The Fall of Tiger Woods

Never has an athlete fallen so fast, completely, and satisfyingly. Touted at once as a history-changing black man and the whitest man on the planet, he has managed to disappoint his most ardent supporters by being, well, black in their eyes. In the course of a long weekend he went from being the bright-eyed savior and living embodiment of the game of golf to a tabloid joke sending sports writers like Rick Reilly into hissy fits and hand-wringing worthy of a neurotic Jewish grandmother. Read between the lines of the commentary and you’ll find the khaki and loafer crowd dipping their heads in disappointment as the one black guy to whom they could all relate let them down by having even worse taste in whores than they do.

Andre Agassi’s Open

Most jock books follow a basic formula of airing some dirty laundry about fucking broads on the road, telling a coach to fuck off, and doing drugs in the bullpen. Rarely do they eviscerate the essential myths that hold up the construct that being a professional athlete is a dream come true. Andre Agassi’s blistering portrayal of himself is nothing less than exhilarating and refreshing and gives me reason to enjoy the sports world again. For all the bullshit and pomp we’re subjected to, sports are not simply unscripted competitions that challenge the essence of human endurance and focus, they are entertainment for the masses. Agassi’s frank admission that he not only spent an entire year on the ATP tour smoking and snorting meth while he tanked matches, but absolutely loathed the game of tennis, is an affirmation that not only is the grass not greener on the other side, but that your neighbor’s yard hides far more bodies than you would care to imagine.

LeBron James: King of the NBA

The general conceit is that professional athletes are childish dunces incapable of making any decision that does not revolve around choosing which club trollop they want to bring home each night. LeBron James is the best and brightest hope for destroying the myth that because you can play ball you cannot make moneymen do your bidding. Shortly after entering the NBA, James fired his professional handlers and agents and replaced them with friends and associates who were deemed amateurs and rubes. Now, one year away from free agency, those same rubes and supposed hoodlums have helped put James on everything from billboards to Nike commercials while helping to put him in position for the greatest free agent contract in the history of the NBA. Make no mistake; James is the greatest business talent to enter the NBA. Michael Jordan needed David Falk. James only needed himself.

18-1

Hubris is the enemy of success and the Patriots, of all teams, should have known better. Never before had a team come so far and done so much only to lose it all when it mattered most. The New England Patriots were on the doorstep of becoming the greatest team the NFL had ever seen, but they spent the lead up to their Super Bowl match up with the New York Giants inviting them to their victory party and talking about how the trip to Arizona was more like a vacation than a business trip. Whereas John Matuzsak and the Raiders spent the week before Super Bowl XV taunting the Eagles by brandishing their cocks and drinking Jack Daniels on Bourbon Street, the Patriots spent theirs granting interviews to Sports Illustrated behaving as if greatness was owed to them and speaking as if the Giants were rejects from the USFL. When they lost, Bill Belichick didn’t even have the decency to shake Tom Caughlin’s hand proving that the character of a man is displayed best when he fails, not when he is successful. Especially when he brings it upon himself.

Kobe Fucks a White Girl in the Ass

In the summer of 2003, Kobe Bryant traveled to Colorado to undergo some routine surgery on his knee. At the time, he was as big as Tiger Woods. He was doing McDonald’s commercials in Italian and was gracing Wheaties boxes, but after he fucked Katelyn Faber in the ass after she made it clear that her pussy would suffice, he was reduced to a childish dipshit who blew his slim chance to supplant Michael Jordan as the most popular basketball player of all time. Then, after the Lakers traded for Karl Malone and Gary Payton and financed the private plane rides back and forth to Colorado to deal with the courtroom drama, Kobe had the nerve to make public comments about Shaq doing the same sort of the thing but just paying the women off. In the end, Kobe got what he wanted – being the man in Los Angeles – but he lost everything he could have been.

Barry Bonds

Oh, Barry, my old friend, every time I think of you I smile. Sometimes I think back to that magical season in 1998 when Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire were stealing your thunder. Remember how you were the best player in the game, but two piece-of-shit hitters with huge holes in their game supplanted you in the press and dominated the headlines? Remember when you literally said, “fuck it,” in 1999 and did what every other asshole in baseball was doing and decided to go on the juice? I do. I loved every page of the leaked grand jury testimony that I read. I loved every second of the BALCO scandal. And I was in absolute rapture as you broke both the single-season and career home run marks while Bud Selig sat watching helplessly. And my heart sings every time I think of you because, without you, I never would have gotten to hear some pontificating dummy named Lance Williams from the San Francisco Chronicle tell me that it is crude to think that athletes will do whatever it takes to win no matter the legal consequences or the threat to their image or legacy. Barry, you will always be my hero.

The End of The Curse

Losing is an art, and for 85 years, no one did it with more style, class, panache, and inventiveness than the Boston Red Sox. Giving up game-winning home runs to overgrown midget shortstops, bumbling managers starting an ace on two days rest, letting Bob Stanley warm up – much less pitch – in a World Series game, selling Babe Ruth, humiliating Jackie Robinson during a tryout; yes, that was the Red Sox. However, in 2004 the greatest practitioners in the art of choking, fucking up, blowing it, and shitting the bed came all the way back from a 3-0 deficit to the Yankees in the ALCS to shock every sports fan on the planet before easily winning their first World Series since 1918. In game four, after decades of bad jokes and horrendous insults, you could actually hear the baseball gods say, “Enough is enough” and swing the momentum Boston’s way. Before anyone knew it, the Yankees were on the wrong end of the greatest comeback in the history of sports leaving their fans in the Bronx depressed and physically ill. That role reversal made for easily the most tangible proof that the world is not all evil.

Charlie Weiss: Charlatan, Con Artist, Fat

Notre Dame never knew what hit them. After being part of a coaching staff that won three Super Bowls in four years, Charlie Weis parlayed devising offensive game plans for Tom Brady into running one of the crown jewels of college football. After the Irish dumped Tyrone Willingham three years into a rebuilding project, Weis was feted as though there was a bidding war for his services even though no other team in football showed the slightest interest in hiring a guy who just had bariatric surgery and needed to be driven around in a gold cart. During his first two years, using talent procured by Willingham, Weis managed to convincingly lose two BCS bowl games and secure a 10-year multi-million-dollar extension. Over the next three years he embarked on a journey of mediocrity and failure that ended with him alleging on national radio that Pete Carroll was shacking up with 20-something-year-old grad students at the beach while he, of all people, was hounded by 60 Minutes for using foul language. There’s bitter and disappointed and then there is just plain classless, untalented and dumb, with Weis illustrating perfectly that success is not dependent on saying the right things at your first press conference. Not bad for a guy who never even played Pop Warner football.

