has been good for the league as I see it. While it lends itself to a lot of criticism, the fact of the matter is that every case isn't the same, and every player isn't the same, so they should be looked at with that in mind.

Looking at the Stallworth situation, he said to himself, "This guy killed a man this past offseason, can I really let him play this year?" The answer, of course, was no, and he suspended him accordingly. I find nothing wrong with this vs. the Vick suspension, which was after the man had already spend 2 years in jail. Just cause Stallworth was able to pay off a family and avoid serious jailtime, he shouldn't be allowed to play this year.

I'm sure most have seen Chris "Maddogg" Russo's rant on Goodell, and how he had handled the Pacman situation at the time(if you haven't, please immediately search for it on youtube). But once Goodell found out all the facts and sat down with Pacman, he suspended him as he saw fit.

Put it this way. Ask any NHL fan if they'd trade Goodell's method for Colin Campbell's ridiculous way he handles the NHLs "case-by-case" basis for on-ice transgressions and they'll take Goodell in a heartbeat

Goodell is an improvement

Overall, Goodell has done a tremendous job at holding players accountable for their actions. In ANY other profession, you don't get your job back after making it rain in a strip club on video and lying to police about someone getting shot. Goodell is the commissioner and has the right to play judge and jury as he sees fit, just as the CEO of a company could fire an employee for screwing the secretary on the copy machine.

We can sit here and banter over the details of case to case...the reality is neither I nor Noah and Dave possibly know completely what happened in the alleged incidents. Additionally, we have no idea what gets said to Goodell by the players in the incidents, police or anyone else for that matter. Goodell is a man who doesn't publically release these details, so we are really guessing based on media reports at times if we dive into the details.

I think his case by case assessment has been GENERALLY good. Pacman has been a continued idiot, and got what he deserved. I’m going to have to vehemently disagree on the criticism of the Vick case by other BingBongers. Look at the strides Vick took in prison to right his wrong. He reformed, he met with league mentor Tony Dungy who reported to Goodell on his progress, he plans to be involved in animal rights campaigns and was very forthcoming to Goodell after all his mistakes.

And I don’t care if I lose PETAs support on this blog - you can’t tell me killing an animal is on the same level as a human. I’m not saying it’s right – but it’s NOT the same. Finally, I will end my argument with pointing out that Dante Stallworth’s Madden 2004 awareness rating was a historically low 39…so lord only knows how he described the incident to Goodell.

Burner

While I don't share Noah's enthusiasm on the TV-screen situation, it is pure naivety if you think Jerry Jones wasn't well aware of how low the screen would hang down and to play dumb on the matter was childish and Goodell should have fined him for it and made him donate the money to charity or something, but that controversy is over and done with.

This Cable thing really is appalling though.  Any time any allegations have been made against an NFL player (Vick, Stallworth, etc.) Goodell has come out and suspended the player indefinitely awaiting information and clarification on what had taken place.  However, a Raiders assistant coach is walking around with a broken jaw and Tom Cable is still out there on the sidelines every Sunday?  Something doesn't sound right here.  And it all goes back to my belief that Roger Goodell considers himself the 10th Justice of the Supreme Court.

Take Michael Vick and Donte Stallworth for example.  (Before I continue, I want to make it absolutely clear that I do NOT in any way condone Vick or Stallworth's actions, but am simply trying to make a point.)  Michael Vick was found guilty of dog-fighting charges and spent two years in jail.  When his sentence was up, he was allowed back in the NFL by Roger Goodell, after only a two game suspension.  Donte Stallworth, on the other hand, was sentenced to 30 days in jail for vehicular manslaughter and when he was done paying his debt to society he came out and was suspended for the ENTIRE season.

