I finished dead at .500 picking every NFL game of the season against the number; do with that what you will as you approach these thoughts.
Week One Winners:
AFC: New England, NY (that's a change, upon further review. Kick isn't for a few hours)
NFC: Dallas, Green Bay
Week Two Winners:
AFC: Indianapolis, San Diego
NFC: New Orleans, Minnesota
Conference Titles:
AFC: Indianapolis over San Diego
NFC: New Orleans over Minnesota
Super Bowl 44:
Indianapolis over New Orleans
As for the lines this week, you shouldn't play any of them. Really, if you want to invest, invest in season long win totals, not specific games and really not playoff games. The Packers are getting a point and I think they win outright, so if you must. I've now jumped on the Jets and they're getting a field goal.
I picked the Chargers in pre-season (which you can find around here someplace) so if they win, I'll claim a victory there also (double dip! good times).
Who am I rooting for - the way I do this really is, as a 49er fan, is to work backwards from whom I'd least like to see win. Hateraid is sports fans' fuel.
12. Philadelphia - this is a marked change for me, I've always thought of the Eagles as the team I least disliked in the entire NFC, but as you could find elsewhere on this page, I now root against them each week as they employ (and laud) Mike Vick. Let that be a warning to the rest of the league - Vick's gonna go somewhere else next year - and then I'll root against you too.
11. Minnesota - Favre. I can't recall the last time I actively rooted for Brett Favre. Perhaps never.
10. Dallas - It's the Cowboys. Who could root for the Cowboys? Have I ever, in a single instance, ever rooted for the Dallas Cowboys? It would be like rooting for your boss or a minister who dislikes dancing.
I recognize my NFC options are dwindling. Goddamn Eagles screwed me with this Vick thing.
9. New England - The current evil empire; this is strictly sports fan hateration, I only dislike them for their success (Favre I dislike for the same reason that Kirk Hiner Hates Madonna, which you can also find somewhere on this page - and Dallas is the single smarmiest sports franchise in North American history).
8. Indianapolis - which, since I'm picking them to win the thing, isn't ideal. Again, hateration, I'd rather Manning didn't win another title. It's a tide I cannot stop, but Manning will probably retire as the consensus choice for best QB ever and one more SB is probably all he'd need to get there.
7. Arizona - only because they're in my division and I don't personally care for Warner. If he were to get knocked out and Leinart were to play, I'd root for Leinart as would all good Trojans.
6. Green Bay - the stick it to Favre factor weighs in their favor, but I've got lots of years of irritation at the Packer fans being framed as all that is good and white...er...right with the NFL. And somehow the Lambeau leap is just good clean fun but every other touchdown celebration is an affront to decency.
5. San Diego - I wrote a piece about political contributions by NFL teams a few months ago - the Chargers dwarf the rest of the league, and have been overwhelmingly right wing in their donations.
4. Baltimore - the Ray Lewis stuff gets a little exhausting, it's overly messianic for my taste.
3. New Orleans - the economic impact to the poor and working class will be way overblown, what Katrina allowed New Orleans to do was gentrify.
2. New York - I enjoy when the New York teams who don't usually do well, do well (like the Knicks, for example, I'd like to see LeBron go to the Knicks, that would be fun to me) and Sanchez (although clearly being over his head this year) is one of my guys.
So - the team I'm rooting for to win Super Bowl 44...
1. Cincinnati.
-they've got multiple Trojans, I like Ochocinco's act, they've never won before, and a weird Super Bowl run would mean clips of their previous SB losses, which were, of course, to my Niners.
Go Bengals.
