2021 Week #16

COVID is spreading like wildfire through the NFL, so the sked last week was all kinds of messed up, and the rosters this week are impossible to read. So many men are out thanks to Omicron, and many others are possibly going to be ruled out, and others still may get cleared right before gametime. As a result, our picks are slightly incomplete. We're not picking the Monday night game here because the Saints could have a totally different starting lineup by then, so we'll post that pick sometime Monday on Twitter: @imlddre, @imldjtg. We also have what I believe is our first twin contingency. We both independently declare that Tim Boyle starting at QB for the Lions forces us to pick the Falcons. If Jared Goff was able to be cleared, we would take Detroit. Additionally, I have a contingency on Kansas City having to take on Pittsburgh without their two best targets. If they have to play without both Travis Kelce and Tyreek Hill, then I must take the Steelers. But if one or both are cleared before the game, then I will roll with the Chiefs. With all that out of the way, here is most of our Week 16, where we currently differ on five picks:

All of our thoughts and observations can be heard here:

NFL 2021 Week #16: Christmas Fever

2021 Week #15

The podcast was haunted by an evil spirit tonight. We couldn't connect at the start of the show, I couldn't call in because my phone is dead and refuses to charge, and then our aftershow got disconnected. We managed to get in our picks even with all of that, well, most of our picks. Jay had the bright idea to push off our Tuesday picks until Tuesday when we can Tweet them out once we figure out who's actually playing and what kind of grip the NFL has on the Omicron situation. Oh, and because there isn't enough weirdness this week, Jason also has a contingency pick. He's taking the Brownies if they can get either of their top two QBs, Baker Mayfield or Case Keenum, in the starting gate. If it's any being other than those two, he's riding with the Raiders. Got all that? Good. Here is the Twilight Zone that is Week 15:

All of our thoughts and observations can be heard here:

NFL 2021 Week #15: Foot Sprains And COVID Strains

2021 Week #14

The NFL season that won't end rolls on, and Jason and I will square off on six games tomorrow after his insane win Thursday night. The Vikings almost blew a 29-0 lead and let the Steelers come all the way back, and if they hold on to a TD on the last throw, they at least cover. It would have been the mother of all backdoor covers, but alas. I had to go to a rare position player contingency pick, but that's how important Deebo Samuel has been to the 49ers. If he plays, I got San Fran, but if not, I got the Bengals. Here are our Week 14 picks:

 

All of our thoughts and observations can be heard here:

NFL 2021 Week #14: All These Games Could Go Either Way

2021 Week #13

Not every week can be full of great contests, and Week 13 in the NFL this year has a lot of dog games. But Jason and I managed to chat about all of them and find some angles you may not hear anywhere else. We're facing off on four picks, but we're really looking forward to the Monday night brawl in Buffalo. We dare the Bills to prove to us they should be trusted against tough competition, because they haven't proven it yet. Here are the picks: 

All of our thoughts and observations can be heard here:

NFL 2021 Week #13: The Vengeance Of Belichick

2021 Week #12

A very long Thanksgiving week for both Jason and me ended with our show tonight making our Week 12 picks, and it turned out that we are only different on three games. This after the last several weeks when it seemed like we were battling on nine or more games each Sunday. Jay says he can appreciate not being able to lose seven picks to me again as he did a couple weeks ago. I want to be greedy. I wanted to do that again to him, because it felt so good. Of course, he did something similar to me earlier in this drunk-ass season, which still has seven more weeks to go. Take a breath. Here are our Week 12 picks:

All of our thoughts and observations can be heard here:

NFL 2021 Week #12: Trotting Turkeys

2021 Week #11

Jason and I go head-to-head on nine of the 14 remaining games this week, but as we were discussing the games we realized that we weren't really going at each other. This drunk NFL season has left us making picks with a LOT of hedging and acknowledging the other's viewpoints. How can anyone feel very strongly about any pick with all of the inconsistency? Jay had to take a contingency this week as well. He's not sticking with the Cardinals if Kyler Murray is again deactivated before the game as he was last week. I'm just taking Russell Wilson to bounce back no matter what. Here are our picks for Week 11:

All of our picks and observations can be heard here:

NFL 2021 Week #11: This Season Is Christmas Drunk

2021 Week #10

If I had an idea why my picks have fallen off so hard, I could express confidence that I'm making it up this week with seven games head-to-head against Jay, but I'm flying blind at this point. There have been a ton of upsets in the NFL this season for sure, but not only am I losing the big favs, but the upsets I try to pick aren't coming home. I'll lay off the Eagles and Potato Skins at some point, but I'm letting it ride one more time this week. Here are our picks for Week 10:

