Quick question: What’s better than skipping church, sitting on the couch in a dark room watching the Red Zone channel for 12 hours avoiding all real world responsibilities, and gambling on grown men who probably have CTE? Doing it for the 7th straight week. Welcome to NFL Sunday.
"In the NFL it's not IF you get injured, its WHEN." - William Shakespeare (probably)
We are through 6 weeks of NFL action and that’s exactly what its been, non-stop action. We’ve had the President tweet multiple times about the league. Experts proclaiming Carson Wentz is the next John Elway. Half the league kicking themselves for not drafting Deshaun Watson. And lost in all the action, not many people have noticed the Browns have still not won a game. There has been something different about this year though the injuries have actually come to players we care about. If you know anything about football or the work of William Shakespeare you already know injuries in football are inevitable. Some of the best athletes on the planet crashing into each other at full speed is going to cause some injuries you don’t see at your average workplace. The thing about players in the NFL is many of them do not have recognition outside of their helmets. Because football is the ultimate team game many players become more a cog in the machine than a shinning star.
Fun Fact: Lebron James has 39 million twitter followers. The top 10 NFL players in terms of twitter followers have a combined 35 million followers. Not saying twitter followers are the end all be all of popularity but clearly Lebron James is much more recognizable than every player in the NFL. How do I know? I never even mentioned who Lebron James is or what he does for a living and you know exactly who I’m talking about. Out of the top 10 NFL players based on twitter followers, 4 of them are currently out of the NFL, Tim Tebow, Reggie Bush, Michael Vick, and Chad Ochocinco. The NFL never built is popularity on the faces and personalities of players the way the NBA did. But that doesn’t mean the NFL doesn’t have popular players.
If you watch any random NFL game on tv, there is a 100% chance that at some point during a commercial break either Aaron Rodgers, JJ Watt or Odell Beckham will be featured in at least one of those commercials. What do all three of those players have in common? They won’t be playing another game in the NFL this season. Watt, Beckham, and Rodgers have all sustained season ending injuries. How is it possible that three of the most recognizable guys in the league all won’t be playing more than 6 games. Maybe there’s a chance all of these injuries happened to these players on purpose, they say everything happens for a reason. I’m not saying I would wish these injuries on these players but it might not be a bad thing either.
Let’s start with OBJ. Last January before a playoff game in Green Bay, Beckham and the rest of the Giants receivers took a trip to Miami for a quick pre-playoff game vacation and they have yet to win a game OBJ has played in since. In between that time Beckham has campaigned that he should be the highest paid player in the league, and also posted a lot of photos on Instagram. This combination of lofty goals plus the ability to use social media in such a polarizing fashion should be a huge advantage for OBJ’s free time. With Beckham now out for the year with a leg injury he will have plenty of time to campaign the owners of the Giants to be the highest paid player in the league. If I were OBJ I would be using all of this free time to post Instagram videos of all my highlights. Maybe do some daily video blogs making his case for why he deserves a new contract. If Donald Trump has taught America anything, its that if you have lofty goals, a polarizing presence on social media, and a lot of free time; there isn’t anything you can’t accomplish. OBJ should borrow a move from the president and immediately start using his social media to attack other players in the league. Here are some ideas of posts for OBJ.
“Derek Carr is an overrated slob, not nearly as good looking as his brother, does not deserve his contract, sad.”
“Aaron Donald is a fat loser who didn’t show up for his team week 1, doesn’t deserve to get paid, sad.”
“Le’veon Bell is a lazy stoner who has never been there when it matters, not the best RB in the league, sad.”
Taking the negative attention away from his injury and placing it on other players flaws should be the perfect strategy for Beckham to come away with rich new contract. Whoever said injuries were a bad thing.
Now for Golden Arm Aaron Rodgers. Last Sunday Rodgers was hit by Vikings linebacker Anthony Barr and broke his collar bone. Shoutout to my brother Dalton for telling me a great conspiracy on this. Anthony Barr who his Rodgers went to UCLA. The Packers backup QB, Brett Hundley was Barr’s teammate at UCLA. Did Barr take out Rodgers with a dirty hit just to get his boy a starting job? Just connecting some dots.
