Not the week I was hoping for. I’m now swinging for the fences and may begin to make some crazy picks just to make up ground.

SCOREBOARD

Week 8
Blake: 270
Jon: 160

Overall
Blake: 2850 (79-37 overall, 50-66 with points, 5 direct hits)
Jon: 2130 (68-47 overall, 37-78 with points, 3 direct hits)

WAS@ATL

Blake: FALCONS BY 10

Jon: FALCONS BY 14

ARI@CHI

Blake: CARDS BY 8
The Cards are actually playing well on the road this year, and I think that is taking most people by surprise. It should come as no surprise when Kurt Warner and his receivers get their act together after an awful game last week and beat down hard on a Bears secondary that is but a shell of its former vaunted self.

Jon: Bears by 3
Just when you think you get the Cardinals, they surprise you. That’s why the Bears pull this one out.

BAL@CIN

Blake: BENGALS BY 4
Who really knows which of these teams is for real, if either? Whatever the case, the team that wins here will be a huge step ahead in the race to prove they belong in the playoff hunt. I have to go with the experience of Carson Palmer in this one, but Cincy’s defense needs to uphold their end of the bargain. This one comes down to the final minutes.

Jon: Ravens by 13
Revenge is one of the most motivation factors in the NFL. The Ravens are not pleased with how they lost to Cincy last time, so they’ll dial it up.

HOU@IND

Blake: COLTS BY 3

Jon: Colts by 10

KC@JAX

Blake: CHIEFS BY 6

Jon: Jags by 7

GB@TB

Blake: PACKERS BY 14

Jon: Packers by 10

MIA@NE

Blake: PATS BY 7
New England is favored by ten and a half points at home against the Miami Wildcats, but I can’t see them covering that spread. The last two Pats games have been more like scrimmages and the Dolphins have shown that they won’t lie down, unless they get up by three touchdowns against the Saints. They won’t be up by anything in this game, and that will keep them playing hard, but New England is just too good to lose this one at home.

Jon: Pats by 13
Honestly, this one could go either way. I just feel like the Pats will be tuned up and have a great gameplan.

CAR@NO

Blake: SAINTS BY 21

Jon: Saints by 9

DET@SEA

Blake: SEAHAWKS BY 24

Jon: Lions by 4

SD@NYG

Blake: CHARGERS BY 8

Jon: Giants by 3

TEN@SF

Blake: 49ERS BY 10
My game of the week: A loss for either team here and the season slides too far back to carry into the postseason. Obviously, Tennessee is the more desperate team as far as number of wins goes, but the Niners are on a slide they know only too well from recent years, and they’ll be giving everything to stop the bleeding at home and get back in the race. Besides, they should be the better team in this one, at least defensively. I see a late pick-six by Vince Young as the deciding factor.

Jon: Titans by 7
This feels like a Vince Young renaissance. I think his presence will give the Titans some much needed energy and allow them to earn back some respect. He has something to play for and his teammates will appreciate that. And Alex Smith will be back to being Alex Smith.

DAL@PHI

Blake: EAGLES BY 13
Dallas easily handled a terrible road team last week, but this trip to the Lincoln Center will bring them back to earth. Is it just me, or is the supposed brouhaha between Romo and Williams really a non-issue, considering Williams might as well be on the bench? What a wasted trade that was. Those lost picks are going to hurt the Cowboys for a long time to come.

Jon: Dallas by 3
This just feels like a close game. The ‘Boys can run the ball and keep McNabb and his band of big plays waiting to happen on the sidelines. But ultimately, I the Cowboys D will matchup well against a relatively one-dimensional Eagles team, who will struggle running the ball.

PIT@DEN

Blake: BRONCOS BY 3
Monday night at home against a very good team is something the Broncos must overcome in order to get back on track. No one has a letdown game against the defending champs.

Jon: Steelers by 7
I know everyone had a brief bout of Broncos fever, but Pittsburgh has been getting better every week. They have a RB and the defense is starting to round into Winter shape. Don’t think the Broncos have enough to win this one on Monday night.