 

All of our thoughts and observations can be heard here:

NFL 2021 Week #10: Karen Rodgers Has Completed Her Research

2021 Week #9

I did better handling the atrocious job I did handicapping last week than I usually do. I guess I'm learning some coping skills in my old age. There's only so much I can do to guess which team is going to cover and which isn't, so I just went back to the methods I know best, and we shall see if they worked out for me this week. Jason and I will face off on seven of the 13 remaining NFL games. He's got a leg up thanks to the Colts dragging the Jets on Thursday. If he sweeps me again, as he did a couple weeks ago, he's got the season lead, and I'm in deep doo-doo. Here are our picks:

All of our thoughts and observations, after some audio problems to start, can be heard here:

NFL 2021 Week #9: Attack Of The Killer Backups

2021 Week #8

Jay and I disagree on five games this week, which is par for the course with 14 games remaining in the NFL Week 8 sked. I hosted our podcast solo this morning, which was appropriately spooky on Halloween. I couldn't connect through the computer, and I got surcharged to connect through the phone, which has never happened. Weird. Here are our picks for the week:

 

Most of our thoughts and observations can be heard here:

NFL 2021 Week #8: Wake-Up Call

2021 Week #7

Jay and I differ on four picks this Sunday, not counting the win by Jay on Thursday backing the backup Browns over the Broncos. It's a light week in the NFL, not just in number of games but in quality. Only three of the twelve remaining games have both teams at or above .500. Yeesh. It's a Sunday that you watch if you really, really love football. Here are our picks:

 

All of our thoughts and observations, including a Kings of Non Sequitur-like aftershow surrounding cancel culture, can be heard here:

NFL 2021 Week #7: Property Of Aaron Rodgers

2021 Week #6

I'm back from my excellent cruise with Virgin Voyages. To hear all the details, listen to the aftershow of the podcast below. As for our picks, Jason and I disagree on five games for Week 6 in the NFL, not counting the Thursday night miracle cover by the Eagles. Here are our picks:

 

All of our thoughts and observations can be heard here:

NFL 2021 Week #6 + Dre's Virgin Voyages Review

2021 Week #5

Jay and I did our show earlier than usual because I'm off to take a cruise on Saturday and won't be around. We had a lot of agreeing with each other's picks, even picking the same Lock for the second week in a row. All we can hope is it goes better than last week. Here are our NFL Week 4 picks, which only has four games (not counting Thursday) where we square off:

 

All of our thoughts and observations can be heard here:

NFL 2021 Week #5: SubUrban Development

2021 Week #4

Jay and I are split on ten of the fifteen games left in NFL Week 4, but we discuss in the podcast how weak we feel about some of the picks and how strong we feel about others. So it's not like we're taking 2x4s to each other on every pick. Some of them were like, "I got no idea which side to take," and we wind up on opposite sides. That's why you have to listen to the show for context on each pick. Not every game ATS is made equal. Here is the slate for Week 4:

 

All of our thoughts and observations can be heard here:

NFL 2021 Week #4: Foxboro Family Reunion

2021 Week #3

Jason and I had been singing a lot of Kumbaya through the first two weeks of football, but we're really gearing up for war in NFL Week 3. We're heads-up on eight games, and I'm dragging his Lock of the Week, taking the Dolphins to knock off the Raiders now that Tua Time is in hiatus. I'm feeling extra good about my picks after starting the week with a Lock win on Thursday, but as always, that means I'm in danger of being overconfident. Time will tell. Everyone please keep Jason and his children in your thoughts and prayers as they deal with a possible COVID outbreak. Here's this week's picks:

 

All of our thoughts and observations can be heard here:

NFL Week #3: Fields Is Our Quarterback (Today)

2021 Week #2

Our picks for Week 2 in the NFL are here, later than normal but they are here. I was not part of the podcast this week due to being on vacation in Cancun. The show was instead done by Jay and his two children, the Cute Factors. It was a thing. Please listen for some very different thoughts and observations than you're used to getting. Considering our records last week, maybe that's exactly what was needed. Here are our picks, which have Jason and me differing on six games, not counting my Thursday night win:

Some of our thoughts and observations, but mostly giggling and Fortnite chat, can be heard here:

NFL 2021 Week #2: Hostile Takeover

2021 Week #1

Jay and I really try not to make our Week 1 picks parallel to our preseason predictions, but it's so hard to avoid doing that. For example, as much as I respect the Browns for how they competed last year, I couldn't take them over the Chiefs because I have the Chiefs going back to the Super Bowl. And I think the Cardinals will be lots of fun and I think they will break the scoreboard in Nashville, but ultimately, I'm still picking the Titans. The only place I could take a team that I think will have a much worse year than their opponent is the Monday nighter. I have the Raiders covering against the Ravens thanks to all the RB injuries in Baltimore and the eerie feeling of a Monday night opener in Las Vegas in front of their criminal fans. Here is the full list of picks for the NFL's opening weekend:

All of our thoughts and observations can be heard here:

NFL 2021 Week #1: The Ray Rice Curse

2021 MLB Hall of Infamy Inductions

As life continues to turn back to normal in the year 1 A.C. (After COVID), baseball will have its normal Hall of Fame ceremony in front of people. But we at IMLD didn't miss a beat, getting in our Hall of Infamy inductions last year and this. There are still no shortages of people and events that are infamous and deserve their own spotlight. Without further adieu, here are my hardball Hall of Infamy inductees for 2021.

• Albert Belle - Outfielder - Indians, mostly. Infamous for: A host of incidents that completely obscured his immense hitting talent. Belle is in a way the prime example of why so many of us sports fans don't regard the MVP or Hall of Fame opinions of sportswriters very highly. Sure, his career was too short to be Hall of Fame worthy due to a degenerative hip that cut his career at eleven years. But in 1995, Belle had an all-time slugging season, becoming the only man to go 50-50 in home runs and doubles for the eventual American League champion Cleveland Indians. A shoo-in for league MVP, right? Not so fast. The writers voted Mo Vaughn of the Red Sox as the MVP despite Belle having more of every major offensive category than Vaughn except steals. (They tied in RBI.) It was widely thought that Vaughn got the vote due to the surliness of Belle with the media, not because they actually thought he was better than Belle. So what had ol' Joey Belle done to make people despise him so? Well, there was a run-in with a heckler at LSU before he even made it to the majors, there was getting sent to rehab by the Tribe in 1990 for boozing, there was the high comedy of recruiting teammate Jason Grimsley to crawl through the catacombs of Comiskey Park to steal the corked bat that the umpires had confiscated and trying to switch it with a regular bat, there was cussing out Hannah Storm when she tried to interview him in the dugout during the '95 World Series, there were numerous tales of his temper tantrums, there was the time poor little Fernando Viña tried to tag him and Belle almost murdered him with a forearm shiver...the list is endless. Belle found time to try to run down kids who egged his house on Halloween in '95 as well. In retirement, he was convicted of stalking a former girlfriend, and in 2018 he caught a DUI/indecent exposure arrest, though the charges were dropped. I was thrilled when Belle came to my White Sox in 1997 to serve as Frank Thomas's protection in the order. It says so much about how hated Belle was that he is not remembered well for his two years in Chicago even though in that time he had a 27-game hitting streak in '97 and a monster season in '98, setting franchise records with 49 HRs and 152 RBI. But the man was impossible to root for, even on my favorite team. He wasn't just surly, he was angry in a sociopathic manner, and the fact that he put together a .933 career OPS and over 40 WAR will not be what comes to mind when his name is mentioned. Albert Belle will always be synonymous with "batshit crazy," and his fiery run is the definition of infamous.

