NFL Week 17 ATS: Home Stretch Finds 12 Nags Vying for 4 Wild-Card Berths

Twelve teams are out of it altogether. Eight teams are taking home divisional crowns. That leaves 12 remaining wannabes who wanna be in the playoffs as wild-card teams. The NFC is so chock-full of not-very-good football teams that, theoretically, someone (the Giants) could enter the postseason with a record below .500, which is, in a word, pathetic. But even if the conference avoids this

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NFL Week 16 ATS: Anybody’s Ballgame

Heading into the penultimate weekend of NFL play, only seven teams are absolutely eliminated from playoff contention. That leaves eight current division leaders (most of them with the top spot locked up) and an unbelievable 17 other teams still harboring a mathematical shot at a wild-card berth. This is the way Pete Rozelle dreamed it up years ago: a system designed to keep interest high right to

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NFL Week 15 ATS: Road Warriors

It’s getting so going 10-6 against the spread has become the desired realistic standard. That’s a .625 percentage, and given how uncertain this handicapping biz can be sometimes, we’ll take it. It’s particularly sweet in a week where almost every single game was a head-scratcher. But the SMA swami got some serious assistance from spread-busting squads like the Giants (over Carolina), the Ravens (

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The Handicapper’s Monopoly Money Guide to the College Bowl Games

I only know what the average fan knows about college football. I catch the big games on TV, I listen to what the radio/TV pundits have to say, I keep fairly well informed. But the NFL keeps me busy enough where serious analysis and attention is concerned, so there are things about the college game that pass me by. For example, just how good is this Northern Illinois team that enters the

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NFL Week 14 ATS: Crunch Time

The wild-card races in both conferences are wide open, while, surprisingly, the division champion slots seem pretty much spoken for. Historic tailspins by front-runners, like what happened to the 1964 Philadelphia Phillies, aren’t the rule in the NFL. Near-dominance tends to hold until the playoffs, and that’s where all bets are off. First-place teams like Indy, San Diego, Baltimore, New England,

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ESPN Radio's Freddie Coleman: Who Is This Guy, and Who Gave Him License to Kill the English Language?

I listen to ESPN Radio a lot. I listen to the jocks they have on there as long as I can, then I turn it off. That means that Freddie Coleman gets about 10 seconds of my time. Ever listen to this ultra-maroon? Ever wonder how the hell he got on radio?I tried to find out more about Coleman. I found no bio on the ESPN Radio website. His name comes up on Google searches, but only referencing the fact

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NFL Week 13 ATS: Positive Outlook

The Monday night Green Bay-Seattle game resulted in a “push” for the SMA swami, leaving us with a 9-6-1 record on the week (and 19-12-1 the past two). It could have been, should have been, a lot sweeter. The Vikings were leading the Cardinals 31-13 and looked headed for an easy cover. But the Cards came back to close the gap to 31-26, and the six-point spread was toast. Then there were the Giants

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If Building a New Baseball Stadium Is Such a Great Idea, Why Do the Sounds Need Our Help?

There’s a new book out called Tailgating, Sacks, and Salary Caps: How the NFL Became the Most Successful Sports League in History (Kaplan Publishing, $24.95). The author, Mark Yost, is a contributor to the Wall Street Journal, where his special focus is the economics of sports. It’s an eye-opener of a book, mostly along the lines of what a greedy money monster the National Football League has

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NFL Week 12 ATS: Green Is Also the Color of Hope

The SMA swami returned to monied ways with a 10-6 slate in a fairly tough week. We racked up big scores with the underdog 49ers, Cowboys and Chargers in the gutsiest plays, and found additional support from teams like the Dolphins, Steelers and Cardinals. Thankfully, the Ravens, Bears, Panthers and Patriots were all solid favorites that did their duty. Things don’t get any easier, but now at

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NFL Week 11 ATS: The Myth of Sisyphus

I used to think that handicapping NFL games could be done successfully by sharp analysis, using a deft blend of observation of the teams at play, staying abreast of injuries and roster changes, and keeping a close eye on important statistics likes turnovers, time of possession, sacks, etc. Then there are other factors like home-field advantage and team histories versus each other. But picking

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NFL Week 10 ATS: Big Slate, Big Games

The second half of the NFL season kicks off with 15 games, almost all of which have serious playoff implications. Only the Bears and Colts can afford to lose games at this juncture without risking potential serious damage to their postseason status. Other better teams like Denver, Baltimore, New Orleans and the Giants have played well, but they have divisional foes close enough to them to matter

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NFL Midseason Progress Report: Only a Few Really Making the Grade