The Oakland Raiders

Warren Sapp, sage, said it best: “Al Davis knows football. 1970’s football.” The problem with historical success is that when failure comes, you think it’s not your fault. Surrounded by pathetic enablers and yes men, Davis has provided some of the finest entertainment in sports by essentially firing Jon Gruden, re-hiring Art Shell, drafting JaMarcus Russell, and gracing us with the spectacle that is Tom Cable. Davis was once an iconoclast whose instincts and willingness to gamble brought him enormous success, but his dementia and his family’s unwillingness to put him a home has reduced the Raiders to a laughingstock on par with the Clippers. It’s sort of sad to see his corpse propped up and dressed in tacky tracksuits, but there is no better window into what the future ultimately holds for Jerry Jones.

Roger Federer is a Boring God

Not since Bjorn Borg wielded a wooden racket and wore grape smugglers has a player so dominated the game of tennis the way Roger Federer has. Though he is now on the wrong side of his prime, but still formidable, there was a five-year stretch where he was simply unbeatable. While players like John McEnroe, Borg, Andre Agassi and Jimmy Connors were painfully human and easy to root for because of their respective emotional outbursts and personal foibles, Federer has cultivated a business-like persona centered around the calm perfectionism, faux class, false modesty, and rigid professionalism that oozes from his perfectly tailored warm up suits and monogrammed socks. Winning his 15th Grand Slam title rocketed him into the stratosphere of the greatest professional athletes. His game is versatile, well-rounded, effective on all surfaces, and essentially perfect, but watching him – save for his matches against Rafael Nadal – is passionless, boring, disaffecting, and devoid of soul, making Ivan Lendl look like a rock star by comparison.

Adendum: Sports Related Youtube of The Decade

Houston @ Miami -3

Tony: Nice try, Sax. Like I’m going to spend any energy trying to pick this piece of shit. Miami will win this game by 24.

Dick: Houston is talented, dynamic, and young, but also incredibly inconsistent and unreliable. Andre Johnson is making noise about bailing if the Texans don’t make the playoffs. Even though the Dolphins have been reduced to Ricky Williams and a cloud of dust, they have better coaching than the Texans and play every game as if Bill Parcells will personally castrate them if they take a play off. Dolphins.

Sax: Kubiak is done. Sparano is not. It doesn’t take a particularly perceptive imagination to figure out which team is going to bring it in week 16. Dolphins are at home, spread is low, no-brainer. Which means Houston will probably win just because God hates me, but fuck it.

Jacksonville @ New England -7.5

Tony: New England is undefeated at home this year ant they’ve won two in a row. Jacksonville is 2-4 on the road, and they’ve lost two in a row. Also … Jacksonville Jaguars. Patriots.

Dick: Aside from Maurice Jones-Drew, the Jags are outclassed at every position by the Patriots. This is the sort of trap game the Patsies have become susceptible to because, frankly, they lose their focus unless they have the press breathing down their neck. Thanks to Randy Moss having a bad game and then being accused of being a washed-up pussy and loser, they got both. Expect gore. Pats by a lot.

Sax: The Pats are still coasting on the reputation they built in seasons past. Brady is hurt and even when he was “healthy” he was kind of a mess, their O-line is the most overrated unit in the history of football, and their secondary is absolutely hopeless, which wouldn’t be that much of an issue if they had any semblance of a pass rush. Which is not to say they will lose to the Jaguars, who are terrible. I just think this spread is too high.

Baltimore @ Pittsburgh -2.5

Tony: Everyone is saying how this game is supposed to be some Boise State – Fresno State barn burner because both defenses are hobbled. I think both of these teams have given up on life and this game will be less 45-42 and more 13-10. I guess Pittsburgh should win by at least a field goal.

Dick: Pittsburgh got away with one last week against Green Bay. They caught the Packers flat-footed early on and then got flat out lucky with a touchdown on the last play of the game. Baltimore is schizophrenic and incapable of carrying any sort of momentum over from one week to the next. They are also missing Ed Reed which means Ben Roethlisberger is going to eat the Ravens for lunch if he can extend some plays. I want to take Baltimore, but the Steelers are pulling one of their patented late-season dashes in spite of having almost no chance at the playoffs. Steelers.

Sax: Hines Ward is a fucking tool, Ben Roethlisberger is fat, Troy Polamalu is injured, and 10% of the population of the greater Pittsburgh area knows how to read. They will still beat the Ravens this weekend. If they weren’t division rivals, I might be inclined to take Baltimore just because, at 8-6, they actually have something left to play for, but the Steelers still probably harbor delusions of making the playoffs and they want to play spoiler for the Ravens anyway. Because they are dicks.

Denver @ Philadelphia -7

Tony: Mother of fuck, Corch Irvin Majors is resigning after the Sugar Bowl, citing health issues. Apparently, Mike Shanahan is on the short list of potential replacements. For those of you too lazy to Google, Shanny was the OC at Florida from 1980-1983. All of this clearly means Denver will cover at Philly this week. CLEARLY.

Dick: Donovan McNabb could beat the Broncos by six points by himself, but if he has Brian Westbrook and his fully intact brain in the backfield, the Eagles will win by 10. Denver’s early-season run was a fluke because they kept getting incredible breaks and weird plays going their way, but the reality is that they are thin on talent on offense, their coach is not that bright, and they get to play the Raiders and Chiefs twice a year. Eagles by a lot.

Sax: Philly is going to fucking destroy Denver whether or not Brian Westbrook plays. I just like putting these games on the slate because Tony will pick Denver no matter what and he is raping me.

Standings
1. Tony (31-24) (2-2 last week)
2. Dick (27-28) (1-3 last week)
2. Sax (23-32) (1-3 last week)

Dallas @ New Orleans -7

Tony: Apparently SOMEONE went to Miami last weekend and drank 715 adult beverages and forgot to write his weekly National Football League picks. I like how my absence leaves Sax helpless to do anything. Why didn’t you write my picks for me, you bitch? Sax is New Orleans and I am Katrina. Sax is also somehow Jerry Jones. And Dick is Mike Gundy from Oklahoma State. And I am LeBron James. Saints.

Dick: Dallas is a complete mess and going through its usual December tank job. Tony Romo is back to holding kicks for some inexplicable reason and Wade Phillips will be fired unless he wins the Super Bowl. The Saints are not really cruising so much as they are winning games on flukey plays and desperation because the defense is a sieve. Saints win, but by no more than four.

Sax: I don’t understand why teams hold onto guys like Wade Phillips. You KNOW he is a bad coach, but somehow it’s immoral to fire him because he didn’t do QUITE poorly enough last year, so you’ll let him stay one more year because there’s a 5% chance the Cowboys might not fall apart like they do at the end of every season? Honestly, it wouldn’t matter if they fired Phillips and brought in a re-animated Vince Lomardi this weekend, Drew Brees is playing the best football at the quarterback position I have ever seen.

