It’s that time, Play Some F...

Week of 6 September 2022

Exciting times descended upon us this past week. If you didn’t notice all that was happening in the sports world you must have been hibernating in a cave. It was filled with news content and some milestone moments that might be etched into the record books. Here’s an easy recap and as always, my thoughts and perspective.

First and foremost was a very long and very important chapter in the world of professional tennis that may have come to a close, this news came out of our US Open tournament in New York, so it “seems” that Serena Williams, The American female tennis star who dominated the woman’s game for nearly three decades yes 3 decades, (almost 30 years) amazing, has announced her impending retirement, sort of that is.

Though now that I’m reflecting on her comments and re analyzing the ambiguous responses about the finality of her decision, as she was using terms like “I’m evolving” and “I’m pursuing the next part of my life” It could not help but make me think, does this remind you of anyone? In the end, no one can say for certain if she’s done with the active player participation of the sport. I’m thinking she may become the next member of The Unretiring Club starring Rob Gronkowski, Tom Brady, Michael Jordan, Brett Farve to name just a few. We’ll just have to wait and see.

Here is a good trivia question: Name one professional baseball player that retired then unretired without googling the question.

Speaking of baseball, we’re literally on the doorstep of the MLB playoffs and no one is 100 percent certain of who’s in and who’s out. Are The New York Yankees tanking (again) or are they the greatest thing since a large slice of New York pizza? You tell me. It depends on what day of the week it is. It depends on who you follow. New York manager, Arron Boone who teeters between beating up post-game interview rooms of furniture right before discussing how Aaron Judge might be the greatest hitter of all time. Poor guy will have to go into therapy after this season. In the end, and I’m don’t have that mathematician mind you need to calculate the sceneries, just my old school analyticities. it looks like the Astros are definitely in with Cleveland and Minnesota battling it out in The American League while the LA Dodgers and St. Louis Cardinals hold commanding leads in The National League. That leaves the other suspect’s, The Yankees, The Astros, Cleveland, The Twins, The Mets, The Padres, The Braves, The Rays and maybe one or two others who could end up in it at the end. Sorry Red Sox Nation, you’ll have to sit this one out. Cry me a river.

The first full weekend of college football left many of us asking the question “did that really just happen”? To say it was exciting and captivating would be an understatement. I found myself asking myself that question late Sunday night after Florida State held off LSU in the Super Dome in New Orleans. I usually respond with a “Whatever” to an FSU win but I’ll give them a very, very, small amount of credit in this instance. Plus, they basically got lucky. In short, the nation asked college football to deliver and they came through big time.

The Pittsburgh vs West Virginia game was incredible. It lived up to the hype. A packed and rowdy stadium, two huge rivals (They Call it The Backyard Brawl) and a game that literally wasn’t decided until the final seconds. And yes, as I hoped and predicted, recent Pittsburgh alum and Steelers first round pick Kenny Pickett made an appearance. The one and only downside to the entire evening was Pittsburgh winning by 7 when the spread was 7.5. Go figure. I may have lost personally but the college football world won.

Not to be outdone, The Notre Dame vs Ohio State game also lived up to the huge build up. All week long it was a media back and forth about the spread (Ohio State -17.5) and the actual play of the game was the same, back and forth in front of an Ohio State crowd of 100,000 plus. In the end, Ohio State proved to be the more powerful of the two, but The Irish covered, winning the spread but losing the game 21-10. I won my wager, they lost the game, I’m old their young they’ll recover I’ll have extra mola this week.

As I mentioned last week, The SEC is pretty much the kiss of death for west coasts football teams. It’s pretty much like drinking The Water of Life from that movie “Dune”. Many men have tried, many men died. Oregon was no exception. The Ducks strolled into Atlanta with their heads held up high and ended up leaving looking like fresh road kill.

Make no mistake about it folks, The Georgia Bulldogs are powerful even though they lost like a dozen plus starters to the NFL draft. If I was an Alabama supporter (which I’m not) I’d be scared. Georgia gave me another win, covering the spread of -16 and winning 49 to 3. Quack Quack!

Ok lastly, Tennessee might actually have a football team this year. They handled the heat in the stadium, a feisty Ball State football team and the spread of 35 points to win 56 to 10. Maybe their luck had finally turned, maybe it’s too early to tell. I’m leaning towards it’s too early. Tennessee won, I lost.

With that, I was 2 for 4 in my picks of this past weekend. Hopefully now some of the huge spreads will settle down and we can start making some informed, intelligent picks. Hopefully! BTW don’t forget to play the girls Booty Vs. Booty pick-em pool here on SportsBookStuff.com site (I hate it when the out pick me, LOL) anyway the Pool’s keep us honest, you know what I mean, everyone always has more winners than losers on Tuesday morning without the Pick-Em selections, LOL, good luck!

The NFL starts off this week with a barn burner on Thursday Night. The LA Rams vs The Buffalo Bills. It’s a matchup between two Super Bowl contenders with two of the highest rated quarterbacks in the league, Matthew Stafford and Josh Allen. If the start of college ball was any indicator, the number of people figuring to watch the first game of the season should be huge. Look for both teams to come out swinging. Prime Time NFL is back and I couldn’t be happier. Well, I’d be a lot happier if the Dolphins make the playoffs this year! As I never bet the first horse race at the track, I’m not going to make any predictions or bets. I’ll just sit and enjoy this one.