Colts.
Chargers.
Saints.
Cowboys.
In Rnd One, I split, I had Dallas, but lost with GB (fun game) and had the Jets but lost with NE.
The game I've switched here from my opening playoff picks is Dallas/Minnesota - I had the Vikes going to the NFC Title game originally, but now I'm moving to Dallas.
As for the numbers - Dallas is getting 2 1/2, so obviously that's a number I like. The Saints are giving 7, if you could get that a half point cheaper I'd feel okay about laying the wood. The Colts are giving 6 1/5, if you could get another half point then the Ravens start to look really attractive. The Jets are getting 7 if I had to play that game, I'd take them.
(edit - I feel the same way about all 4 games upon additional reflection, but now a little more confidently, you might be able to get the Cowboys plus a full 3 without buying a half point, and that would be good for you to do - I like the Saints, even without buying the half point; the Ravens are fine with me at 6 1/2 - and you don't need completion to like the Jets getting 7, you can play it and feel okay).
The big sports story of the week for me is USC, and that will find its way into Tendown; I don't have it in me to rehash my steroid thoughts with McGwire's admission this week, except to say that the bucket of self righteousness carried around by the American sportswriter is bottomless. For years, what they say is "why can't someone who hasn't been caught red handed admit to what he did and apologize."
Well, that happened this week and McGwire got eviscerated. And it was less that anyone disputed him on the facts "you took more than you are saying" - the anger was about meaning - McGwire said steroids helped him recover but not hit a baseball; the reaction to that wasn't "premium athletes tend to be a little delusional about their own abilities; wasn't Roy Jones knocked out a couple of weeks ago" instead it was, "this is a lie, everything is a lie, lie, lie, lie."
What sportswriters want to hear is for McGwire to accept in whole their interpretation of steroids (one which isn't supported by evidence, and one with which I don't agree) that steroids = everything is fraudulent. They want to hear "none of it was real, all of my home runs should be taken away as they were all due to demonic drugs."
McGwire's not saying that isn't a lie - it's a disagreement with the shallow analysis of mainstream commentators.
We love our pound of flesh; we can't wait to hear Tiger ask for our forgiveness so we can refuse it to him. Me, I'd rather him say he owes his family but the rest of us can go screw ourselves. The celebrity perp walk has become our new national pastime.