Just like schoolchildren all across America, the NFL teams are due for their midterm progress reports. Some of the students are doing quite well indeed. Others have improvement needed. And yes, some of the kids are headed for failing grades if they don’t get on the ball and turn things around by Christmas. Here’s a look at the class, division by division.AFC EAST 1. New England (6-2) Depite the

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NFL Week 9 ATS: Midpoint Mediocrity

They like to call it parity in the NFL. Which is a nice way of avoiding the term mediocrity. Mediocrity kills the handicapper, because predicting can't be based on trends. In other words, things aren't always what they seem. There is no way, at this point in the 2006 season, to know the true character of teams like St. Louis, Kansas City, Cincinnati, Minnesota, Jacksonville or Dallas. They're all

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Greed and Bad Weather Have Ruined the World Series

There's a new book out called Reel Baseball: Baseball's Golden Era the Way America Witnessed It—In the Movie Newsreels (Doubleday, $29.95). The book compiles baseball stories from the early 1930s to the early 1960s, covering notable World Series, All-Star Games, and individual achievements like Johnny Vander Meer's two consecutive no-hitters, DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak, Maris's 61 home

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NFL Week 8 ATS: Back to the Future

Now with two straight sub-.500 weeks under our belt, we sit brooding with a 33-30-5 record ATS for the season. It’s getting to the point where about the only way the SMA swami can get anything right is to get a hold of that sports almanac that Michael J. Fox had in Back to the Future, Part II. Looking for silver linings, we did have some sweet picks last week (Falcons over Steelers, Raiders over

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NFL Week 7 ATS: Sunday, Bloody Sunday; and a Pox on Frist's House

With cap in hand—that phrase is the origin of the word handicapped; think about it—I come to you, dear reader, with the word that last week's 5-8 ATS was an all-time low for the SMA swami. Hunches didn't play out, favored visitors (the Eagles, the Seahawks, e.g.) tanked, home favorites (Redskins, Broncos) did the same, and visiting underdogs given a chance by the oddsmakers (the Texans) looked

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NFL Week 6 ATS: When Push Comes to Shove

The bettor’s “push” is just like what they say about playing any competitive game to a tie: It’s like kissing your sister. Well, we kissed two sisters this past week, ending up at 7-5-2. All things considered, maybe we should be grateful. If Brett Favre holds onto the ball at the end of the Packers/Rams game, we might’ve had overtime and an eventual Packers victory. So we’ll take that push. As

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Division III Football: Alive and Well in Dubuque, Iowa

There aren’t 103,000 screaming, raucous fans in the stands. There’s little media coverage. The major networks don’t even scroll their scores along the bottom of the television screen during the high-profile Saturday broadcasts. The games don’t generate millions of dollars. You probably can’t get odds in Vegas on the outcomes. Welcome to the world of Division III college football. What Division

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NFL Week 5 ATS: Tweaking the Game Plan

The SMA “swami” again scored 8-5-1 against the spread (ATS) last week. Consistency is an okay thing, and at 16-10-2 for the year, we’re not grousing. But we’re not jubilant either. Oh, to have shown some faith in those upstart Jets and Chad Pennington. Oh, to have listened to that inner voice that whispered, “The Titans really suck.” Oh, to have realized that it’s never wise to underestimate Tom

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NFL Week 4 ATS: Building on Success

Our first 2006 foray into handicapping the NFL last week yielded good results. We finished 8-5-1, the push being the Indy/Jacksonville game. We got nice winning efforts from the Rams, Jets and Packers on the road; also the Redskins, though their decisive victory at Houston was less a surprise. This week looks particularly tricky, and these early lines from FootballLocks.com, quite frankly, look

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“Do You Know What It Means, to Dismiss New Orleans...?”

The Monday Night Football extravaganza in New Orleans last night was so excessively championed as a big American celebration that I had to stop and remember what exactly was being celebrated. Ummm... Let’s see... Pardon my cynicism. How many billions of our non-New Orleans-based tax dollars have been injected into that dire, now practically pointless economy? The number is so high that no one

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NFL Week 3 ATS: Contenders and Pretenders

We're off to a late start in our 2006 battle against the spread. Life gets in the way of "real life" sometimes. My preseason predictions for the entire season eventually got published elsewhere this year. To view my prognostications, with complete playoff and Super Bowl projections, go to http://www.sportsmemo.com/articles/archive/nfl/ and check out the submissions under "Staff Writer." I'm

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Titans 2006: Fasten Your Seatbelts, It's Gonna Be a Bumpy Ride