Cleveland @ Kansas City -2

Tony: Let’s see … Pittsburgh won the Super Bowl last year and Cleveland recently beat Pittsburgh. So, Cleveland is scientifically the best team in the NFL. Browns.

Dick: If they were playing for the draft rights to Ndamukong Suh we could expect to see players fumble with purpose, passes crisply thrown to defenders, and defensive backs pretending to trip to guarantee a shot at possibly the best defensive line prospect since Mean Joe Green. But that one belongs to the Rams. Instead, this piece of shit will show why Matt Cassel is really a career backup while Eric Mangini tells everyone his plan to ruin both Derek Anderson and Brady Quinn is working to perfection. Since it’s in Kansas City and they have a decent running back, I’ll take the Chiefs.

Sax: Matt Cassel actually looked really good last year. Then again, Daunte Culpepper looked really good throwing to Randy Moss. So did a 48-year-old Randall Cunningham, who, contrary to the opinion of every black football fan, was not in fact the reincarnation of Jesus Christ. Tom Brady was pretty impressive before Moss got to New England, but he was apparently getting fed plays by guys who were stealing the opposing teams’ blitz signals. Ummm… I’m going to punch myself in the face until I forget having that last thought. As for the Bowl of Shit, I’m taking the Chiefs.

Green Bay @ Pittsburgh -2

Tony: What is this, 1998? Green Bay is solid at 9-4 (they finished 11-5 in ‘98), but their divisional rival, Minnesota, is a fucking powerhouse (currently 11-2, they finished ‘98 at 15-2, and, I don’t know if you heard, but the purple penises scored some points that year). Pittsburgh, on the other hand, is 6-7 and getting worse. They finished 7-9 in 1998 after losing their five final regular season games. Green Bay played at Pittsburgh on November 9, 1998, and Pittsburgh won 27-20. So, there you go. Boom. I should be a fucking sports writer. Steelers.

Dick: Oh, Pittsburgh, this has to be tough because you’ve lost to the Bengals twice and the Browns at home. Now, you’re going to lose to the Packers at home by way more than two points because your best players are hurt, your team has collapsed, and the Packers are gelling. This is going to get ugly fast. Packers by at least a touchdown.

Sax: I don’t trust Aaron Rodgers, and I can’t help but thinking the Steelers have a little something left in the tank, but these feelings are based on nothing, and every rational part of my brain is telling me to pick the Packers. Then again, I am a fucking idiot and getting my ass handed to me every goddamn week. I’m still taking the Packers.

Cincinnati @ San Diego -6.5

Tony: Chris Henry Chris Henry Chris Henry Chris Henry Chris Henry Chris Henry. I choose to believe that Cincy goes into this game fully ready to throw San Diego from the back of their pickup truck. I also choose to believe that this is the week San Diego’s luck runs out. Ochocinco is going to catch touchdown passes so hard they are each going to count for 12 points. Also, nobody likes San Diego including San Diego. Bangles.

Dick: The Bengals are going to come into the game bound and determined to win one for their emotionally unstable dead teammate. Usually, slapping a commemorative number on the back of the helmet inspires grown children Garanimal uniforms to victory, but in this case it has nothing on Phillip Rivers’ personal relationship with Jesus Christ who has let him know that while Chris Henry is in His arms, the game will belong to the Chargers. Chargers cover.

Sax: These are two teams moving in opposite directions. All of a sudden, those wins over the Steelers don’t look so impressive for Ochocinco and company, and the Chargers are marching through the league like Sherman on his way to the sea. I know the Bengals will all be pumped up by the memory of their teammate who in no way bears any responsibility for his death after jumping onto a moving pickup truck as the mother of his children fled from him, but it doesn’t matter. Chargers.

Standings
1. Tony (29-22) (2-2 last week)
2. Dick (26-25) (1-3 last week)
2. Sax (22-29) (1-3 last week)

Tennessee @ Indianapolis -6.5

Tony: It’s currently after 11PM on Saturday night and I am just now typing these picks to send to Sax, which is to say, who gives a fuck about this shit anymore? Uh … Vince Young is better than Tom Collins, but neither are better than Rod Flanders. Colts.

Dick: The Vince Young Rehab Express keeps on chugging along. I don’t know if he is bipolar or suicidal or what, but it sort of seems like he finally figured out that you can’t just run around and win games and that veiled suicide threats are really dumb and childish and decided to, like, learn how to play quarterback. Yes, he carved up Arizona and looked the Blue Fairy made him a real, live quarterback, but their defense is a colander, so I am far from impressed. However, they do have Chris Johnson, and he’s fucking amazing. if Young is just competent, that guy can break the game open. The Colts… are lucky. With all the injuries they’ve suffered they should have at least one or two losses, but Houston is gutless, Baltimore simply blew it, and Flanders is as clutch as Romo is choke. The Colts win a really tough one, but by no more than four.

Sax: The Colts keep pulling close wins out of their ass, they can’t sustain that for an entire season, the Titans are hungry/desperate, and this spread is too big. On the other hand, Vince Young vindicates all practitioners of phrenology. Still, this spread is too much. Titans.

Philadelphia @ Atlanta +5.5

Tony: Mike Vick returns to Atlanta. White people are pissed. Black people are stoked. Given the injuries Atlanta is dealing with, I’m surprised this line isn’t bigger. I can’t not pick the Falcons because Arty Blank reads this site, so … Falcons.

Dick: Don McNabb is really, really good. He’s been carrying the Eagles for years while idiots in Philly boo him, fat fuck Andy Reid drafts his replacement, and Rush Limbaugh keeps intimating that he’s taking a job from some phantom white man who is infinitely more qualified. He’s going to put on a fucking clinic in Atlanta. Did I mention that I used to work with McNabb’s center at Syracuse? He said he used to fart on McNabb’s hands just before snapping the ball to lighten him up. Anyone who can handle a white men passing gas on him during a football game can handle a measly 5.5-point spread. Eagles all the way, bitches.

Sax: So Atlanta is missing their starting QB and starting running back, right? I’m not imagining that? And this spread is less than a touchdown?

Minnesota @ Arizona +3.5

Tony: Is Kurt Warner still hurt? Here, let me just look it up on … oh, fuck it. Vikings by a hundred billion.