Here is an interesting thought, how happy were Aaron Rodgers parents when they watched him get hit and broke his collar bone? It’s been well documented that Aaron Rodgers does not speak with or get along with his immediate family. I’m sure after years of not hearing from him and Aaron returning their Christmas gifts, they were pretty excited to see him go down with a broken collar bone. With all this free time now it would be too easy for Rodgers just to make a million more terrible State Farm commercials, but I’ve got a better idea. Aaron should go on the Bachelor and compete directly with his younger brother for women. I have little knowledge of how reality dating shows work but I know Aaron’s brother Jordan was a contestant on the Bachelor at some point and won. Now that Aaron isn’t playing football this season he should go on the show to fight against brother for the attention of the lovely women who agree to go on dating shows. Two brothers who hate each other fighting over drunk, desperate women, how is this not the most entertaining tv show of all time?!
Last major injury of the season so far is Captain America himself JJ Watt. This one is pretty obvious why it happened. JJ Watt is the king of motivational posts on social media. If I know JJ the way I think I do he is probably thankful for another opportunity to be the underdog again and come back from a horrible injury next season. “A minor setback for a major comeback” or whatever other motivational BS JJ decides to post on social media for the next 8 months. Part of JJ Watt’s superhero persona was on display last offseason when he raised over 20 million dollars for hurricane relief victims in the Houston area. This injury for Watt could prove to be a blessing in disguise for all the hurricane victims in Texas. With all of his season freed up now, I’m sure JJ will work tirelessly to raise more money for hurricane victims. A loss for the Texans equals a victory for the entire city of Houston. As long as JJ doesn’t get distracted by posting videos of himself working out this injury could prove to be a miracle for hurricane victims.
NFL Week 7 Picks
All Lines used from Las Vegas Westgate Super contest
Colts +3.5
Giants +4.5
Cowboys -6.5
Colts +3.5
It has been well documented this season that I do not like Colts and have they have handled the Andrew Luck situation. Now its been reported that the Patriots reached out to the Colts about trading Jacoby Brissett, not the other way around. Meaning the Colts plan this season was to play Scott Tolzien until Luck was 100% healthy. I cannot even begin to wrap my head around how stupid that thought process is. But the Colts do have Brissett now, and he has actually played decent (compared to Scott Tolzien he looks like Steve Young.) This bet isn’t about the Colts though, this bet is about the Jags. I know the Jags have had some huge victories this season but there is no reason in the history of football that the Jags should be favored by more than a Field Goal on the road. This is strictly a principal bet, and the Colts have been decent at home. Gimmie Jacoby Brisket at a home dog.
Giants +4.5
The Giants went into Denver last Sunday night and beat the Broncos as a 13.5 point underdog. The Dolphins also beat the Falcons in Atlanta as a 13.5 point underdog. Both the Falcons and the Broncos were at home coming off of bye weeks and somehow lost to huge underdogs. Last week was the NFL version of a Solar Eclipse and we won’t see anything like it again for 40 years. Lost in the eclipse, the Giants are much better than their 1-5 record. Even though they are literally playing with receivers they signed off the street last week, I like them as a home underdog. Their defense is good enough to keep them in any game and as long as they can run the ball against the Seahawks this will be a close low scoring game.
Cowboys -6.5
I mentioned how last week was the solar eclipse of the NFL with huge favorites coming off a bye losing outright. We never see an eclipse in back to back weeks. The Cowboys are coming off a bye playing at the 0-6 San Fransisco Niners. The Niners have lost each of their last 5 games by 3 points or less. Eventually they won’t be able to keep that streak up. I think this is the week it comes to an end. The Cowboys are a better team and this week they win by double digits. Plus the Niners are starting something called a CJ Beathard? (Stops to google CJ Beathard.) If the Cowboys terrible secondary is ever going to have a good game its going to be against a CJ Beathard.
Record to date: who cares records are a stupid thing to keep track of
Thank you to everyone for reading. Be sure to check out Bart’s Best Bets for college picks and come back next week for more NFL. Happy week 6 everyone and remember don’t let your life get in the way of your football.
Double COVERage 