Championship weekend picks

San Diego (-14.5) at New England- If the game were at San Diego, and the Chargers were at full strength, the Chargers could win. If New England had spent the season running their running backs into the ground, the Patriots could lose. But none of that has/will occur. So New England wins. I have no clue if they'll cover- I'll say yes. New England by 15 or more. I'm bad at this anyway. Thank goodness no one is reading this.

New York (-7) at Green Bay- Why do people live in Green Bay? It's so cold so much of the time. I went to Winnipeg, a city in the prairies of Canada in October, and it was in the 40's most of the time. The city is below freezing from December thru February. And people say things like, "It's fine- I can leave the car at home and skate to work." That's crazy talk. And you never want to fight crazy people, you don't know what they'll do. Green Bay (only crazy people live there) will win by more than 7 points.

Please remember- the difference in talent level on NFL teams (and in playoff teams who make it this far) is so small, that one of these games will be close. Evaluated individually, I can't figure which one. But one of them will be.

Playoff picks

I may be the worst football prognosticator ever- and I am definitely one of the worst when you consider I have been a fan all of my life. But somehow, last week I got all 4 games right. This week, I'll try picking against the spread:

Seattle (+8) at Green Bay- This reminds me of last year's Seattle at Chicago game. I justdon't think Seattle has the horses to win this one, or cover the spread.

Jacksonville (+13.5) at New England- Everyone is questioning the Patriots, and they do not like that. And they have been saving their running game for the playoffs. Jacksonville is good, but their coaching staff got lucky with clock management last week. They burned their last time out on a challenge they were sure to lose. New England covers.

San Diego (+9) at Indianapolis- I don't like the Colts, so no commentary. Colts will beat the spread.

New York Giants (+7.5) at Dallas- Why don't they make all spreads some derivative of 0.5? Then there would be no ties. Dallas barely beat the Giants twice this year. Even without a healthy TO, Dallas wins, but doesn't cover. Why aren't the sports pundits talking about a gimpy Plaxico Burress- he was in better shape when the Cowboys and Giants played both games, too.

Lives worth living

Stories of 2 men who were on top of the world, Sir Edmund Hillary- the first (known) man to scale Mt. Everest, and Clayton Holmes- member of 3 Super Bowl Champion Dallas Cowboys teams.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/world/5445316.html
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=pearlman/080110&sportCat=nfl

If you knew who Tenzing Norgay was before reading these, I'm impressed.

Seriously, this just makes for an interesting contrast.

Wild Card picks

Remember, I am not good at this. And I don't know the point preads. So if you use this advice- you are dumber than me.

New York over Tampa Bay- TB lost to the Texans when they cared, and they haven't played a meaningful game in 3 weeks. The Giants nearly beat the Patriots and twice nearly beat the Cowboys.

Seattle over Washington- Eventually, the 'Skins are going to have an emotional crash.I hope it's next week, but it's too hard to keep playing on emotion for 6 weeks. Especially with Todd Collins at QB.

Jacksonville over Pittsburgh- Too many injuries for the Steelers. But I'm rooting for them.

San Diego over Tennessee- Too many injuries for the Titans. But I'm rooting for them.