We have exclusively learned that none other than US Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, in Gainsville for the Gator/Canes game this weekend had Rick Freedman change his suicide pool pick from the Chargers to the Patriots, as the CJ was convinced that the Carolina Panthers had a legitimate shot to win the game and beat the Chargers (which in fact they did on the last play of the game.)
However, the last minute switch is not without controversy. There has been a legal challenge to the switch and the US Supreme Court has ruled as follows with Roberts not participating in the decision.
Alito writes that it was the original intent of Rumpole to allow picks to be switched before game time, so the switch is legal. Thomas joins Alito with a "whatever he said me too" concurrence.
Stevens, Ginsberg, Breyer, and Souter also concurred in the result with Alito but wrote to say that the rules regarding the switching of picks should be liberally interpreted.
And finally Justice Kennedy also concurred and noted that most international blogs allow suicide pool votes to be switched at the last minute, and he found international decisions to be persuasive but not binding.
Thus, Rick Freedman's switching of his pick has been affirmed 8-0 by the US Supreme Court.
MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL:
Longtime and careful readers of the Blog know that we generally avoid Monday night picks. But we like the Pack, and we like them to win tonight. Packers -3 (+75). We also like the over 38 (+25).
We don't like the Broncos at all this year, but we think they have a very good QB. We think the Raiders are on the right track, but their QB is untested. You may want to take a flyer on the Boys in Silver and Black, but not more than a few bucks.
It's official: Tom Brady is out with a torn ACL. Real championship teams (not cheaters) can and have won with their back-up QB's. Shula took our Fins to a perfect 17-0 in 1972 with EARL MORRAL (we admit our stupid mistake of initially writing Don Strock, which of course was 100% wrong. Our readers quickly corrected us, as you will see in the comments section. Whomever gave Don Shula our cell phone so that he could call us and yell at us-thanks a lot. Not.) running the offense for most of the season. Now lets see what the evil genius Belichick is made of.