• Yuri Sucart - A-Rod's Fake Dominican Cousin. The career of Alex Rodriguez is forever tainted by his failed steroid test and yearlong suspension for HGH and testosterone. The failed steroid test was never supposed to be public knowledge. In 2003, MLB took anonymous tests of every ballplayer in order to see if there was enough of a league-wide roids problem to mandate regular testing, because looking at Barry Bonds and Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa wasn't evidence enough. The test results were secret until the list was seized by the feds as part of the BALCO sting. A-Rod had told anyone who asked, most notably Katie Couric in an interview, that he never used performance-enhancing drugs. But in early 2009, when the 104 names of the guys who tested positive became public, Rodriguez had to find a way to pivot and spin the situation. So he explained that, yes, he did feel pressure to perform up to his contract and he did use some stuff back in '03. He also found time to bus-toss his cousin Yuri Sucart. In a wild press conference, Rodriguez claimed that a cousin bought a drug over-the-counter in the Dominican called "boli," and despite not knowing exactly what the stuff was, Alex said he injected it twice a month for six months! Everyone at the same time called "Bullshit" on the idea that a top-notch athlete making millions upon millions of dollars would blindly inject some unknown drug from his Dominican cousin. The scapegoating worked to an extent, though, as Sucart was banned from baseball clubhouses and was treated by the media like a dangerous steroid-peddling bad guy. There is a fascinating story from 2014 on Deadspin back when the site did good work. It describes the nature of Sucart's relationship with A-Rod. Let's just say that Sucart was a perfect fall guy. He had legal issues, he had financial issues, and he had a lifestyle thanks to A-Rod that he could not possibly have maintained if he sang about his famous cousin. So he never sang, and eventually, A-Rod would get caught cheating again and couldn't find anyone to blame but himself. So the "fake" in the description of Yuri Sucart is not referring to the kinship--he really is related to Rodriguez's New York people. The "fake" is everything else: A-Rod's loyalty to him was fake, his tale of taking shit that Yuri delivered from the DR was obviously fake, and the whole A-Rod aura was revealed to be a sham. He was the highest paid, the most popular, the best damn player in the world. But Alex Rodriguez is a punchline to this day, and his downfall began when he became a rat who squealed on his cousin Yuri Sucart.
  

• Lee Elia Wing: Earl Weaver Manager's Corner. And now, as part of the Lee Elia Wing of memorable baseball quotes, I give you this absolutely bonkers insane radio segment featuring a Hall-of-Fame manager sounding very unlike a typical manager. Here is the most un-PC 2:30 you could ever imagine:

• Jim Abbott and Curtis Pride - Inspirational Big-Leaguers. Infamous for: Making it to the major leagues despite some major handicaps. Maybe I was watching the HBO Show "Real Sports" too much in my COVID hibernation, but they sure liked to spotlight people doing amazing things with their bodies while missing some limbs. Between the mountain climbers with mechanical legs and the kid golfer who's now playing baseball too despite having only one hand, people are doing more with less now than ever before. We had heroes in baseball overcoming adversity when we were kids, and they should be saluted as well. The more well-known of these two was Jim Abbott, who famously threw a no-hitter as a member of the Yankees in 1993 against the Indi...sorry, the Guardians. He had a remarkable career for someone born without a right hand. To see him field his position while balancing his glove on his stump was nothing short of extraordinary. And yes, he pitched for my White Sox so I had occasion to see him live, but he was awesome to watch before he got to the South Side. Abbott won 87 games at the major league level and had an ERA of 4.25 while pitching in the Steroid Era. That's something for a man with both hands. As for Curtis Pride, he struck a curious figure standing in at the plate with a huge honkin' hearing aid attached to his ear. Pride was an excellent athlete at many sports despite being 95% deaf from birth due to a case of rubella. He was the starting point guard at the College of William and Mary, and before that, he won the 1985 FIFA U-16 soccer championship, scoring the game-winning goal. But baseball was his destiny. He came up in 1993 as a Montreal Expo. His best year was 1996 as a Detroit Tiger, hitting .300 and going double-double in homers and steals. Pride turned in a long if not productive career, playing until 2006 with six different teams. But he and Abbott were proud representatives of the disabled community, and they were symbols of the idea that obstacles are meant to be hurdled and you really can do anything you want if you put your mind to it.