Dick: Vegas originally set the line on this one at two and I wondered why it was not multiplied by 10. Seriously, have you seen the Vikings this year? They are shitting all over teams. Didn’t you just see the Cardinals just lose to Vince Young in the fourth quarter? Oh wait, I really think Kurt Warner (and his 18th concussion) can avoid the Vikings pass rush and keep them in the game or even win because Larry Fitzgerald is Jehova at split end. Come on. And I don’t want to hear this nonsense about Adrian Peterson fumbling too much or that the Vikings have beaten a bunch of teams with losing records. Fumbles don’t mean shit when you hang 30 points a game on teams from Green Bay to Detroit to Baltimore to, yes, Arizona. There are only three really good teams in the NFL and the Cardinals are not one of them. Take this gift from Vegas.

Sax: Normally, I would be all set to take the Vikings here, but when Dick starts describing a line as a, “gift from Vegas,” it gives me pause, since he is, after all, an idiot. Still, there’s no fucking way I can pick against the Vikes with a spread that low.

Dallas @ NY Giants +2.5

Tony: It feels like all four AFC East teams play each other every single weekend. Yawn. Giants. (Editor’s Note: I think Tony meant “NFC East,” but I’m leaving that in there as punishment for his poor effort this week.)

Dick: The Cowboys are going to destroy the Giants. Not because they are all that much better, but the Giants have been decimated by injuries and have gone from 5-0 to a massively depressing 6-5. The Cowboys are healthy and have maybe the fourth or fifth best offense in football. The Giants defense gives up 31 points-per-game, Antonio Pierce is out for the season, Eli Manning’s feet are fucked up, and Tony Romo is desperate to shed his choker/pussy label. Dallas by a lot.

Sax: Nothing makes me happier than the return to mediocrity of Eli and the Giants. I can handle one retarded Southerner who donates to Fred Thompson and is in all likelihood a creationist routinely laying waste to the entire league, but not two, especially when they are brothers. The weather does give me pause, as the Cowboys are from Texas and Tony Romo is Mexican, but Eli Manning sucks.

Standings
1. Tony (27-20) (3-0-1 last week)
2. Dick (25-22) (3-0-1 last week)
2. Sax (21-26) (2-1-1 last week)

Note: We are just ignoring the push from last week in the overall standings, because it is annoying to type out three numbers for the rest of the year.

Indianapolis @ Houston +3.5

Tony: Somehow, Houston has become the best terrible team in the league. Everyone is like, “DON’T DISCOUNT THE TEXANS IN THIS ONE, ‘COS WHEN SCHAUB AND JOHNSON AND-” Colts.

Dick: Houston has lost three games to the Colts by three points. Considering they just lost to the Titans a week after an ESPN the Magazine article quoted Andre Johnson saying he would probably leave the Texans if they don’t make the playoffs this year, I’d say Houston is choking their season away while publicly worrying about losing their best player. Indy is a bit banged up and the chances of them going undefeated are pretty slim. If they are going to lose one or two, this week is as good as any against a team desperate for win, right? No, Indy will win by at least four because it’s no accident Indy is 14-1 all-time against a Houston that is “this close” to quitting.

Sax: The Colts are running the table. It’s over. It’s all over.

Arizona @ Tennessee -3

Tony: Another Bad Team Bonanza. Arizona was in the Super Bowl last year. Tennessee went 13-3 last year. This year, both teams can make vampire fangs with the candy corns FROM MY FUCKING STOOL. Uh … Titans, I guess.

Dick: Tennessee is reborn and Vince Young is playing with confidence. He’s still shaky when it comes to throwing from the pocket, but he’s starting to look like he’s figured out a couple things about playing quarterback. However, the Titans did the same thing when he came off the bench a couple years back and after a string of wins the novelty wore off and defenses worked on keeping him in the pocket and he had a nervous breakdown and went AWOL. This week it won’t happen because if God benches Kurt Warner with a concussion, Matt Leinart will be trying to shake off two years of rust against a Tennessee team hellbent on proving their shitty start was a fluke. If Warner is in there, he’ll eviscerate the Titans in a laugher because he knows what Larry Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin are thinking on every play. Cards by a lot.

Sax: Even at home, I cannot pick a team that is starting Vince Young. I just cannot do it. Then again, I am fucking terrible at this. I’m taking the Titans. Chris Johnson is a beast, who knows what the hell is going on with Warner, the Cardinals have always been flaky and are sitting atop their atrocious division with nothing to play for. Also, I guess now is the time to point out that Tony sent these picks to me at midnight last night and he was drunk off his ass.

Pittsburgh @ Baltimore -2.5

Tony: See here’s the thing about Kyle Orton. KYLE FUCKING ORTON. Everybody is like “The New York Football Giants” and Kyle Orton is like EAT MY FUCK. And Josh McDaniels is like SUCK IT, and everyone lived happily ever after. Ravens.

Dick: Ben Roethlisberger does not play well hurt. I wrote about this phenomenon in 2007 and I stand by it. The Ravens will beat the shit out of him this Sunday if he insists on playing. What’s more, Troy Polamalu has been all but ruled out of the game, and all things being equal, he’s more important to the Steelers than Big Ben because he makes Dick LeBau’s defense work, and without him, they are not the same team. Baltimore has been up and down this year, but I’m taking them in a really close one because until Ben wins one hurt, I have zero faith in him.

Sax: God, I hate the fucking Steelers. Pittsburghers can talk about the rejuvenation of their city all they want, they are delusional. A couple new hospitals don’t mean a damn thing, the city is still a post-industrial wasteland full of semi-literate, semi-employed hill people with nothing to live for other than their football team. The steel magnates tried to import some culture by endowing universities and museums, but it accomplished nothing. Polamula is turning into Bobamalu Sandersau, Ben Roethlisberger’s 80 IQ has been knocked down to 73 by all the head trauma, and the chickens are coming home to roost. Or, the Ravens are coming home to roost. Do Ravens roost? Are the Steelers better than the Colts? No. Ravens.

New England @ New Orleans -2

Tony: Look at this shit. Orleans is favored over England. This is a topsy-turvy world in which we live. Four years ago, Orleans is like oh no it’s raining we are fucked, and England was like we are championships. Now, in two hundred thousand and niner, Orleans is like touchdowns and England is like roughing the crumpets. Saints.

Dick: This should be a fantastic game and could be the Saints real coming out party or the Patriots reminding everyone they are still near the top of the heap. There’s no doubt that Brees and company will be coming out pumped, but the key will be maintaining their composure when Tom Brady starts to cooly dissect their defense sometime around the start of the second quarter. No matter, this is the game the Saints have been craving all season to prove their legitimacy. Plus, it’s in the Superdome, which will be deafening. Belichick’s not going to do anything stupid like he did against Indianapolis because on Monday night he’ll be facing a healthy team that won’t wear down at the end. Right now, the Saints are the better team and barring a string of terrible turnovers and mistakes, they’ll cover.

