Week 9 winner of a NFL Survival Pool ~ 10 correct picks against the spread

Last night the Pittsburgh Steelers played the Cincinnati Bengals at Paul Brown Stadium for the Monday Night Football game.  Now, before you start thinking I'm really flighty ~ 1) Yes, I work and 2) No, I didn't go to the game. 

****The picture I'm using in this post is from the New England Patriots v Cincinnati Bengals game in 2007.  I actually took my mom to that game.  It was her first football game ever and the picture was taken from our seats. 

Now, back to the story...  Guess who won the NFL survival pool this week?  THIS GIRL...

I was just on the phone with my friend, Cyrus, and he was yapping about the Cleveland Browns.  He was telling me that the team is looking solid and that he thinks that they might beat the New York Jets this week.  Huh?  I wasn't really paying attention to what he had to say, but the past few weeks do seem to indicate that the Browns are getting their act together.  While Cyrus was going on and on about the Browns, I decided to check my personal email account.

As I was scanning my email account and getting ready to perform a mass delete, I realized that I had a nice little payment sent to me.  Not bad for about 5 minutes of effort.  Turns out that I correctly picked 10 games against the spread (ATS).  The only ones I missed were the New England Patriots v the Cleveland Browns and the New York Jets v the Detroit Lions.  Chicago Bears v the Buffalo Bills was a push.

10 games...  Not too bad at all, since I've haven't really been paying attention to football since I've been traveling.

I didn't get the chance to tell Cyrus my good news, but it doesn't matter and I really doubt he cares.  ****  I have known Cyrus since college.  His best friend was my college boyfriend.  I hear from him few and far between, but he'll check in on Facebook.  The only time he calls is when he's commuting home and bored in the car, but I digress...  

Incidentally, I just checked my other pool (i.e. where I'm fighting for the wildcard), and I came in 2nd place last week.  Hmmm...  Looks like I may have found my mojo again...  Woohoo!!!  :-P

In case you'd forgotten, I'm a WINNER. 


THE WIRK

Week 5 ~ Perfect in my NFL survivor pool

Was talking to The Rick earlier today, and he told me something interesting.  Guess who was perfect in her NFL survivor pool last week...  I was!  I think I'm the only girl in the pool, and I bested all the men by picking flawlessly against the spread.  Too bad I was eliminated last week and am competing for a wild card spot now.  Below were my Week 5 picks.

Sunday, October 10

NY Giants (3-2) [34] at Houston (3-2) -3.5 [10] 3 WIN
Kansas City (3-1) [9] at Indianapolis (3-2) -8.5 [19] 5 WIN
Jacksonville (3-2) [36] at Buffalo (0-5) 0.0 [26] 4 WIN
Atlanta (4-1) [20] at Cleveland (1-4) +3.5 [10] 2 WIN
Philadelphia (3-2) [27] at San Francisco (0-5) -2.5 [24] 1 WIN

Results (W-L, Pts): 5-0, 15 pts

Alright, boys.  Maybe this girl is finally getting her groove back!


THE WIRK

Eliminated from NFL survivor pool, chasing the wildcard ~ Week 4

Before this NFL season began, I got an email inviting me into a handicapping survivor pool from Jody (i.e. he's friends with The Rick).  The object of the game is to pick the 5 games you're most comfortable with picking against the spread and then rank them.  If you ask me this season has been strange.  How else can you explain the Kansas City Chiefs being undefeated and other teams (i.e. that traditionally play well) stumbling?  Regardless, no excuses.  My handicapping skills stink and now I have to keep playing to try to earn the wild card.

For people like me that have a general interest in teams and not players, survivor pools are the way to go.  I've received numerous invitations to join fantasy football pools, but there's no way in the world I'd throw my hat into that arena.  The time and effort that fantasy football fans devote to the game is much more than I'm willing to invest. 

According to the St. Louis Business Journal (i.e. in an article it published in 2003), "A recent survey showed that 7.2 percent of all American adults played fantasy sports, with 78 percent of those playing fantasy football. A previous survey showed that the average person plays in 2.4 fantasy football leagues per year and spends an average of $154 on fantasy football. Today's average fantasy football participant has been playing for six years, checks his teams online while at work, spends nearly 3 hours a week managing teams and is more likely to become even more involved in the hobby in the future, the association said."  Are you serious?!?!  This article is from 2003, so I can only imagine how much these figure have grown.  As far as I'm concerned, fantasy football might as well be like the fantasy, roll play games people play with 12 sided (i.e. or however many sided) dice...  I'm never going to play, because I don't understand the appeal.

I find the handicapping side to be much more interesting, even though this year ~ I obviously stink!  I'm heading to Vegas later this month, so I better get my act together soon...

Ugh.


THE WIRK