Sports

Did You Make it to Next Week in Your Survivor Pool?

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

First things first.  Do you know what a college or NFL survivor pool is?  Of course you do.  Like the board game Chutes and Ladders, skip the next seven bullet points.  If you don’t, please read the brief explanation below.

  1. You pick one team only each week.
  2. That team must “survive” or win for you to pick a team in the coming week.
  3. The team that you pick must only win its game, not beat the points spread that Vegas assigns to the game.
  4. You can pick a team only once each season.
  5. Some pools cap the spreads on games even though spreads aren’t involved.  For example, the college pool that I am in prohibits you from choosing any team favored by 14 or more points.  In most NFL pools all games are in play.
  6. Last guy or gal standing regardless of what week it is wins the pool.
  7. Everyone else gets a Tootsie Roll (I always wondered about that name for a candy, didn’t you?).

Welp.  Guess what.  Week one of our NFL survivor pool saw 62 of 113 entrants exit.  That’s a lot of Tootsie Rolls.  Nearly sixty percent of the pool is GONE in week one.  Some years I’ve thrived in these pools and gone many weeks deep.   And, in other years I’ve vaporized awfully early.  It’s funny if it wasn’t so dang bad.  If you’re a football junkie you wait all year for this. Then.  Jeez.

So, below are ten thoughts that I have about these weekly, sudden death choices.

  1. Week one is the toughest of any unless you make it weeks down the road where few legit teams are left to choose from.  Why?  It’s because you don’t know what you don’t know.  What the hell does that mean?  It means that your brain (try as you might not allow it) thinks about the past.  You’re predisposed to looking backwards and projecting forward.  Raise your hand if you thought Tampa Bay and Carolina would be 1-0 in the NFC South and New Orleans and Atlanta would be 0-1.   I don’t see many hands.  I do see a long Tootsie Roll line forming however.  Tampa Bay crushed many pool participants in week one.  I was fortunate to take the Ravens.   I don’t like them much.  I just thought that Buffalo on the road with no QB worth mentioning was an easy win.  Buffalo is bad this year, all year, folks.
  2. Don’t pick bad teams.  Well, point one above would make you ask how would you know who they are?  You don’t.  Well, you might in college usually more so than the pros.   One year I took Purdue favored by 12 in week seven.  Poof.  Purdue is a bad team.  They always are.  They don’t deserve to be favored by 12 over, say,  William and Mary even if William is injured.  In week one this year I took the Longhorns from Texas.  I didn’t think that they were a bad team.  I guess they are.  Don’t those waxed shinny wrappers around the Tootsie Rolls feel weird?
  3. Some brainiacs save certain teams for certain weeks.  It’s a weekly path designed to carefully step around land mines and keep your powder dry.  It’s a great idea until it isn’t.  No one can see that far down into the season.  No one.  Take the best guess and hope that you get to see another week.
  4.  If you get down to two or three choices in a given week always take a home team over a road team.  Always.  If they lose at least you can say that you didn’t take a road team.
  5. New England (NFL) at home is as close to gold as Fort Knox.  Alabama (college) is Fort Knox.
  6.  Some pick the team, regardless of who they are, that is playing that week against a year long bad team.  Let’s say, for example, you chose anyone over the Cleveland Browns over the last two years.  Well you would have won 31 of 32 games.  One problem.  They play Baltimore, Cincinnati, and Pittsburgh twice a year.  Nothing is perfect that’s why it’s called survivor.
  7. In the NFL it’s fine to pick a slight underdog later in the year that you like.  Really, it is.   A three-point or less NFL dog doesn’t always mess up your backyard.  If you don’t believe me, look back on any given week and see who won the game straight up.  Take week one (Henny Youngman), please. Tampa Bay (+9), New York Jets (+8), Philadelphia (+1.5 by game time), and Kansas City (+3.5) come to mind without even looking.  Cleveland (+4) tied.   And, Chicago (+7.5) came oh so close.
  8. Throw darts.
  9. Consult a psychic.
  10. Pray.

Well, week two in the NFL is upon us.  I’ll take the Saints to bounce back at home v. the Browns.

In college I’ll watch from the sidelines.   Thanks Tom Herman.