Sax: Look, there is no chance I will win this pick-off, so I’m picking with my heart. The Patriots will finally overcome their second half woes, match the Saints TD for TD, and Tom Brady’s hairline will triumph over Drew Brees and his few remaining follicles. The Patriots are the best team in football, JFK was the best president, Matt Damon is the greatest man to ever live, and Boston is a shining city upon a hill. I hate you, Tony

Standings

1. Tony (24-20) (3-1 last week)

2. Dick (22-22) (4-0 last week)

3. Sax (19-25) (3-1 last week)

One of  my old neighbors was a contemporary of Agassi’s in the 80’s and was one of his training partners at the Bolitterri Academy when they were kids. He washed out of the tour before he was 24 and when I met him he was engaged to a beautiful ad executive and worked as a tennis pro giving lessons to spoiled children in Rowayton and Greenwich, CT. At the time, he was getting ready to move to Florida to open his own tennis school. I asked him once if he was jealous of Agassi or if he wished he had what he did. He said he never did and without mentioning the rigors of the tour or the physical grind, he immediately described Agassi’s father. Unprompted he said he was a mix between Attila the Hun and the Ayatollah and described Andre as self-loathing and insecure. He said, “I wouldn’t trade what I have for that and $100 million if you put a gun to my head.” Even though he seems happy now? He said, “You didn’t know Andre back then.”

That was in 2002 towards the end of Agassi’s epic late-career dominance. By then, he had had been Number One (the oldest in history) in the world for umpteen weeks, was one of the favorites in every tournament he entered, and was considered one of the best clutch players on the tour. For a while at least, armed with maybe the best service return and baseline game in the history of tennis, Agassi was arguably the best who ever lived. Disciplined, focused, in better shape than men 10-years younger than him, and married to Stefi Graf – one of the few women in the world who could understand the pressure and strain he was under – Agassi dominated. This was an incredible transformation for him because only a few years before he was one of the worst players on the planet even though he possessed more raw talent than just about anyone save for Pete Sampras.

By the time he retired, he was not only a crowd favorite, but also someone who genuinely loved the attention and had become incredibly sensitive and empathetic towards his fans and respectful towards his place in the world of tennis. He not only won Grand Slam titles, but won an Olympic Gold Medal, competed in the Davis Cup, and became a gracious interview subject, a dramatic development considering that five or six years before, many in the press thought of him as a raging idiot with an inferiority complex. With the revelations of his book Open, all of the assumptions we had about him and the speculation that surrounded him seem foolish. What’s more, the revelations go a long way towards humanizing Agassi.

It seems so long ago that Andre had a frosted mullet and wore electric pink neon compression shorts. He listened to Richard Marx and Yanni, but sports writers insisted on calling him punk rock. He was 16, 17, 18-years-old with a white Corvette and sportswriters seemed shocked that a relative child from Las Vegas would be spending money on cars and clothes and a bachelor pad. It was absurd. Even after his win at Wimbledon in 1992, his reputation was that he was incredibly talented, but incredibly lazy and gutless. He cracked during break points; melted during tiebreakers, practically shit his pants in Grand Slam finals, and was recognized more for the Canon “Image is Everything” commercial than he was for his service-return. According to the popular press of the time he was an enfant terrible, a jackass wasting his talent, and a punk who spit on the conventions and strictures of tennis.

However, in Open, he admits in candid and stark terms that he considered himself a fraud and that he not only hated tennis, but also had no concept of who he was or what he was really doing. The clothes, attitude and hair were all a cover. He was incredibly self-conscious and naturally shy to begin with, but psychologically he could not shake the voice of his father Mike screaming “Hit harder!” at him in the backyard nor the memories of a machine he called the dragon spitting 120 mph serves at his six-year-old self. He was also going prematurely bald. His gloriously tacky mullet was a weave with a hairpiece stuck in place like an animal pelt. On 60 Minutes he admitted that during the 1991 French Open Final he was more worried about his hairpiece staying in place than winning the match. That means he won Wimbledon with the greatest hairpiece in sports since Joe Pepitone’s.

Throughout the early 90’s, Agassi had played second fiddle to the likes of Boris Becker, Jim Courier, and the cute-and-cuddly-but-annoying-and-arrogant Jesus-freak Michael Chang, all of whom dismissed Agassi as a wunderkind moron. In 1994, Agassi was unseeded going into the U.S. Open. When he began winning in the early rounds, Mike Lupica wrote that the tournament was his to lose and that he would find a way to lose because he’s not a champion. Agassi won the Open going away beating Michael Stich in straight sets. By the end of the year, he was Number One in the world and in 1996, even though he was beginning to slide, he won a gold medal at the Olympics in Atlanta.

He had dated Brooke Shields by fax and eventually married her in the quintessential match made in hell, and he shaved his head. But by 1997, everything had come apart. He was depressed and despondent, barely saw his wife, was injured, dropping out of tournaments, tanking matches, smoking meth with some cat named “Slim,” and falling to 141 in the rankings, the equivalent of being the Detroit Lions of tennis. He later failed a drug test, sent a cloying, apologetic letter and luckily faked out the folks at the ATP and got off without a suspension.

After coming so close to personal and professional disaster, Agassi pulled himself together and started over with the help of his trainer and father figure, Gil Reyes, and his coach, Brad Gilbret, reconstructing his game from the ground up. He rededicated himself to conditioning and started all over again by playing in challengers, low level professional tournaments and qualifiers where players eat rubber chicken, operate their own scoreboards manually, shag their own balls, and first place pays $3,500. For the next year he tortured himself with grueling workouts and by the 1998 French Open, he was number eight in the world, and oddly, the further he and Shields grew apart, the better his game got. By the beginning of 1999, they were divorced.

Almost immediately, his comeback seemed to rocket him off the tabloids and back into the upper ranks of tennis culminating with his win at Roland Garros in ’99 making him only the third man to win a career Grand Slam and the only one to have a Golden Slam (Olympic Gold Medal). He also did two things very quietly: he opened a new charter school in the middle of the worst neighborhood of Las Vegas (donating the proceeds earned from selling his old wedding ring in Shields’ name) and began courting Stefanie Graf. Then, almost as if out of nowhere, Agassi was Number One in the world again, and the oldest to ever do it, and was winning big. In a nanosecond he became an elder statesmen, top-notch champion, and all-around good guy. And when he still couldn’t get past Pete Sampras in a Grand Slam final, no one called him a loser; they just wrote that the better player won.