The Tennessee Titans were 9-23 the past two years. They were trying to rebuild and achieve at the same time, which simply doesn't work. Mediocrity is the only result of that strategem. Now the last vestige of recent success, Steve McNair, is gone, and it's anybody's guess whether the team is doing any rebuilding or achieving. Peter King, Sports Illustrated's football guru, was heard recently on

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Andy Rooney Weighs in on New NFL Commissioner

[Editor's note: We at SMA have long been fans of the witty erudition of Andy Rooney, renowned pundit on CBS' "60 Minutes." When plannning a story on the new incoming NFL commissioner, Roger Goodell, it occurred to us that Rooney would be the only journalist who could find the right angle, and put the proper spin on, Goodell's ascension to this lofty position. So, herewith, we proudly present Mr.

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Football's Back—And So Is SMA

Sports Media America has been on hiatus. June Swoon can hit the blogger as surely as it will the Chicago Cubs. Maybe it was Steve McNair leaving Nashville and heading to Baltimore that did us in. (He's looking great, by the way.)At any rate, we weren't compelled to post much of late, and sometimes you simply have to attend to other business. Since SMA began in October of 2004, we've enjoyed our

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McNair a Winner No Matter What Uniform He Wears

Steve McNair is gone and I almost want to cry. The man who provided thrill after thrill for Tennessee Titans fans—including taking the team to Super Bowl XXXIV—is now a Baltimore Raven, a situation fraught with irony and reeking a little from the stench of his now-former team's callous, all-business approach to the whole affair. In recent years, McNair (pictured left, then, and right, now) was

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Rabbits and Foxes and Hounds, Oh My!!! How the Pace Scenario Will Affect the Belmont Stakes

By Steve Brady Several months ago, I got tired of public handicappers making my selections for me. Up until then, I’d open up the Daily Racing Form (DRF) and see who the consensus selection was, or I’d listen to the guys on the “Thoroughbred Los Angeles” radio show, and write down all their “hot picks.” Sure, they sometimes had good information about a horse, but more often that not, they were

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Poor Black Kids Can't Afford to Attend Major League Baseball, So Why Would They Want to Play a Game They Know Nothing About?

"Where are black ballplayers?" asked the headline in Bob Nightengale's USA TODAY story of June 2. It's a damn interesting question, and the story, while pointing out that African Americans constitute only 8% of the Major League Baseball workforce—down from the 27% of 1975—doesn't really provide a satisfactory answer. Apparent reasons are cited in a swirl of vague conjecture by baseball brass, but

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A MOTO's Guide to the Preakness

By Steve Brady A couple of months ago, there was a very large Pick 6 carryover at Santa Anita that I thought I’d try to take down. (Winning the Pick 6 is slightly better odds than winning the Super Lotto. It requires picking the winners of the last six races of the day. If no one succeeds on that given day, the money in the pool carries over to the next day.) It was a Thursday and I slipped out

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Finding an Oasis in Nashville's Jock Radio Landscape

Jock radio in Nashville isn't so good. That is to say, it could be greatly improved upon. There's 104.5-FM The Zone, primarily a conduit for FOX Sports. There's 106.7-FM The Fan, which means primarily ESPN Radio. And then there's SportsRadio WNSR 560-AM, which mixes original local programming with feeds from Sporting News Radio. There are swampy sinkholes throughout this landscape. Sports freaks

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Pacman's Latest Escapades Create More PR Nightmares for Titans

Public altercations involving unsavory characters. Suspicious automobiles. Guns. Cocaine. Huge amounts of cash. What sounds like the teaser for a forthcoming episode of “Law & Order” is actually a slice from the life of Tennessee Titans defensive back Adam (“Pacman”) Jones. Last year’s #1 Titans draft choice (pictured, left) was a PR nightmare from the beginning. In summer 2005 he held out from

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Immigration's Great if You're Pedro Martinez, but the Rest Is a Mess

Where would American sports of the past 50 years be without immigrants? The face of American baseball has been radically altered in the past decades by the influx of gifted Hispanics. European basketball players are definitely the hottest trend in the NBA. NFL football sees less of this but there are a few exceptions, with African nationals seeming to be the most prevalent new group of players.

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Titans Get Young: The Great Experiment Begins

Sam's Place Sports Bar & Grill (pictured, left) in Nashville's Hillsboro Village is a fine place to watch the NFL draft. It's 11 o'clock on Saturday morning, and too early for alcohol, but that doesn't stop the predominantly male (all ages) crowd from getting started. Beer and sandwiches all around, and the clientele of about 30 or so, along with a new barmaid whom I've never seen before—with a

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Who Will Emerge Unscathed from the Kentucky Derby's Organized Chaos?