 

 

 

 

 

Boom Boom’s Life Lessons

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

One of the many gifts that Boom Boom gave us was the torrent of quips about how one leads one’s life.   He could say so much by saying so little.   A statement at just the right moment resonated in my young, eager eardrums.  How I interpreted or applied it was up to me.  No more words were spoken because no more words were needed.

My intent is to simply drop them here from time to time for reflection in your life.  Perhaps you can benefit as I have.  Whether all of the quotes were originally his(the vast majority are), or if he was himself inspired by a few along the way isn’t relevant.  The message is.  Our first one of many is below.   Enjoy.  Engage.

“Champions sweat when no one else is watching.”

Perhaps this quote will inspire you to share a story or a thought with a loved one.

Tired Themes for $50 Alex

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Maybe, just maybe, I am getting a bit older and a tad bit crotchety.  Probably.  Ok, I am.   I think what I think.  My lifelong love of genuine, inspirational, sport competitions make me wish for the old days.  It was a day when you could go to an event or tune in on TV (only 3 channels to choose from) to enjoy a competitive event, match, or game between competitors that preferred to allow their abilities do their talking.   For the most part the only controversies were offsides or false start, safe or out, or foul or not.

Sure there was the occasional Billie Jean King v. sexist Bobby Riggs match.  There was also the raised closed fists in the 1968 Olympics.  There were even a few betting or point shaving scandals along the way.

Heck, even old Jimmy the Greek got liquored up one night and talked about how African-Americans are better athletes due to their physiology.  It was probably some fine Scotch though.

But today.  Today.  Oh boy.   The intersection of social media, social outcry, equality, gender this and gender that, racism,  and sports is a complicated one.  It has yield signs, stops signs, red lights, and numerous lane change opportunities.  It’s a well-worn road now traveled far too often.  It’s always crowded and always under construction.   It’s a turn off for me and a sign that says dead-end ahead.

And, now, Serena says that she may have been the victim of “sexism.”  She lost because the chair umpire was a “liar” and a “thief.”  What’s weird is that she was playing in her match against another woman of course.  I’m not sure if he was equally sexist against her as well.  We should ask Serena.

Naomi Osaka take a well deserved bow.  You won.  Sports lost.  Tennis got lost in the “I am a sports figure hear me roar.”  You deserved better on your very big day.  The only racquet you made was with your racquet.  Unfortunately, the very diluted, over saturated media, ever desperate for an angle to better ratings, soaks this up like a towel on center court.

This noise comes on the same weekend that Colin Kapernick, desperate for attention, and Nike, desperate to regain lost market share, launched a campaign that said its important to stand up (or kneel down) for what you believe in.

You know what I believe in?  I believe in beer, popcorn, two TVs and two damn remotes.  I want my sports served early, competitive, often, and without discussions that drone on incessantly about who feels a certain way about whatever topic du jour that is soon sure to crush society.  It feels like two months (not two weeks) ago that Urban Meyer forgot to fire an accused wife beater until he forgot too many times.  His agent would like to thank Serena, Colin, and Nike for getting him off of the front page.

Isn’t Monday early AM till Friday PM enough time for MSNBC, CNN, and Fox News to incessantly pound all that’s wrong with us into our feeble craniums?

I just wanted to watch the US Open final and the over hyped NFL season openers.  Damn.

 

Your First Serving of 10 Piece Nuggets, FBS College Style. Sauce Included.

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

1. If you are a college football fan (and if you aren’t what is wrong with you?) and you wait roughly 243 days (who is counting?) for your favorite team to begin the 2018 season hope springs eternal in the early fall.  And then the game begins.  And then mercifully it ends.   If you are a Miami, Florida St, Michigan, or Arizona fan among others, you’re disappointed.  You can almost hear your rival yell “OVERATED.”  Worry not, the season is 12 or more games long.  One game does not a season make.  Overreaction reigns supreme when the body count is high and the body of work is incomplete.

2.  That same mentality permeates the press.  They have to fill your mind for 24/7/365.  More impressions, hits, views, and dare I say it, newspapers are the goal.  Power rankings and polls before the season and in the first few weeks of the season are worthless.  You won’t know how good you are until you know how good you are.  After one game the work shapes the perception.  One game.  After six games, half of the year, the body of work shapes the reality.  The sample size is far better.