Agassi’s roller coaster of an autobiography is dramatic and fascinating, not just because he persevered through it all while growing up in an incredibly unorthodox home, maturing in a fishbowl, and developing into a functioning adult while being hounded by the press and partying very hard, but because he never once advocates the life of a professional athlete nor spends any time bragging about his sexual conquests. Instead, all he wants for as long as he can remember is a normal life. Remember, Agassi, unlike say, Madonna, Derek Jeter, or Alex Rodriguez, did not choose his life in the arena. It was chosen for him by his father making all the barbs, criticism, and judgments about his character especially bizarre and most certainly difficult to take considering that he was raised to do only one thing: Hit a tennis ball really hard and make a lot of money doing it.

All things being equal, Agassi’s life is a triumph not because he won eight Grand Slams or developed into one of the finest tennis players this country has ever produced, but because he spends 386 pages carefully deconstructing the myth surrounding his carefully crafted and cultivated public image. Tremendous comeback by a player bound and determined to reclaim his rightful place among the all-time greats? Nope, he really just had nothing else he could do for a living and by that time he had a charter school to support and his family relying on him. He was an eighth-grade dropout. There was nothing else. Coupling that with the way he expanded himself beyond the lines on the court, Agassi has become a giant in the sporting world for being the one thing athletes are never expected to be: honest.

Atlanta @ NY Giants -6.5

Tony: Goddammit, Falcons. The Giants are REELING and pretty much all of your skill players have career-ending hangnails. Despite the Falcons’ recent woes, however, I am still picking them to cover and win and here is why: The Giants started 5-0 and everyone was like, “Hurrrr,” but 4 of their first 5 wins came against Washington, Tampa Bay, Oakland, and Kansas City, which is to say, in a normal season, the Giants’ record would look more like 2-7 than 5-4. Also, the Giants’ margin of loss against New Orleans was 13 points higher than Atlanta’s. So there’s that. Falcons.

Dick: Normally, with the Giants at home in November and the Falcons’ terrible road woes, I’d figure Atlanta would be toast. But since the weather will be a balmy 54 degrees and the Giants defense was terribly inconsistent before Antonio Pierce went down, I’ll say Michael Turner does his best impression of Earl Campbell. The Giants may win, but by no more than three.

Sax: Fuck the Giants.

Indianapolis @ Baltimore +1

Tony: As much as I like to discount Baltimore, they did win at San Diego, and they almost beat the Favres also on the road. Indy’s 9-0 record looks good, but this is exactly the type of week where a team like Indy earns one of their few blemishes of the year. The question is whether I have the sack to actually pick against the Colts especially against a supposedly mediocre team like the Ravens. The answer is I do not. Colts.

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Dick: Indy won last week because Bill Belichick is just wrong. They will win this week because Baltimore cannot stop the pass and unless Peyton Manning breaks his legs, he’ll hang 30 points on the board. Baltimore’s also missing Lee Suggs because Brady Quinn doesn’t know how to block. This could get ugly fast.

Sax: I think it’s time for me to admit that I have overrated the Ravens all season. There are a lot of reasons to pick Baltimore, they have lost some close games and they are tough at home and they basically beat the Patriots when they rolled into the Murdaland with an undefeated record 2 years ago, which I will keep bringing up even though it has absolutely no relevance whatsoever when it comes to this current season. Jesus, I suck. Maybe if the spread was higher. On the other hand, I just looked at Indy’s schedule, and this is really the biggest game left for them unless you count the Broncos as a threat, which I do not. Do I really think Indy can go undefeated? No. I’m picking the Ravens, even if that is pretty flimsy logic, by which I mean completely non-existent logic. Holy shit, I hate this.

San Fran @ Green Bay -6.5

Tony: Sax, why do we pick a game with either San Fran or Green Bay every single week? Aside from the fact that no one likes either team, neither team is any good. Get it together. Anyhoozle, I have a hunch that San Fran breaks off a huge one this week. I get the feeling that the Smith-Gore-Crabtree monster is on the verge of gelling, and, even if the offense has only an adequate performance, their defense has been solid lately. 49ers.

Dick: I don’t have a lot of confidence in either of these teams because the Packers let Aaron Rodgers get sacked eight times a game and the Niners still look more like a rugby team than a football team. However, both teams have solid defenses and if Green Bay can keep Rodgers upright, they get the edge. Pack wins, but not by seven.

Sax: Tony’s right, this game is lame, but it seemed like the biggest one left on the schedule. I guess we could have gone Bears/Eagles, but I am fucking sick of the Bears. If there’s one thing you can rely upon with Green Bay, it is a complete and utter lack of consistency, and 6.5 points is a big fucking spread. If San Fran doesn’t win, their season is over. I like the Niners and the points.

San Diego @ Denver +3

Tony: ZOMG, Denver has lost three games in a row! San Diego is SURGING! Really, the main thing that concerns me about this game is that Tom Green Dave Grohl Orton, arguably the greatest quarterback in the league, appears to have injured his ankle and will likely be replaced by, uh, Chris Simms? Yeah, this might not go so well. Donkeys.

Dick: Denver’s defense is still solid, but their propensity to pull out miracle plays a-la the computer on All Madden has suddenly disappeared along with Kyle Orton’s health. San Diego’s hot, LT is back from the dead, and Phil Rivers is imbued with the spirit of Christ.

Sax: The Broncos are done. I’m sorry, Tony. You see this? All this shit? It’s not your fault. Look at me, son. It’s not your fault. It’s not your fault. It’s not your fault. It’s not your fault. It’s not your fault.

Standings

1. Tony (21-19) (0-4 last week)

2. Dick (18-22) (3-1 last week)

3. Sax (16-24) (2-2 last week)

Tony: I backed Cincy last week and they did not disappoint. And they’ve already shown they can beat Ben and his Giant Face. I would argue, however, that Baltimore is a big piece of poop and Cincy’s win last week is not significant. The Bangles will not beat the Steelers this week. Pittsburgh is hitting on all cylinders and has huge momentum coming off their win in Denver. Their running game is on, the passing game is on, Palmolive is back. Pittsburgh.

Dick: Chad Ochocinco likes to send gifts to opponents, gets fines 20 grand for doing practical jokes, and scores lots of touchdowns. Since he seems to understand that football is entertainment while folks in Pittsburgh treat it like life and death, I’m taking Cincy. Doesn’t make sense, does it? But considering my abysmal record it’s either this sort of logic or throwing darts.

Sax: I have officially entered Costanza mode. Since my decision-making abilities have led to nothing but humiliation week after week, I am going to carefully consider each matchup and use reason and logic to decide who I think will cover, then I will pick the other team. Pittsburgh is at home, Polomalu is back, they are looking to avenge a division loss, they are a different team since the ascension of Medndenhall, and they only lost to Cincy by 3 on the road last time… so I’m taking Cincy. Wait, no, fuck that, I’m taking Pittsburgh. I don’t have the balls to see the Costanza plan through. I am a coward.

