Ever have those Sundays you wish you could crawl in a hole and rot away? Today would have been one of those days for me except so many things went well that I wasn’t expecting to go well. Go figure. For the couple of things that ached like biting bugs under my skin, I’m going to work doubly hard this week to make sure that never happens again. And you know what, despite my insignificant troubles, God showed up and spoke a great word through Michael. Be wise. Wish my nephew had been there to hear it.

Here is the set-list:

Let God Arise (Tomlin)
Shine Your Light (Goodwin)
Your Will is My Way (Goodwin)
How Great Thou Art (Newsong rendition)
Here I Go (Goodwin)

What happened to home field advantage? How in the world did Eli Manning pull this one off? I think I’m most disappointed in the movie they were sure to make about Favr’s amazing record breaking season that ended up in the Super Bowl at the end of his career. Now, the best we can hope for is a straight to DVD release after-school special quality TV movie. Watch and see if Favre will be stupid enough to try and get one more season out of his gray hair and aging body. Seriously Brett, your grandchildren do not have to see you play football. It was a great run but it is time to let it go.

I’m really not a football fanatic, which may be obvious from the fact I stopped updating weekly picks once I realized there was no way I was going to even make the top five in our league. But I do enjoy the stories and the competition. This weekend, all the teams with the best records have made it to the semi-finals. That is how it should be. In fact, every team left looks so good right now that just about anything could happen this weekend. I actually think the chargers are going to upset the Colts and the Giants have a good chance to knock out the Cowboys if nothing more than to make Cowboys fans made Tony Romo was go over Jessica Simpson instead of game film during his off week. The only sad thing is I will have absolutely no time this weekend to sit down and watch the games. I’ll have to find someone to keep me updated with scores through text messages. Any takers?

My picks may have fallen off the deep end putting me 10 games back from first place, but my fantasy team has made it to the championship game. And if there was any team that made the playoffs I had a chance of beating, it is team I am matched up against this week. You know, people say God doesn’t answer prayers to help people win sporting events, but I bet somewhere someone prayed for snow in New England and that put the Tom Brady/Randy Moss duo my opponent was threatening me with on ice allowing me to sneak away with a huge victory.

Yeah, it might be beginners luck, but who cares.

My colleagues poke at the fact I prefer professional football over college or the fact I have little to no interest in college athletics at all. Now I’m not going to downplay the excitement you college fans are having this year with the roller coaster ride teams have put the BCS through. But somebody please tell me how anyone who is not already a Georgia fan is supposed to get excited about the fact that a two loss team statistically has a chance to play for the national title. I’m sorry, the real excitement is watching a team with a coach accused of cheating at the beginning of the season inch closer and closer to a perfect season, a former back-up quarterback lead a team to an almost certain NFC championship game his first full season starting, and rooting for a man who is really way to old to still be playing ball and yet is having a career year breaking almost every record he hasn’t already broken. Best thing is, there is an actual real playoff system that will be way more fun to watch than a enormous collection of over-hyped bowl games.

GAME OF THE WEEK: Packers v. Cowboys

At this point in the season, this game probably trumps the Pats/Colts game a few weeks back. Favre is relentlessly showing how good he still is while Romo and Owens are playing like they still have something to prove. The winner of this game will more than likely have home field advantage come playoff time and considering this game should mirror the NFC Championship, I’m sure the Cowboys will do everything they can to not have to play another Ice Bowl. I will definitely be watching this game in two days!!!

By the way, I’ve had double digit wins for the past three weeks (despite my lack of posts) and am slowly fighting my way to the top of our league.

Went 11-5 last week but still fell another game back from first. This is getting harder and harder. I’m sitting tied for 7th just waiting for that perfect 16-0 week so I can regain some ground. 102-58 is where I stand now six games back from the leader. In other breaking news, the Falcons lost. So, I’ll be turning my attention elsewhere and maybe watching out my peripheral vision to see whether Coach Patrino sticks around to further stink this team up. In fact, I’m not even picking the Falcons to win this week. Can you believe that? I’m actually going to pick the Colts. Sad thing is, that is the first time in three years I’ve abandoned my team. No, they abandoned me by not keep a closer eye on their franchise quarterback. Oh man…I’m going to go cry in a corner for a second.

GAME OF THE WEEK: Packers v. Lions

There is not any real good math-ups this week and this is probably the most exciting game all weekend. The Lions have shown promise and may be in the race for the wild card. The Packers are smoking hot but a team like Detroit, the way they’ve been playing this season, could come in and put them back in then place. I still think the Packers pull it off mainly because now that the Falcons are hibernating, I need a promising team to route for. And seeing as how Favre is writing one of the greatest NFL stories ever told, I’m all about jumping on the bandwagon.

What happened last week? The Colts got beat by the Chargers? The Saints got taken by the 0-8 Rams? Atlanta won again? It was like everything got turned upside down. So many upsets there wasn’t anyone who did great this week. Tied for 5th right now which doesn’t say much because there are six of us in the same place. With my totals now at 92-52, I’m only 5 games back from first. But that is a long way away after the midway point. I’m going to have to tighten up my picks and get some more double digit wins.