Now I'm not saying that a 30-day prison sentence is justifiable for taking a human life, but that was the punishment that a United States judge decided.  Whether or not that seems right or fair, it's not Roger Goodell's place to make up for what he feels might be an unfair punishment.  That just doesn't seem right to me.  Both players served their debt to society (technically) yet Vick is playing and Stallworth is out for the whole year.  This all just goes back to my original point that there is no precedence in place for player punishments and until there is, Goodell will continue to hand out suspensions and fines based on his own personal beliefs.

Noah's Burner Response

What Goodell is doing with Cable is beyond disturbing. Frankly, I believe that Roger Goodell is legitimately scared of two people in the entire National Football League, and wouldn't dare ruffle the feathers of these two gentlemen or the franchises they run. Those men are: Jerry Jones and Al Davis.

Let's look back at this ridiculous scenario regarding the Cowboys' new stadium and its totally not obnoxious TV screens. Yes, the screens were high enough pursuant to league regulations. But can you honestly say that, were this to happen in Detroit or Minnesota, Goodell wouldn't have intervened and demanded something be done to move the screens out of any potential reach of a kick or punt? And yet, when it's Jerry Jones, who pretty much runs the league at this point, Goodell didn't utter a peep. And, as Dave said, Flozell Adams continues to put defensive linemen in serious danger with his penalties, and yet Adams simply gets "drop-in-the-bucket" fines that mean nothing and will not serve as a disincentive to continue his behavior. Amazing.

And now Goodell is resting on his laurels when Tom Cable, who I'm shocked doesn't have roots here in New Jersey (maybe he does). I'd bet he's steering clear of this debacle since that old curmudgeon Al Davis is sitting on his coop out there in Oakland, just waiting for the league to do something he doesn't like.

I've praised Goodell in the past for taking a hard line on the NFL's behavioral issues because, frankly, something had to be done. But now that he is clearly showing preferential treatment to a select couple teams, he comes off as a complete coward.

-Noah

Burner Response

I'm glad you brought that up, Jeff, because personally I've been shocked and confused at some of the punishments Dictator Goodell has doled out since taking over.  My main problem is that he has no precedence in his suspensions and fines.  There's no clear rule that states: "if you do _____, you will be suspended for ______ games or fined _____ dollars."  Through the first three weeks of this season, Flozell Adams was fined for a cumulative $25,000 for penalties.  The guy's a total animal and one of his penalties even injured a player (Justin Tuck), yet Goodell would rather keep fining him than placing his fat ass on a bench like he deserves.  Is this supposed to send a message to the rest of the league that if you earn a high salary you can commit as many penalties as you want, write a check, and not have to worry about missing playing time?  Someone needs to let Goodell know; this isn't Nam, this is football, there are rules.

Burner of the Week

"How can the NFL crackdown so hard on its players' conduct (i.e. demanding face to face with Braylon, expelling Pac Man) while completely ignoring the fact that Raiders Head Coach Tom Cable punched out an assistant (First degree Assault and Battery)? Commissioner Goodell stated that he will not address Cable unless Cable is convicted in a court of law. Yet, he demanded a face-to-face with Braylon when nobody knows what really happened in his fight. By the way, what are the odds that Braylon Edwards ends up in jail? Not longer than 3-1. (Don't forget Braylon was the guy who got Donte Stallworth all liquored up the night of his DWI/homicide.)" -Jeff A., New Jersey

Thanks for the question, Jeff.  What do you think, guys?  Is Goodell being too hard and fast with his disciplinary actions based off his own personal feelings?

"Burner" Postponed

That's right loyal bingbong readers. Unfortunately this week's Burner has been postponed until tomorrow due to time constraints among the bingbong squad today. The good news though is you all have one more day to get your questions and topics into us to decide what tomorrow's Burner will be about. This week's voting will start tomorrow at noon and run through til Friday at noon. Tune in to see if Lugerner can defend his week 1 title and don't forget to send your questions/comments to bingbongsports@gmail.com. Thanks for understanding.

-bingbong

Lugie's List: The Weekend in Sports - PARLAY-ROD!