Philadelphia @ San Diego -2

Tony: This is kind of a head scratcher. Philly lost to Dallas last week, but is Dallas actually getting good? The Chargers beat the Giants last week, but the Giants appear to be in the middle of a catastrophic collapse. So, by that logic, the Eagles should beat the Chargers, right? The Chargers have won three in a row, but those wins were against Oakland, Kansas City, and the Giants. Before losing to Dallas last week, Philly won two in a row against the Giants and the Redskins, but that was after losing to fucking Oakland. God this game is a piece of shit. I guess I’m picking Philly because fuck Philip Rivers.

Dick: Somehow Andy Reid can’t keep the Eagles on target even though he has Don McNabb playing some of the best football of his career. You lost to Oakland and now you’re rolling in to play the Chargers who are hot and have Jesus in the backfield. I’m taking San Diego because Philly is schizophrenic.

Sax: The Chargers are staging one of their patented late-season rallies, and Andy Reid is Andy Reid. I can’t wait to see the Bolts overtake Tony’s Broncos. They’re at home and there is basically no spread, I love the Bolts this week. So I’m taking Philly. Co-STAN-za.

Dallas @ Green Bay +3

Tony: Rather than try to overthink this one, I am going to yield to the apparent momentum of each team. Dallas won a big one on the road against Philly last week and Green Bay bent over and gave what is arguably the worst team in the league their first win in a big way. Dallas.

Dick: Tony Romo is Mr. November and the Packers are going to lose because they can’t protect Aaron Rogers or stop the pass. Unless the game is played in a blizzard and Romo breaks his legs, the Cowboys win easily.

Sax: Green Bay is just fucking terrible. Their line is a mess, things are falling apart. Dallas seems to be getting their shit together behind Miles Austin. I’m taking Green Bay.

New England @ Indianapolis -3

Tony: Sure the Colts are great this year, but the Peter Griffins’ only two losses so far were against the Jets and the Broncos and both of those are starting to look a little flukey as the season progresses. I think this one comes down to two things: 1. Fuck Tom Brady. 2. Home field advantage. Indy.

Dick: Indy still has Rod Flanders, but it seems like half of their defense is on injured reserve. And since Indy will not go unbeaten and even though the Patriots still haven’t figured out who is their nominal starting running back, I see Brady and his movie star looks winning out over Peyton’s fake audibles because this seems like the perfect week for Indy to lose.

Sax: Everyone in New England is acting like the ship is righted after victories over Tennessee, Tampa Bay, and the Dolphins, who are admittedly probably better than their record indicates but still put up a pretty good fight IN Foxboro. Randy Moss is still one of the best in the game, but he has lost a step since he caught 35 touchdowns two years ago, and the Pats have gone from Donte Stallworth to Jabar Gaffney to no one as their third receiver. They are on the road, and even though it seems like it’s harder for the Colts to pump in fake crowd noise in this new stadium, Peyton Manning is gonna take a shit down Belichick’s throat. Which is why I’m taking the Pats. Co-STAN-za!

Standings

1. Tony (21-15) (2-2 last week)

2. Dick (15-21) (1-3 last week)

3. Sax (14-22) (1-3 last week)

Tony:
I don’t think Baltimore is as good as their victory over Denver last week and it seems like things are continuing to gel for Cincinnati. Cincinnati.

Dick:
Four of Cincinnati’s wins are flukes while two of Balimore’s losses (including one to Cincy) are flukes, so the law of averages has to come into play making Baltimore the winner, right? Because even though Cincinnati is putting together a pretty impressive run, the Ravens feel like they should be 6-1 or 7-0 and after demolishing Denver, they have to be looking at Cincy like that creepy Cuban guy from Bang Brothers looks at 18-year-old girls.

Sax: I spent the first half of the season picking against the Giants because I was convinced they were mediocre at best and I got my ass kicked. Then I finally gave in and started picking them and they dropped 3 in a row and I got my ass kicked. I’m not making the same mistake with Cincy. I am also sticking to my guns with my belief that Baltimore is really fucking good. I love Flacco, I love their defense. Make no mistake, Cincy will win this game, because I suck ass at this, but I’m taking Bodymore.

Miami @ New England -10.5

Tony:
I have never had any love for Miami and all of a sudden I kind of like them. Also, fuck Sax. Miami.

Dick:
Vegas is starting to figure things out because Miami in New England in November seems pretty brutal considering that the Pats seem to be hitting their stride and the Dolphins could not protect a 20-something point lead against New Orleans and a 10-plus spread seems justified. However, the Pats are terrible against the run and that is all the Dolphins do well. New Enlgland wins, but by no more than seven.

Sax:
I know this is a November road game in the northeast for Miami, but I’m sitting about half an hour from Foxboro right now and it’s 60 degrees and sunny. I can’t figure Miami out. They clearly could have won against Indy and the Saints, the 2 best teams in the league, but once is a fluke and twice is a pattern, so maybe they are just prone to shitting the bed. On the other hand, I don’t see why everyone’s doubts about the Pats should be erased by them shellacking 2 ridiculously terrible teams. I’d be inclined to just take the points, but I feel like this game is going one of two ways- either the Pats are for real and they win by more than 11, or they are still the same mess that nearly lost to Baltimore and lost to Denver and Miami beats them because their defense, unlike those of Tennessee and Tampa Bay, actually exists. I’m taking the Pats, so everyone reading this should bet their house on Miami.

Dallas @ Philadelphia -3

Tony:
I really don’t care one way or the other about Philly and we all know how I feel about Dallas. Philly.

Dick:
Roy Williams is a clown, runs shitty routes, and walks through plays he’s not involved in. Tony Romo is gutless and wilts under intense competition, especially when he has tough games on the road. Wade Phillips is retarded and should not be a head coach in the NFL. Philadelphia has the most underrated quarterback of the last 15 years, is coming off a thrashing of the Giants, and looking to put the NFC East in a stranglehold. Even though their coach is a fat Mormon who is failing with this Michael Vick experiment, the Eagles will win by a lot.

Sax: Westbrook is out, and I just can’t trust Philly after that loss to Oakland. As much as I don’t want to, I’m still picking them, because they are at home and Wade Phillips wears adult diapers. Why the fuck is Dallas in the NFC East? By the way, nice effort this week, Tony.

Pittsburgh @ Denver +3

Tony:
I wish this spread was much larger so I could at least pick Denver to cover. Really, though, there’s no way I can’t pick Denver, so I’ll save the keystrokes. Denver.