[Editor's Note: Sports Media America proudly presents this guest column by Los Angeles-based correspondent Steve Brady. Steve's become a savvy horse player in the recent era, and his stylish, catchy prose not only zeros in on the whys and wherefores of winning thoroughbreds but also makes the newbie horse-racing fan feel welcome at the track. So read and learn. But, as always, don't bet the farm

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Hernandez' Remarks Challenge Political Correctness, But Has He Got a Point?

Okay, time for honesty. Let's have a show of male hands. How many of you out there think it's cool that a woman was hanging out in the San Diego Padres dugout during Saturday's game against the New York Mets? Mets broadcaster Keith Hernandez was reprimanded for speaking his mind about 33-year-old massage therapist Kelly Calabrese, who is apparently employed full-time by the Padres. After spotting

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Money Well Spent? Titans New Free Agents Intrigue but Don't Excite; Serious Draft Issues Still Looming

David Givens, Kevin Mawae, David Thornton, Chris Hope. This is the new crop of free agents signed in a hurry by the Tennessee Titans. The default reaction of local Nashville radio and TV sports media seems to be a positive one. Forgive my cynicism, but I'm not so sure.

With the exception of the 35-year-old Mawae (left), the group has both youth and legit experience on its side, and, in the

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Platitudes and Obfuscation: Inside the Vague Mind of Craig Littlepage

When CBS producers and tech staff weren't in synch with the wayward commentary of Billy Packer and Jim Nantz during yesterday's NCAA bracket wrap-up, we received an unplanned visual of an awkward Craig Littlepage, selection committee chair. While Littlepage smirked nervously on-screen, Nantz and Packer were beating up on his supposed logic in defense of the committee's work. We got a picture of

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The Super Bowl has come and gone. The Steelers won, 21-10. Sometimes the Seahawks looked every bit as good as their opponents, then they'd shoot themselves in the foot with penalties, look a little out-of-synch in managing the clock, or just basically do things you shouldn't do in the biggest game of the year, like drop passes or throw an interception. The Seahawks' 7-3 halftime deficit looked

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Super Disappointing: Steelers Are Champs, but Zebras Help to Ensure Seahawks' Ineptitude

The Super Bowl has come and gone. The Steelers won, 21-10. Sometimes the Seahawks looked every bit as good as their opponents, then they'd shoot themselves in the foot with penalties, look a little out-of-synch in managing the clock, or just basically do things you shouldn't do in the biggest game of the year, like drop passes or throw an interception. The Seahawks' 7-3 halftime deficit looked

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Dan Patrick Jello-Wrestles Anna Benson to an Entertaining Draw

"I've got huge breastesses," Anna Benson said proudly, matter-of-factly to ESPN Radio savant Dan Patrick today, in one of sports media's more entertaining recent moments. Dan admitted later to being a little unnerved by the frankly speaking wife of new Baltimore Orioles pitcher Kris Benson, but in fact he handled himself deftly, sidekick Keith Olbermann fortuitously kept his mouth shut, and we

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An NBA Primer for the Disenfranchised Fan

Remember the NBA? That men's professional basketball league that used to be pretty cool before it got boring on the court and its players started running into the stands to hassle fans when they weren't being arraigned on drug or assault or paternity-suit charges? You know, the league that used to have Michael Jordan winning championships and amazing the world with his all-around greatness? It

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The Super Bowl: A Promising Showdown of Unexpected Combatants

My sister in Maryland—and a lot of other people—simply adores Peyton Manning. So she's miffed that he's not in the Super Bowl. What can we say? The Pittsburgh Steelers took it to Manning's Colts, outmuscled 'em, and then did the same thing to the Broncos in the AFC Championship Game. I've been picking against the Steelers all postseason, but they keep showing us something: undeniably superior

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Cherchez La Femme: A Picture of Kendra Davis

In the whole vast configuration of things, the Antonio Davis incident in Chicago last week seems pretty stupid. What New York Knick Davis did—entering the stands to "protect" his wife—seems kinda stupid. Whatever his wife, Kendra, was doing in the stands—Whooping it up loudly? Mouthing-off to Bulls fans?—seems kinda stupid. And the action taken by Bulls fan Michael Axelrod—threatening a

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More Complaints about NFL Hiring Practices; Conference Championship Predictions

On the heels of a brace of recent hirings of new NFL head coaches, a Dallas sportswriter was heard to bitch recently about the dearth of African-Americans awarded, or even considered for, the jobs. We've heard this before. We've heard it for years actually. Then we thought the problem got addressed. There's definitely been an increase in the number of black assistant coaches among the ranks. The

