Time for the 2019 NFL season!

Hi everybody! It's almost here - the 2019 NFL regular season! I'm trying to have a muted optimism over the '19 Browns. We won 7.5 games last year - and improved our skill positions on offense and really upgraded our D line. That should translate to 10, 11 wins, right? Not so fast. So many things can go wrong with this team - are we sure the rookie coach was the right choice? Will Odell be a diva? For that matter, is Baker a diva? Who knows.

My prediction: 9-7 and a wild card berth.

Anyway, it's time to get ready for the weekly posts on this blog and the world-famous themed picks. Of course I am doing the SuperContest again this year - was #32 to sign up back in March - and I'm looking forward to get back into the groove I was in during 2017. Not too much pressure there, right?

To reset, here are my career records for the picks on the blog:

Best bets in 2018: 102-110-8  (48.1%)
Career best bets on this blog: 1574-1458-90  (51.9%)

Supercontest in 2018: 42-40-3 (51.2%)
Career Supercontest: 351-309-20  (53.2%)

Need to do better this year!

To get everyone in the mood for NFL football, it's time to watch old clips of the pregame/introduction to games from the 70s and 80s. Let's focus on NBC in the 80s. It's amazing how bad/poor their production was compared to CBS. Everyone knows the NFL today theme - does anyone remember the pregame program from NBC?

Let's compare: Here's CBS's NFL today from 1981; Brent's voice at the beginning still gives me chills and the theme appears at 1:10.

Now we have NFL '81 on NBC with Bryant Gumbel.....stranded by himself with Pete Axhelm coming later. Now it's not their fault they have to preview the Patriots/Colts game......

(and people wonder why the Colts left Baltimore)

NBC did get more dramatic later in the 80s - by adding a montage of "great games, great moments, on NBC". The music here is much better- yes, chill inducing. Two examples:

1. Opening from September 1987

2. Opening from 1988

I loved those montages. They need to bring them back.

Finally, yes, we will have a theme for our picks this year! There was a post on this blog way back when that generated a lot of interest - we are going to expand it this year into 17 weeks. Hint: you will be hungry!

Picks should be posted on Tuesday, since I will be away from the internet for 5 whole days starting on Tuesday - this is thanks to Layup and his wife who couldn't schedule a birthday outing around the NFL season. Hey - if the PGA tour can revamp their schedule around the NFL, can't you schedule a boat trip without missing week 1??

PS  - stay tuned for Leland dressing up in a wonderful outfit on the trip!