• Milton Bradley - Outfielder - A whole mess of teams. Infamous for: Being an ass everywhere he went. Bradley, like Albert Belle, will be remembered for having a ton of potential that was wasted because neither dealt with adversity well. Bradley's temper may have been hereditary; his father was a Vietnam vet cokehead who beat up Bradley's mother, so violence was a normal atmosphere from jump. He carried that throughout his career, starting with a brawl in the minors after being hit by a pitch. Probably because of his buffoonery, teams couldn't wait to trade him despite his productivity. He only played a couple of years in Montreal, the team that drafted him, before they sent him to Cleveland. It was in Ohio in 2003 where Bradley decided that he didn't feel like accepting a speeding ticket and simply drove off; eventually he was sentenced to three days in jail. The next year, he was shipped off to the Dodgers. That tenure was punctuated by a June 1, 2004 ejection in which Bradley afterwards flung a full bag of baseballs onto the field. In September a home fan threw a plastic bottle at him for botching a ball in the outfield, and Bradley threw it back at the guy. That got Bradley suspended for the rest of the season. Los Angeles sent him to Oakland during Hot Stove 2005. He was good for the A's but they dealt him to the Padres the next summer. The antics took a truly ridiculous turn on Sep. 23, 2007. In the heat of a playoff race, Bradley got so mad at umpire Mike Winters (who had cussed at Bradley earlier) that he tore his own ACL being restrained by his manager Bud Black. The Pads would lose a one-game tiebreaker with the Rockies and miss the playoffs. Bradley moved on to Texas in 2008 and played well enough to make the All-Star game. All's well, right? Eh, no. In June, before the All-Star nod, Bradley heard some negative comments about him made by Royals broadcaster Ryan Lefebvre, and like any professional, decided to run up four flights of stairs to try to confront him before being restrained. In 2009 he made a one-year stop on the North Side, racking up in his brief Cubs tenure a suspension for bumping an ump, an assault on a Gatorade cooler after making an out, and throwing a ball into the stands after making a catch thinking there were three outs (there were only two). His verbal spats with manager Lou Piniella were reportedly legendarily hot, which is not a surprise. The Cubs traded Bradley to Seattle, where his career ended after the Mariners had enough and cut him. If you guessed that this hothead was a ball of fire off the field as well, you would be correct. Bradley racked up domestic violence charges against his first wife like Pac Man going after yellow pellets. Monique Williams would die at age 33 from cirrhosis and cardiac arrest, and if that isn't the logical ending to being involved with Milton Bradley for ten years, I don't know what is. He was charged with battery in 2018 of his second wife Rachel. It was an absolute tornado of anger, frustration, and aggression anytime Milton Bradley appeared. No one earned the reputation of being infamous more than him.

That's this year's baseball inductions. Jay will have the 2021 football inductions in a couple of weeks!

Super Duper Bowl LV

No stress for me this year as I was able to put Jason away last week to clinch our handicapping season. Tompa Bay handling Green Bay got the job done for me. Now I get to enjoy the Big Game without worrying about the outcome, and Jason gets to hate watch Tawmy. I was tempted to put my money where my mouth is on this pick too, but in deference to how Tom Brady cannot be counted out of any situation (cough 28-3 cough) I will simply make my pick and leave it alone. But now that sports betting is legal in Tennessee, I may have to start a small bankroll next year. For now, our Super Bowl picks:

All of our thoughts and observations can be heard here:

Super Duper Bowl LV: COVID Barber Almost Scalps Chiefs, Tawmy Next?

NFL Conf. Finals '21

If you've been waiting for us to post our Championship Sunday picks all the way up to now, then you must be very loyal to IMLD, and we love you very much. Here they are. I can put Jason away if Tampa manages to either win or lose by two points or less:

 

All of our thoughts and observations can be heard here:

NFL Conf. Finals 2021: Young Guns & Elder Statesmen

NFL Conf. Semis '21

Every week Jason and I make fun of how similarly we think about many things as it pertains to football. This time, we outdid ourselves. We agreed on three of the four picks this weekend...while also independently selecting three of the four same X-Factors for the game! You should listen to the podcast for our reax, and also for Jay breaking out his Whitney Young trig learnin' and calculating the odds of us doing that. It's something else, that's all I can tell ya. Here are our picks for the Divisional Round games:

All of our thoughts and observations can be heard here:

NFL Conf. Semis 2021: Grumpy Old Quarterbacks

NFL Super Wild Card '21

It can't just be a Wild Card Weekend now that there are two extra games, oh no. The league had to get some branding on there and call it a Super Wild Card Weekend, so that now they can make remote control covers with that phrase on it and sell them for $40. Jay and I only disagreed on two of the six games, but there was lively debate and info about all of the games, and I think there's a little something to look for in each contest. Here are the Wild Card picks and the playoff point system for our handicapping scoring:

 

All of our thoughts and observations can be heard here:

NFL Wild Card 2021: Looters Attack The Capitol, Where's The Defense?

2020 Week #17

Jason has introduced his children into the football-picking game since we're in Week 17, which is the ultimate in aggravation trying to pick NFL outcomes. And this year may be the most random because of the coronavirus. There are lots of guys not playing because of this Christmas-related goop outbreak, and there may be last-minute deactivations before the games are played, so check your news sources. We'll see if the kiddos can beat us and the Coin in predicting these outcomes. And there's ribs and ice cream in store for Cute Factor 1 (Jay's daughter Trinity) and Cute Factor 2 (his son Grant) if they can take us down. Bring it on! Here's all the picks for Week 17:

All of our thoughts and observations can be heard here:

NFL 2020 Week #17: Coin, Meet COVID. COVID, Coin.