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The Main Event: Dave Kindred's Sound and Fury Probes the Nexus of Ali and Cosell's Strangely Symbiotic Relationship

Author: Dave KindredTitle: Sound and Fury: The Parallel Lives and Fateful Friendship of Muhammad Ali and Howard CosellPublisher: Free Press Price: $27ISBN: 0743262115 Yesterday was Muhammad Ali's birthday. He turned 64. I guess that means he's getting to be, officially, an old man. But those who have followed The Greatest since he burst onto the scene as the world heavyweight champion in 1964,

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NFL Notebook, January 15, 2006

Divisional Playoff Results: Seattle 20, Washington 10Denver 27, New England 13Pittsburgh 21, Indianapolis 18Carolina 29, Chicago 21Important factoid: Not a single 100-yard rusher this weekend, and these were games featuring the likes of Shaun Alexander, Clinton Portis, Edgerrin James, Corey Dillon and Jerome Bettis... The Seattle Seahawks head into the NFC Championship Game hoping that RB

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Nashville Sports Anchor Curtis Apologizes for On-Air Ageist Remarks, but the Cat Was Already Out of the Bag

Cory Curtis (left), ABC's Nashville affiliate sports anchor, may have dug himself a serious public relations hole. WKRN-TV's Curtis punctuated his Jan. 13 Friday night 10 o'clock news report, concerning incoming 80-year-old Buffalo Bills football exec Marv Levy, with the untoward salvo, "He is OLD!" When he returned from a commercial break, Curtis had obviously been admonished by his fellow

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Sutter's Election to Hall May Pave the Way for Gossage, Smith

I lived in Chicago from 1977 to 1999. I was a huge Cubs fan. I went to my share of baseball games at Wrigley Field. There weren't too many big, big games there, but I was in the crowd the day the 1989 team clinched the NL East title. Otherwise, the Cubs' legacy of frustration is legendary. I did, however, have the pleasure of seeing some great Cubs ballplayers in my time, and yesterday's election

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Patrick Gets at Truth in Edwards Affair, but We'll Go Him One Better

Sometimes it's easy to think that Dan Patrick is getting soft, that the ESPN superstar has become too much a legend in his own mind, that he's sucked up to one too many jocks. Then Patrick will redeem himself, as he did with today's radio assessment of the Herman Edwards situation. You're right, Dan: Herman Edwards (pictured, left) does owe New York Jets fans an apology—for hastily packing his

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Low Seeds May Not Be Finished Wreaking NFL Postseason Havoc

All the home teams are favored to win the next round of NFL playoff games. Yet there's plenty of drama before us, and each game is a rematch between teams that played during the regular season. The #6-seeded Redskins travel to top-seeded Seattle, a team they defeated in Washington on Oct. 2, 20-17. The rejuvenated Patriots head into Denver for a huge Saturday night matchup against a Broncos

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'Skins Upset Buccaneers in Biggest Surprise of Wild-Card Round; Home-Field Advantage Helps Only Patriots

Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good. Just ask the Washington Redskins. Their 17-10 victory Saturday over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the wild-card round of the NFL playoffs defied all logic. Joe Gibbs & Co. took a page from the book of the 1983 Chicago White Sox, whose artless approach to baseball evoked the phrase "winning ugly." Now the 'Skins are on their way to Seattle for a

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Now All Vince Young Needs Is a More Distinctive Name

Yes, University of Texas QB Vince Young should turn pro. Even if he'd lost the Rose Bowl, he should have turned pro. Probably lost a little in all the hoopla of Young's astounding BCS Championship game performance—267 yards passing, 200 yards rushing, 3 TDs scored—are the equally amazing stats he'd already compiled during the regular season. Young's quarterback rating pre-Rose Bowl was 163.9.

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Monday, Bloody Monday: NFL Head Coaches Drop Like Flies in Season-Ending Aftermath

It's a good thing that NFL head coaches are well-paid. If you can get through, say, a three-year, multi-million-dollar contract, then you can at least take your ignominious dismissal (when it inevitably comes) and go buy a farm to live out your natural life. Or maybe you go buy a little drinking establishment and set yourself up as bartender for the rest of your days, stashing tips in a big glass

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Wild-Card Matchups Are All about Matchups... and Good Health

Everyone on target to reach the NFL playoffs did so, with every wild-card candidate coming through with a timely clinching victory in last weekend's games. Very good football teams like the Cowboys, Chiefs and Chargers were sent home ruing critical missteps that doomed their postseason chances. That's too bad for their fans, but to the objective league observer it only reaffirms the NFL's

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