Best bets

Last week: 3-1
Year-to-date: 20-18-2

This is a big weekend for the NFL. Not only are playoff berths on the line and the balance of power in every division and conference teetering on a thin, fickle line, but also all around the country regular folks like you and me are involved in their fantasy football playoffs.

Here’s an admission – I was never a regular viewer of the NFL until fantasy football came around. In fact, I’m not even a regular watcher now. I follow the stats as they pertain to my fantasy football team, which I’m sure bothers people. The hand wringing and drawback in this, according to some football fans, is that people end up rooting for certain players against their favorite team.

So?

Perhaps I have the luxury of not having a favorite team. Oh sure, I suppose I follow the Eagles closer than the other teams, and I definitely rooted for them when we moved back to Pennsylvania in 1981, but I also liked the Washington Redskins when they had John Riggins and Joe Washington with his single bar helmet. I also liked Mark Moseley’s straight on, toe kicks, though they weren’t as cool as Tony Franklin’s barefoot boots.

The same thing went for baseball, too. When we lived in the D.C. area, we followed the Orioles very closely and rooted for them to win the 1979 World Series. In fact, I was at Memorial Stadium for the final game of the 1982 season in which Robin Yount slugged two homers off Jim Palmer to send the Brewers into the playoffs. Don Sutton pitched for the Brewers that day, and Ben Ogilivie made a tough, sliding catch near us in the left-field corner to ruin an Orioles’ rally and shove the momentum the Brewers’ way.

In 1983, though, we lived in Lancaster and followed the Phillies closely on TV, but when it came time to actually go to a game we opted for Baltimore over the Vet.

Can anyone blame us?

Unfortunately, after ’83 the Phillies and the Orioles started to decline in the standings, which meant I began to follow individual players even more. Wade Boggs, Don Mattingly, Mark McGwire, Jose Canseco, Rickey Henderson and Roger Clemens were big names through the ‘80s.

As a side note, I really liked Larry Bowa and Eddie Murray when I was a kid and was excited to talk to my childhood favorites when I started writing about baseball... and then I met them.

In the 1990s I went to college and don’t recall following any athletes very close at all. Well, I watched every game of the 1993 baseball season, but who didn’t?

Anyway, here’s which teams are going to win this weekend:

Falcons plus 3 ½ over the Cowboys
I have the Falcons defense in my fantasy league playoffs. Does it matter that I can’t name a single player on the Falcons other than the quarterback who can’t throw?

Colts minus 3½ over the Bengals
Hey! This could be a good game.

Eagles plus 6 over the Giants
Initially I thought the Giants would win. But the only reports I’ve seen (or paid attention to) from New York have the Giants talking and bickering too much. Good teams don’t do that.

Panthers PICK Steelers
Take the Panthers. Why not?