GAME OF THE WEEK: Falcons v. Buccaneers

I don’t really like any of the match-ups this week so I’m going with the only game I’ll probably take time to even care about. Here is why: the Falcons have won the last two games and as pathetic as it sounds, that puts them right back into the race for their division. If they can manage to beat the Bucs, they will only be one game back from everyone else in their league. If they could somehow get it together and win the majority of the rest of their games and all of their division games, there is a slim chance they could still make the playoffs. Pretty much, if they lose this game, they might as well start planning for next year.

I’ve been catching some flack from my pastor and a few others who think my NFL picks are a joke. Never mind I went 12-2 last week and jumped four spots in my league. I guess they figure since nobody really cares who I pick and for sure no one uses my picks to make official picks to improve their financial standing, it doesn’t make since why I post them every week. And since I’ve been spending many hours in the studio and I don’t want anyone to think I spend the rest of my spare time checking football scores and watching highlights on ESPN, I going to take stock in their jeers and make a shift in my posting mid-season. I don’t really have time to watch much of anything on TV let alone football games, so I’m just going to comment on what I think is the Game of the Week. And no, it will not always be the Falcon’s game - I’ll choose the game I would watch if I could only watch one game.

GAME OF THE WEEK

There are a few games I could choose with the Steelers and Browns rivalry or the anticipated Cowboys and Giants matchup, but I think the game to watch this week is the Colts vs the Chargers. After losing a hard game last week to the Patriots, the Colts are going to be expecting a victory against a struggling Chargers team. However, with Marvin Harrison, Dallas Clark, and the many other injured players plaguing the Colts starting line-up, they might just be out of sync against a Chargers team that has won 4 out of last 5 match-ups. LT seems to be getting back on his game and San Diego’s defense has been stepping it up as well. However, unless Peyton Manning just all together chokes, we should see the Colts claim one more win on their way to the AFC championship game.

Did you guys hear about the amazing milestone set by Manning and Brady last week and probably by Favre this week being the first quarterbacks to beat every team but their own? What and incredible coincidence. It is especially amazing considering if any of them fail, they may not get another chance.

Last week was a pretty good week. 10-3 with my overall total now at 72-44. I should be in the 80s right now and will have to keep this level of winning picks up if I’m even going to have a chance to get back on top of my league. This week promises some pretty fun games with the obvious highlight being the should-be-super-bowl-that-will-never-happen battle between the two remaining undefeated teams, the New England Patriots and the Indianapolis Colts. I’ll be at church when that game begins but I will definitely give it a little Tivo love.

AWAY	HOME	————	PICK	RESULT
Broncos (3-4)	Lions (5-2)
49ers (2-5)	Falcons (1-6)
Bengals (2-5)	Bills (3-4)
Panthers (4-3)	Titans (5-2)
Packers (6-1)	Chiefs (4-3)
Chargers (4-3)	Vikings (2-5)
Jaguars (5-2)	Saints (3-4)
Redskins (4-3)	Jets (1-7)
Cardinals (3-4)	Buccaneers (4-4)
Seahawks (3-1)	Browns (2-2)
Patriots (8-0)	Colts (7-0)
Texans (3-5)	Raiders (2-5)
Cowboys (6-1)	Eagles (3-4)
Ravens (4-3)	Steelers (5-2)

I’m getting these in a little later than usual. This week has been a little crazy so I’ve been out of sync for quite some time. We made our picks on time for our league but that is just a reply to an email. I’ve to waste a little more time rearranging all these pictures for really no one’s pleasure but my own. So for those of you who think I posted these picks too late, well, 1) it is only for fun and 2) my official picks were posted Thursday by 5PM.

You wondering how our pick-only-the-home-teams week faired us? Not so good. But not completely bad. We still had a winning week, but with only 8-5, we dropped to tenth place in our league. I also lost again in my fantasy league. I’m a pretty competitive guy and if I’m not careful, I’m going to end up spending way to much time researching and planning to help me do better in these leagues and I’m going to end-up becoming one of “those guys.” I don’t want that.

Anyway, here are my picks for those who are keeping track or have nothing better to do than read my boring posts:

AWAY	HOME	————	PICK	RESULT
Colts (6-0)	Panthers (4-2)
Browns (3-3)	Rams (0-7)
Giants (5-2)	Dolphins (0-7)
Eagles (2-4)	Vikings (2-4)
Steelers (4-2)	Bengals (2-4)
Lions (4-2)	Bears (3-4)
Raiders (2-4)	Titans (4-2)
Bills (2-4)	Jets (1-6)
Jaguars (4-2)	Buccaneers (4-3)
Texans (3-4)	Chargers (3-3)
Saints (2-4)	49ers (2-4)
Redskins (4-2)	Patriots (7-0)
Packers (4-1)	Broncos (2-3)