Sunday, September 21, 2014

NFL WEEK 3 2014

After a pretty good week of picks for us, and a pretty bad week of publicity for the NFL, we start week three confident we are on a roll, and not so confident that the NFL is nothing more than a collection of super athletes, who are super spoiled, and most of whom have below average intelligence, morals, mores, and ideas about life, women,children, and family.  

Put another way, just because a player can run faster, hit harder, throw better, shed tackles or blockers, doesn't mean they are enlightened human beings who treat their families appropriately. We identify with what they do on the field (or fantasize about it), and somehow that translates into us believing that they are otherwise wholesome and intelligent human beings capable of rational thoughts and actions. 

Clearly, they are not.  Stop being surprised. The best linebacker in the history of the game- LT- slept with an underage prostitute. Perhaps the best running back of all time OJ- is a murderer and wife beater. The same percentage of our society that gets DUIs equates to the players in the NFL. And like a current Dallas Cowboy, some of them drink and drive and kill their friends. 

This week saw an explosion of comments by players about raising children. Some were thoughtful, some, like WR Calvin Johnson's obiter dictum that "no one tells me on how to raise my kids" leaves us to believe that there probably is not a copy of Dr. Benjamin Spock's "Baby And Child Care" on his bookshelf, if he even has a bookshelf. 

So what to do? We can stop patronizing a league where even the league admits that a third of it's players will later suffer brain damage. Watch an NBA or MLB old-timers event and you see the stars of your childhood older, grayer, a bit stooped. Go see a collection of middle aged NFL players and you see a collection of men with canes, walkers, and the beginnings of dementia. While we could never compete at that level at age 20, we most certainly can do more physically and mentally than most 50 year old ex-football players. We have both our hips, knees, and most of our brain cells. 

So is it wrong to patronize a league that wrecks devastation on its players, and employs players who brutalize women and children? 
Maybe so. It's a personal choice. But we know this, the bloom is off the rose. There's nothing romantic about the most popular sport in the USA. It is what it is. A collection of super-athletes, many of whom  are less than super human beings off the field. 

We fully intended to make our picks, but after reading what we just wrote, we just don't have it in us. 

Hypocrisy admission:  while we gave our luxury box ducats away this week, we will watch some games, eat some good food and drink some beer and root for our fantasy football players.  At least we admit our fallibility. 

We will post the survivor pool when the last picks come in. 

Sorry to be such a downer. 

See You In Court Tomorrow. 


14 comments:

  1. Damn Rumpole. How can I make fun of Kenny W after a post like that? Thanks for ruining my sunday homie.

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  2. I'm riding these wagons:

    Bills at home even over chargers (sorry Ovalle);
    Browns at home +1 over the Ravens. 21-17 Browns, taking the money line here as well as under 43.Raining in Cleveland.

    also like Seahawks at home -4.5 over Broncos
    Fins at home -3
    Jets at home MNF -3. Da Bears have one of thw worst Qb's in the league along with Romo and Rivers.

    Skins -6 on the road at Philly to keep it close and under 50 is lock of the day.

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  3. Kenny lost bet to Colby and now must post video on you-tube of him signing "Like a Virgin" in south beach karoke bar.

    If Colby had wen tout first he would have had to post video of him riding around LA in a Mary Kay Cosmetics Pink Cadillac for the weekend.

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  4. At last! The absurd sense of over importance by the people who put on a modern gladiator spectacle almost made me yak. Can you believe that one of the beer companies complained about the percieved lenincy of the punishments being meted out by the NFL eqivalent of the reign of terror. A beer company! second only to Lucifer in responsibility for human misery, addictive drug dealers plain and simple had the balls to point out the moral defect of others. These muscle heads should get out of the Justice business and leave it to the pros. Also they shouldn't forget that the their business is putting on football games. Nobody watches because the participants are dogooders. The majority of fans are men who drink and gamble. Suspending your stars will hurt your business more than the bad press of their transgressions. As for Goodell, fuck him, he started this bullshit by chopping people heads off at his whim now, just like Robespierre, the guillotine beckons him.

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  5. Listen Rump. I played college ball (sport unnamed), suffered my share of "dingers", and continued to play thereafter. I still play in a men's league now. Am I afraid that I may have brain damage? Yes. Am I afraid I might eventually suffer from Alzheimer's? Yes. But would I do it again? Absolutely! And I never was paid or given scholarship money. It was a choice I made. It is a choice they have made.

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  6. Kenny often covers Madonna on so be karaoke bars late weeknights. And Colby has a pink Cadillac anyway. So those bets stink.

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  7. all i can say is …

    GO San Juan Matadors ….

    (Kenny W. listening on his transistor a.m. only radio on the beach somewhere in Surfside….)

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  8. Thanx Rump. Once again I am putting my money exactly OPPOSITE of what you recommend. When you advocated dumping equities, I went ALL IN and so far have realized a profit of 75 K. Today you recommended the under (50) in the Skins-Eagles game as a lock, so I bet the opposite, taking the over for a mere 2K wager. We shall see if the opposite Rump system works again.

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  9. Bengals rock it!

    Who is out this week Rumpole? Who picked what teams? Where is the chart?

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  10. I could not care less what these guys do off the field . If the commit crimes AND are convicted they should be punished the same as any other citizen. The league has no buisness intruding until the justice system runs it course. Jason grey

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  11. For the second sunday in a row poor kenny was seen in the Miami beach Denny's. Eating a cheap steak and muttering to himself about football and Colby.

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  12. Thanx Rump. The bet 'the opposite of Rump' system worked like a charm. Your lock pick of the under 50 in the Skins-Eagles game lost when the 2 teams combined for 71 points. I will be at the Mirage next week so please post your lock pick for next week asap so I can get down the opposite of what you pick. Finally a system that works.

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