3.  Urban Meyer should resign.  Of course he won’t though.  Of course.  His body of work (including his stint in Florida that stank towards its closure) creates a thumbs down reality.   When you are the state’s highest paid public employee and your job description includes proper/procedural reporting of employees immoral or illegal behaviors, and you don’t, its bad.  When you are charged with leading 17/18 year old “boys” that get to your program to manhood, and you deceive, delete, deny, and act if the entire process is beneath you aren’t leading.  And, that might even be worse.  Simply stated,  you are setting a bad example of behavior to many kids at a time that they most need good examples.

4.  That said, just like I doubt nike will sell less shoes because of their Kapernick campaign, I doubt that many, if any, recruits will spurn THE Ohio St. University.  Moms, if your goal is to win, go to THE.  If you want the best overall program for your son’s continued overall mental, emotional, and physical development, don’t.  Don’t do it at least until Urban Blight Meyer, aka Suburban Urban, aka THE Buckeye’s Blackeye feigns that he wants to spend more time with his family and does the right thing.

5.  Do we really need projected bowl match ups and an updated final four playoff championship bracket after one week?  Hell no.  That said, mine are Bama, Wisconsin, Clemson, and Georgia.  Notre Dame’s schedule, unfortunately, will keep them in the discussion until Brian Kelly turns as red on the sideline as the Irish Leprechaun is green.  This occurs as the leaves turn each fall when they underachieve at just the wrong moment.

6.  Lefty likes Kansas St. plus and Shorty loves Colorado St. plus v the spread this weekend.  Soon we will have a little fun with point spreads on the site on a weekly basis.  Keep some powder dry my friends.

7.   So, who is the better coach Tom Herman or Ed Orgeron?  The narrative for 18 months has been that LSU blew it by hiring Coach O when they failed to corral Tom Herman.  He was supposedly nearly locked and loaded to BR town in November, 2016.  They “settled” for the local cajun.  They went cheap.  Well, one season, one bowl season(Texas stayed home, LSU lost to ND), and one game into the next season makes one pause when answering this question.  The programs that they now lead are still works very much in progress.   But the results are beginning to show that the narrative should take a zig from its previous, persistent zag.

8.  Is everyone playing for second again this year except Bama?  Roll Tide Roll.   Nick Saban insists that his team “focus on the process and the results will take care of themselves.”  Well, the process in week one processed a Louisville team straight into the Waste Management proverbial dumpster fire.  How good is Louisville?  Me thinks not very, very.  They look 8-4 to 9-3 to me in an average (Clemson aside) ACC.  How good Louisville is, or for that matter how good anyone is, may not matter.  Bama is the process.  PS.  Nick, be nice.  Tiger on tour is smiling now and as competitive internally as ever.  The internal burn need not light the external ass quite so often.

9.  Congrats to Kevin Sumlin.  He brought his same exposed O to Tuscon and he is getting paid to do so.  He got the same results in a different uniform against a BYU team that sports average talent but wanted it more, far more, down the stretch.  And, it looked like they were better conditioned for four quarters.   If I am a money man at Arizona or a board guy there I would aspire to do better.  No TE and one WR in motion so horizontal that he is effectively out of the play post snap puts the Oline at a serious disadvantage.  You can rush five on five and still have six covering five.  It worked for two years in lovely College Station because of two reasons.  One, Manziel could run for his life to cover this shortfall.  Two, it was still new to the SEC, and they had enough talent to make it go pretty well. Then, after an off season of studying tape it didn’t fool too many.   But, it can wear out a D.  Remember UCLA’s insane comeback v the Aggies two years ago?  Or, ask Arizona already.   The combo is exposed against good running teams that have well coached D’s.      The law team of Fournette, Guice, Chavis, and Aranda cannot defend you either.  Sumlin never beat LSU.

10.  We hope you like this format that we intend to use on occasion.   We welcome your responses, complaints, or suggestions to it.  And we expect them on its content.  Engage.  Enrage.  Enjoy.