Welcome!

Hey yo.  Thank you for stopping by, although I don't know why you would.  This blog will chronicle the ATS (against the spread) NFL picks by my buddy and me.  My buddy is Jason, and I'm Dre.  We will also flash back from time to time and remember some of the more crazy and interesting stories concerning our picks from days gone by.  And since we've both been casual fantasy football players in various online leagues, we will share those tales as well.  And if you find us entertaining, although again I don't know why you would, we hope to someday soon fire up a weekly podcast and record these off the wall, free flowing wacky 2-hour conversations that we wind up having as we attempt to pick each week's games...in much less detail!!

A quick bit about us:  Jason and I have been best friends since 1st grade, which dates back to (shudder) 1982.  We both were huge sports fans, and we ran up our respective parents' phone bills watching games on the phone together.  He can clarify when he steps up to the keyboard, but I believe we started picking NFL games in 1989, the first year that we attended separate schools.  We may have quit after that regular season, then decided to pick all the way through the playoffs next year, culminating in the earliest final season-ending result of our picks that either of us can remember, which would be...a tie.  The Buffalo Bills were favored over the New York Giants in Super Bowl XXV, but we weren't even using point spreads then.  Jason was ahead of me by one pick, and since he picked the favored Bills to win, I had to take the Giants and that future Hall of Famer (not) Jeff Hostetler to win just to gain a season tie with Jason.  Little did we know when we watched the Scott Norwood kick go wide right to salvage the tie for me that we were witnessing the beginning of a four-year run of suck by those Bills, who went on to lose the next three Super Bowls.  But that's the fun of making the picks--going back and seeing the NFL history that developed in those games that we tried to predict.  We went to the point spreads a year or two later while attending high school together.  We needed the challenge after we started putting together some ridiculously easy weeks making picks straight up.  And once the league started becoming harder to predict due to "parity," it became a serious challenge for either of us to finish above .500 picking ATS.  But through our various house moves and personal situations over the years, here we are, still picking and gunning for the mythical year-end picks championship, which is for nothing but bragging rights.

About the name of the blog:  It's real simple.  Way back when I was a kid and my folks could afford HBO, Jason and I watched "Inside the NFL," and when they would move to the picks section of the show, one of the old farts, Nick Buoniconti or Len Dawson or someone else, would say, "Now let's move on to our picks, in more detail."  We started referring to our picks as being "in less detail," since we weren't experts like the big boys on TV were, and over the years, it's devolved into picking "in much, much less detail" as our respective records became uglier and uglier.

About the picks:  As I said, against the spread for every game.  No regular-season game is more valuable than another.  (We've discussed having a "Lock of the Week" or "Top 3 Plays" or something like that, making those picks worth more, but we haven't implemented it yet.)  We used to use Sheridan's lines in the newspaper, but neither of us read the paper anymore, plus I like having the most up-to-date point spreads to reflect any last-minute injuries or benchings.  So I use Covers.com, which seems to be a composite of the lines of several different sportsbooks.  We keep up with the picks and figure out our simple percentage at the end of the season.  Last year, I went 115-134 with seven ties for a whopping .462 percentage, and Jason went 114-135 for a .458 percentage.  I developed a point system for the playoffs in an attempt to give the later rounds of the playoffs more importance and gravity.  It's dumb and convoluted and I'm sure a statistician can tell me why it doesn't really help prove who's a better picker, but here it is anyway:  Take the winning percentage and multiply it by 200, and then apply 2 points for every correct pick in the wild card round, 3 points for the divisional round (conference semifinals), 4 points for the conference finals, and 5 points for the Super Bowl.  That came out to 92.4 points at the beginning of the playoffs for me to 91.6 for Jason.  Last year, as it seems to do every year, the final winner came down to the Super Bowl because we were within 5 points of each other.  I was able to take the lead by picking the Colts over the Jets in the AFC title game, meaning I would pick whichever team I wanted in the Super Bowl because Jason had to go against me no matter what.  And I was proud to correctly pick the New Orleans Saints not only to cover 4.5 points as an underdog against the Indianapolis Colts, but to win the game.

One last piece of info before I go:  I'm the loudmouth, arrogant bastard of the two, while Jason is the soft-spoken smart aleck.  I really do go into much detail making my horrible picks, researching all kinds of stats and injury reports and whatnot, while Jason basically picks out of his ass.  And sometimes, I say stupid shit.  It's silly stupid shit, and it's not thought out at all.  I just blurt it out.  Well, my pick has already been made for the first game of the year, before I even know what the line is.  That's because the first game--Minnesota Vikings @ New Orleans Saints, Thursday night--will have as one of its quarterbacks, the man who won't die, Brett Favre.  Here's the story:  In 2005, the Green Bay Packers were having an absolutely miserable season.  Favre had crappy stats, most of his good receivers had been hurt most of the year, and he looked for all intents and purposes like he was Brady Quinn DONE.  The Detroit Lions were having a typically crappy season too, and on December 11 the 2-10 Packers hosted the 4-8 Lions on the frozen tundra of Lambeau Field.  I was stunned to see the Packers as only a six point favorite.  No matter how bad the Pack may have been, they surely could whip the pathetic Lions at home by a mere touchdown.  After all, they had the Messiah Favre still going out there and gunslinging for them.  So out of my disdain for the Lions and also out of my nausea for how much credit Favre was continuing to receive for his great play and gutsy persona, I made the following declaration to Jason:  If the Pack can't cover six on the Lions, I am NEVER PICKING BRETT FAVRE TO COVER A SPREAD AGAIN.  The Pack had to go to overtime to beat the Lions 16-13.  I of course had absolutely no idea that Favre would go on to return to the Packers the next season...and threaten to retire...and come back again to take the Pack all the way to the NFC title game...and retire...and unretire to play for the Jets...and retire...and unretire to play for the Vikings and take them to the NFC title game...and retire...and unretire to play for the Vikings again this season.  Yes, through all of those iterations of the great Brett Favre, I have stuck to my word and not picked Favre ATS at all.  So there's a slight bit of dishonesty in the history of our picks, because in the last four years, I have not been allowed to take Favre in a game where I like his team to cover.  And it's all thanks to my big fat mouth from all the way back in 2005.

Our picks will be up typically Saturday night, and occasionally early Sunday morning, as well as sometime before kickoff for those special Thursday and Saturday games, like this Thursday's season opener.  Check back often, and thanks for reading.