First, I want to set the record straight for my readers. No, I was not that fan in Minnesota last night running on the field trying to jump the centerfield wall. The most running I did all weekend was the jog to my apartment door to pay for delivery. Remember, laziness wins out over drunken-craziness.

(currently calling my attorney to trademark this phrase)

Is this Monday/Tuesday column starting to look a lot like Peter King’s Monday Morning Quarterback? Probably. Is he a more established writer than me? Most definitely (Most Def for those from West Baltimore). Are you reading this column over his right now? Game-set-match Lugerner.

Here is what I got:

1. I guess I’ll start with the Deadskins. Really can’t lose in more embarrassing fashion. Botching a punt that leads to the game winning TD by Carolina. Then, with a chance to make a stop on 3rd down and get the ball back…Carolina runs a bootleg with Jake “cement blocks on my feet” Delhomme…who then proceeds to JUKE-OUT Redskins cornerback Deangelo Hall for the game sealing first down. Let me put this into terms our average reader can understand:

2010 Madden Ratings:
Deangelo Hall: 97 speed, 95 agility, 96 acceleration
Jake Delhomme: 64 speed, 64 agility, 63 acceleration

Feel free to check out the link at the end of this post regarding Deangelo COMPLAINING about his Madden rating preseason. FML.

2. Yankees-Twins Game 2 of the ALDS Friday night was one of the best games I’ve been fortunate enough to witness. I’m still catching my breath. For all the crap Yankee fans get for trashing A-Rod all these years (and in my opinion a great deal of it is deserved), I’ve never seen a fan base want a player to succeed more than Yankee fans wanted A-Rod to hit a home run in the bottom of the 9th – it was like the entire stadium willed that ball over the fence. And no, this is not an uncommon site from any team in at the end of a tight game, but given A-Rod’s history in New York, there was something extra behind this moment.

3. I wasn’t able to see the fair-foul ball from where I was sitting during Game 2, but had that call not been botched the Twins would have scored a run to take the lead in the 11th. This has been beaten to death at this point, but why couldn’t we have replay for this type of call? I’m guessing you wouldn’t be able to “assume” a double, but the Twins were absolutely robbed here and baseball can’t stand for that. Ironically, by the 11th inning the Yankees were all but through their “between inning” video montages – so the inning before they showed a piece on the Jeffrey Maier incident from the 1996 ALCS.

4. First, I win the very first ever Burner of the Week on BingBong, then see the Yankees pull out Game 2, and for a Sunday finale, the Red Sox get swept, the Pats buckle in Denver and Peyton Manning caps off a very good weekend in sports betting. Only thing this weekend needed was a 45 minute craps throw with Gisele Bundchen on my arm – had that happened I’d probably have just quit life right then and there. So close.

5. I’m never betting against Tim Tebow ever-ever-ever. He has me realistically considering converting to Christianity to help with my sports bet picking.

6. Why I hate Apple people: “Also – every good blog has an iPhone app…something to think about” – Dan Fleeter. I’ll talk to our IT team.

7. How do you know when a pop song will stand the test of time as an all-time great? Here is the threshold: when you begin to question the sexuality of heterosexual males around you who belt out the song in crowded parties/bars, the song has made it to the top. Miley Cyrus Party in the USA has reached this level.

8. I’m going to try and put together an article regarding intro songs over the next few weeks and would love to get reader feedback/thoughts. On the subject, is Derek Jeter coming out to Empire State of Mind the most obvious choice for an intro song of all-time? It’s pretty awesome to see nonetheless.

9. Hmm…the other 3 BingBong contributors all picked the Cardinals…with two of them putting them in the World Series (more or less)…The Torre Series is ALIVE!

10. Sunday Night TV Ratings: Peyton Manning A+++; Californication A-; Dexter B+; Curb Your Enthusiasm B-; Bored to Death B-

Deangelo Hall link: http://blog.redskins.com/2009/06/01/deangelo-hall-is-a-little-angry-with-ea-sports/