Will Irish Eyes Be Smiling? Ok...

Another week has passed us by in the sporting world. NFL pre season has come to a close. Major League Baseball rumbles into the playoffs, while the WNBA continues to shine on their own and damn those girls are talented and fun to watch! The college football season began with a bang for some, a slight whimper for others. The kids in The Little League World Series crowned their champions and thru it all we have once again experienced the one constant ingredient that seems to permeate every topic on the board that is some sort of sports drama making its way thru the media.

But for now, let’s take a few moments to talk about both the winners and losers and what stood out to me this past week.

Let’s start with The NFL.

Winner: NFL Preseason. The stadiums were packed, some even to capacity. What’s really crazy are the crowds I noticed attending practices. I cant recall thousands showing up to watch drills!?. We live in strange times. I’m starting to think that people are just sick of being cooped up with social distancing. For whatever reason it’s great to see fans participating again. On the downside, there were some serious injuries that put some great players on the side lines, some for the entire season. Pre season player injury will continue to be a thorn in the side of the NFL scheduling process but in the end it’s the coaches who decide who plays and who sits. In the end, I liked what I saw. So did all the fans. Fans buy tickets. More tickets mean’s more money. More fans in Do the math. By the end of this week, we’ll start seeing the team’s starting line ups, that yields better information and more educated predictions for all of us.

Loser: NFL Off The Field of Dreams Drama. The Deshaun Watson saga was a distraction. It made a lot of high paid supposedly highly educated people in The Cleveland Browns organization (and the entire NFL leadership) look ridiculously stupid. The entire episode was then overshadowed by The Buffalo Bills, who apparently, don’t take much time vetting their draft picks either. Gang Rape is an incredibly ugly term and accusation. Guilty or innocent, people are not doing their jobs. The NFL has serious PR issues. I’m getting a little sick and tired of the NFL sacrificing justice for their image and their money.

On to Baseball.

Winner: Major League Baseball. It’s exciting again! I’m actually picking out games to watch when Verlander is pitching! And you have to admit that Albert Pujols at the tender age of 42 is having a banner year. It’s hard to make any predictions for The World Series this year with so many teams in the mix and getting hot both at the plate and on the mound. It’s anyone’s guess at this point. Regardless of who ends up in it, Baseball is once again a joy to watch.

Loser: Fernando Tatis Jr. Someone once said that success is the breeding ground for arrogance. I’d have to add that it’s also the birthplace of stupidity. 80 game suspension will cost him how much? Not really sure but I’m sure it’s a figure that for many would be life changing. Additionally, this week, Adidas dumped him from their partnership. This is a learning experience and a very long vacation.

Winner: Little League World Series. Like I mentioned a couple weeks ago, just a bunch of kids playing baseball. You gotta love it. There are actually some extremely talented 10-year-olds out there, kudos to the champs Hawaii who crushed the opposition!

Loser: Whoever designed the bunk beds for the Little League World Series players. One kid fell off the top bunk while sleeping and literally had to have pieces of his skull surgically re attached. It’s 2022 people. We can do better than this, think safety first also includes these kids sleeping arrangements.

And Now For College Football

Winner: Me, Myself and I. I’m going to boast a little as who know what will happen next week. So, after seeing some ridiculous point spreads, I took all the teams getting points and won big time. Austin Peay (+33.5), Duquesne (+42), Florida A&M (+45) all beat with the points. I also took Northwestern over Nebraska but they didn’t even need the points (+12.5) because they won out right 31-28. I knew before the game that Scott Frost would be pathetic, and he was. So, 4 for 4. I hope the rest of my season is this easy. If you run into me at Starbucks, it's on me this week.

Loser: Nebraska Head Coach Scott Frost. How this guy has kept his job I will never know. Best of luck because I think he’s gonna need it. This guy was supposed to be Whole Foods, he turned out to be Dollar Store. Who goes for an on-side kick when your 11 points up? Nebraska won like 3 or 4 games last year. He’s been at Nebraska long enough to show everyone that it’s not going to work like it did at Central Florida. It’s time for him to go. Right now his buyout if he gets canned is around 15 million dollars. If Nebraska waits until the Illinois game, which I think is the end of October, his buyout drops to 7.5 million. How much is the pain worth I would ask?

But as I always tell myself, In the end, no matter if they’re winners or losers, they keep us entertained.

Speaking of entertainment, I’m going to go out on a limb and start adding on my “Kevs College Picks” here every week, seeing of course how I did so well in week zero. I’ll pick four games every week that I think are great games to watch and wager on. My basic philosophy has always been to take teams getting huge points, at least at the start of the season when teams haven’t had time to practice together a whole lot. I’ve also felt that the home field advantage is worth a touchdown.

Kev’s College Picks Week #1

Pittsburgh (-7.5) vs West Virginia. (Thursday Night 7 PM on ESPN). What a great game to open the season with. These are huge rivals. Everyone says that this will be Pitt’s year in the Conference. They return a ton of starters. The home crowd is gonna be huge and the stadium is gonna be rocking. Look for Kenny Pickett, the first-round pick of The Pittsburgh Steelers, to make an appearance on the sidelines to get the players and fans even more fired up. This should be a barn burner. I’ll take Pitt giving up the points.

Ball State (+35) vs Tennessee. (Thursday Night 7PM on SEC Nation TV). The Vols giving up 35 against anyone, even Ball State, is dangerous. Tennessee under Head Coach Josh Heupel has never performed up to expectations. Seems like he might have the “Ex UCF Head Coach Kiss Of Death” like Scott Frost. Even Kentucky beats them now. Ball State always plays with a chip on their shoulders. It’s the Home Opener for Tennessee, and it’s predictable that it will be brutally hot. I see this as a very low scoring game. I’ll take Ball State with the Points.

Georgia(-17) vs Oregon.(Saturday 3:30 PM on ABC). Georgia at the Mercedes Benz Dome in Atlanta is a home game. Period. The SEC is where West Coast teams come to die. Period. Georgia is going to make a statement and unfortunately for Oregon it’s gonna be extremely painful. This one should be a blood bath and will probably be over by half time. Bulldogs against Ducks? I’ll take the Bulldogs giving up the points.

Notre Dame(+17.5) vs Ohio State. (Saturday night 7:30 PM on ABC). This game vexes me. I’ve always felt Ohio State was a bit over rated. To give up 17 and a half points to a team ranked number 5 in the nation I think is pushing it. It could be the one single opening game for either team that will make or break their season. Ohio stadium capacity is 102,000 and change.That’s alot of people. Two massive teams with huge fan bases World Wide. Prime time slot on national television. Tradition, pageantry, the whole “Luck of The Irish “ thing. No pressure Notre Dame first year head coach Marcus Freeman right? The Buckeyes will probably win this won, maybe, but I doubt they’ll cover. I’ll take The Irish and the points.

OK, so I’m a bit excited but this is my favorite time of the year. Good luck to all and I look forward to our sports dialog in the future.

Until next week!