Image via Wikipedia

Despite having a fraction of his dad’s basketball talent, the life of entitlement unique to celebrity children has allowed Marcus Jordan to maintain His Airness’ penchant for narcissism. He just cost an entire university their athletic sponsorship.

A fight over the shoes Michael Jordan’s son will wear at the University of Central Florida has cost the school any future sponsorship with adidas.

“The University of Central Florida has chosen not to deliver on their contractual commitment to adidas,” adidas spokeswoman Andrea Corso wrote in an e-mail to The Associated Press. “As a result we have chosen not to continue our relationship with them moving forward.”

via Air Jordans cost UCF future deal with adidas | AP | 11/04/2009.

This news is a few days old, but seems even more ludicrous as time passes. I imagine that Marcus’ daddy will bail his son out and negotiate a deal with Nike, or even outfit the school with his own Jordan Brand. But the fact Marcus never thought once about the other athletes at his university is reprehensible.

I guess the asshole doesn’t fall too far from the tree.

At least one good thing has come out of the Yankees’ World Series victory:

Stealing Happy Hours – thefallclassic: (via marklisanti)  This is the…

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The media bloodletting continues at American media iconoclasts. If you know someone at SI, it would be a good time to give them a ring. Especially if you’re hiring.

Layoffs have begun at Time Inc. Approximately 15 to 20 sales and marketing employees were dismissed from Time Inc.’s news group tonight, largely from Sports Illustrated, according to a Time Inc. executive who asked not to be named as the company had not given authorization to discuss the matter.

Deeper layoffs are expected to be announced tomorrow, when Time Inc. is expected to confirm the elimination of $100 million in costs, mostly from staff cuts.

The executive estimated the total number of layoffs as being between 400 and 500 people. The largest percentage of layoffs are expected to come from the news division, which includes Time, Fortune and Sports Illustrated, this executive said.

via Time Inc. Layoffs Begin at Sports Illustrated – Media Decoder Blog – NYTimes.com.

This doesn’t detail any other cost-cutting measures, but I seriously doubt that writers will be immune. We’ll see if they’ll be raided by Yahoo!, ESPN, FoxSports, or FanHouse or any other sports media powerhouse looking to bolster their lineup.

Here’s some free financial advice, Time Inc. Whatever you’re paying Peter King, it’s too much. If cut his salary in half you could probably afford to hire at Sports Illustrated.

For those not in the know, the Florida-Georgia game held this past weekend is known as The World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party. Whether the moniker is factual, nobody really knows. It may be true in the Guinness Book of Records sense, or it may be true in the “best burgers in town” sense. Either way, there’s a lot of drinking going on outside. And since it is a college football game, the local authorities apparently don’t take too kindly to underage drinking:

Authorities said they arrested a record 252 people in connection with underage possession of alcohol at the Florida vs. Georgia Football Classic.

The Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation’s Division of Alcoholic Beverage and Tobacco agents along with partners from the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office and the University of North Florida made the arrests between Friday and Saturday. They swept areas surrounding the stadium, The Landing and RV City.

“It’s no secret that the game is often called the ‘world’s largest outdoor cocktail party,’” said DBPR Secretary Charles Drago. “The fact is that these are two college football teams and approximately half of all college students are not old enough to legally consume alcohol.”

The crackdown was part of the state’s drive to stop underage drinking.

via 252 Arrested For Underage Drinking At Football Classic – Orlando News Story – WESH Orlando.

College students drinking? Surely you jest!

Apparently the cooperative task force felt this game was symbolically important in their fight against underage drinking. Perhaps this is true, and I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but hundreds of thousands of underage college students will drink every Saturday anyway. In fact, only arresting 252 students is an awful arrest record. College football and underage drinking go hand in hand. You can simplify the equation even further in that college and underage drinking are inseparable, football just provides an accepted platform for public consumption.

For whatever reason, I imagine this operation was spearheaded by someone that looked and acted like Buford T Justice.