Dick:
Denver is a lot better than everyone expected because of their defense and the fact that Kyle Orton is playing in an offensive system that doesn’t ask him to chuck the ball 50 yards downfield to no one. But Baltimore exposed a few chinks in their armor last week, including Denver’s lack of imagination and a propensity to rely on the other team making mistakes. Pittsburgh is minus-three in turnovers (even with the flukes against Minnesota) and even though their blitz packages wreak havoc, they will be facing the dirtiest offensive line in football. I hate myself and want to die because I am taking Denver.

Sax:
Even though I dutifully ate some humble ass pie after the Donks beat the Patriots, I never really bought Denver as an elite team. I think they’ll still easily win their joke of a division and make the playoffs, but I think it’s clear that they aren’t quite on the level of the elite teams in the league. However, I’m not too sure the Steelers are one of those elite teams, and I worry about Ben Roethlisberger wheezing in the mile-high air because he’s the fattest quarterback ever and the Steelers all form a circle before every game and insert buttplugs into each other. This is why I hate doing this pick-off, because I would never bet money on this game in a million years, but since it’s a BIG-TIME MONDAY NIGHT SHOWDOWN, I’m forced to pretend I have any idea what the fuck is going to happen. Sigh… Steelers. Mostly because I hate Tony.

Standings
1. Tony (19-13) (1-3 last week)
2. Dick (14-18) (1-3 last week)
3. Sax (13-19) (1-3 last week)

Tony: There has been some chatter this week about how Ray Lewis could have ended up a Bronco after free agency but talks never progressed and they signed Dawkins instead. It makes me sad to think about Lewis as a Donkey because I would have had to give up football entirely. Imagine the team meeting where Lewis is like, “Hey, thanks for the warm welcome. Yeah, I wanted to ask you guys, you may have seen how I do this thing before each game where I come out of the tunnel and get the crowd fired up by acting like if the Karate Kid had been a Polynesian tribal dancer. That’s still cool, right?” Ugh. Donkos.

Dick: Sooner or later the wheels have to come off the Donkey Express, right? I feel like I am watching Kevin Costner deliver the mail and I want someone to just shoot me in my sleep because waking up and seeing Josh McDaniels with an undefeated record defies logic and all that is right with the universe. Isn’t there some sort of mathematical equation or theorem or something that proves what we already know: That he is simply a lucky fuck and the equivalent of Forrest Gump as a shrimp boat captain in the real world. I want to die. Ravens, just to spite this fuck.

Sax: This is getting embarrassing. I am fucking 12-16. Honestly, I would feel like an idiot if I continued to offer “analysis” as though I wasn’t getting my ass kicked week after week. It would be like Matt Millen offering NFL analysis week after week on an NFL TV show… oh wait. In my defense, this isn’t a gambling column, we just use the spreads as a vehicle to talk about the four biggest games every week, because it would be boring if the 4 of us just loaded up on the Colts and Saints and whoever was playing the Raiders and Rams week after week. I’m tempted to just make fun of athlete’s names in lieu of trying to justify my picks in an effort to get black people to stop making up names out of whole cloth, but that is the coward’s way out. I will stick around for my weekly ritual humiliation, because I’m a professional. I’m taking Baltimore, because I remember a certain undefeated squad rolling in there 2 years ago and losing (okay, they didn’t lose, but they should have). The Ravens get pumped for these types of game at home, and they fucking NEED a win because of Cincinatti’s unexpected rise, whereas the Broncos are probably getting a little cocky and don’t need a fucking thing because their division is an abortion clinic dumpster.

NY Giants @ Philadelphia pk

Tony: Hey, did you guys know the NFC East is the toughest conference in football? I like how the Iggles still start McNabb every week. It’s like when you’re golfing and you’re playing like shit and you start to get really frustrated, contemplating the futility of spending all that time and money on an activity that is so profoundly infuriating, and you walk up to the ball for a second shot after some piddly 90-yard shank drive and without pausing to get set you take your 3-wood and swing as hard as you can and somehow the ball ends up 10 feet from the cup and at the end of the day that’s the only shot you remember even though you shot a 105 and you end up out there a couple weeks later doing it all over again because you’re an idiot. That’s the Eagles. Giants.

Dick: How can there not be a spread on this? Seriously, there has to be a one-point swing by Sunday, but since some cunt at Caesar’s is about to lose his job because the Rams can’t cover we get this sort of bullshit. Anyways, Todd Flanders is going through a rough patch and Don McNabb shook off the bad karma of trying to get his arms all the way around JaMarcus Russell’s waist in a pregame hug by beating, ahem, the Redskins. Give me the Giants. Why, why, why do I do this? This is the worst game to pick this week because both teams hate themselves and seem to want to lose. Okay, Giants, and I really mean it. Sax, kill me.

Sax: The Giants have to bounce back at some point, right? The first 6 weeks couldn’t have just been a mirage, could they? Christ. I’m taking the Giants like everyone else.

Minnesota @ Green Bay -3

Tony: I think Green Bay is in for a bitter, deflating afternoon. I know they want Favre to come in and melt under a mix of nostalgia and shame, but if this season has taught us anything, it’s that Bart Faver cares about no one but himself. I think he will handle Sunday’s unusual circumstances with no issues. Also he’s like a kid out there. Also, Green Bay’s O-line is shredded and Aaron Rodgers is going to spend the day giving Jared Allen mustache rides. Vikes.

Dick: The Vikings are really good and the Packers just had live scrimmages against the Browns and Lions and since the snow has not started falling in Wisconsin and Brett Favre is really, really pissed at Ted Thompson, the Vikings will win because Green Bay cannot stop him and Adrian Peterson at the same time because the Packers are just not three points better. I know this. I really, really do.

Sax: A normal person might be a little shaken by returning to what was his home stadium for 38 years to face thousands of bitter fans who might never forgive him for his defection to a division rival, but I think we’re all starting to realize that Brett Favre has more than a little Roger Clemens in him and doesn’t give a fuck. The bottom line is, Minnesota was the better team last week and should be undefeated right now. They will beat the shit out of the Packers.

Atlanta @ New Orleans -10

Tony: It would be foolish not to pick the Saints in this game. Falcons.

Dick: Ten points? Why not 20, Vegas? Have you seen Drew Brees and his “hair” lately? They’re at home! Have you seen their defense? I mean, Atlanta’s no slouch, but New Orleans puts up 34 points before they even get morning wood. I’ll take New Orleans along with a “new” house in the Lower Ninth Ward while I’m at it, bitches.

Sax: Has New Orleans failed to cover yet? I don’t think so. Gotta keep backing them (said the retard with the 12-16 record).

Standings
1. Tony (18-10) (2-2 last week)
2. Dick (13-15) (1-3 last week)
3. Sax (12-16) (0-4 last week)