NFL Week 1: Roy Rogers

Hello from San Diego! It's time for the 2019 version of the world famous themed NFL picks. Being at home during the day most of the time (when I'm not with my degenerates playing $5 UTH at 10 am on Tuesday mornings), I'm on the internet a lot - and sometimes, yes, I fall for the clickbait.

"50 best resort hotels in your area".....
"The 25 small towns that are going bankrupt"
and yes, "20 restaurant chains that are out of business"

Layup visited me a few weeks ago and we saw that list about the chains and it started a good conversation. We were sure I could come up with 17 defunct restaurants - so this year we are going to explore 17 restaurants from my youth that I loved and have a special place in my heart. They may be out of business, they may be surviving by a thread -- but I don't think I'll be able to go to these anymore. Some are well known, some will be obscure - but they are part of my memories.

(if you think you've seen this on the blog before, well, you are right -we did a post about old restaurants back in 2011 here.....this year we will expand on that theme a whole lot.....)

And we will try to link each one to the upcoming Browns game as well. I'm cautiously optimistic for this season. 9-7 is my prediction; I can't go higher because this is Freddie's first year; I don't know how the chemistry will be later this season with OBJ, and there are questions - serious ones - on our offensive line. And we have a rookie punter and kicker.....don't laugh, those will cost us 1-2 games.

Anyway, let's get started! This week we look back at....Roy Rogers!

Roy Rogers, for those of you not from the mid-Atlantic, was a fast food chain specializing in burgers, roast beef, and chicken. To me, it seemed to be a step up from the national chains of McDonalds, Burger King and the like. The star menu item was the "Double R Burger" - a 1/4 burger with ham on it - a break from the regular bacon cheeseburgers you can find anywhere! And I have to say, their fried chicken was good....rivaling KFC's fried chicken. I got the two piece meal many times, with a biscuit and all the margarine you can eat with it.

Roy Rogers seemed to be a special treat for our family growing up. They didn't have one in Hunt Valley or within 10 miles of us. It wasn't a regular stop that we planned to go to; Layup and I seemed to go there on two occasions;

1. When Mom dragged us in the car to go on an all-day shopping trip at White Marsh or so. Sometimes, the Hunt Valley Mall just didn't have the selection and so we ( as kids that were, say, 12 and 9 years old) got put in the car for a 45 minute drive to the swanky mall on the east side of town. Our reward was the Double R Burger.

2. There were Roy's all over the place near the shore, especially in Delaware; I think we always stopped for lunch at a Roy's in Dover as we headed to the Delaware beach for our many weekend vacation getaways.

But the best part of Roy Rogers was....the Fixin's Bar!!! This was no ordinary condiment station, like what Wendy's or Arby's has. It contained 3-4 types of BBQ sauce, plenty of other sauces - and fresh produce! There were fresh sliced tomatoes, onions, pickles and crisp lettuce all waiting for you to put on your burger. I went to town on that!!! I ordered the Double R and slather it with mustard, BBQ, onions, lettuce and one pickle. My parents always had that look of disgust when seeing what concoction I made...….

Kind of like the face I make now when we go to the frozen yogurt place and Martin fills his cup with 6 types of sour Jolly Rancher flavors.

Anyway, the fixin's bar is what made Roy's stand out from the rest. I'm not really sure what happened to Roy's in the 90's - I think it was bought out by Hardee's or something - but it dwindled away. They are planning a comeback; I have read they are opening new locations in New Jersey/Pennsylvania recently.

There was a Roy's in Cincinnati on route 32 near Eastgate - it may have been open as late as 2000, 2001, and I went there once or twice. Now it's been shuttered for years - and nothing has filled its place. The old building is still there, taunting me of an abandoned Fixin's bar inside.

Here is a commercial for Roy's from 1986 to get your taste buds going:

About the Browns: well, I finally feel we have a Fixin's Bar for this team. Our offense usually had 1 weapon - maybe - at our QB's disposal. For the past 10 years or so, what options did our QB have to make plays? Peyton Hills....Josh Gordon for a year.....last year it was just Landry at the beginning. Now, we have options. We have OBJ, Landry, Chubb, Njoku......we have a real fixin's bar for Mayfield. No more stale ketchup in Corey Coleman or moldy tomatoes with Isaiah Crowell.....

On to the games....I have to preview these early and make the picks because I will be without internet on a boat until Sunday afternoon. The horror! I'm sure there will be lots of injuries and changes on Thursday and Friday that will render these picks moot and useless.

Chi 23, GB 17. GB wants to change their O to be more run-based and less spontaneous with LaFleur making the calls - I think that plays right into the Bears' hands.

Bal 22, Mia 10. Such a trap here. What is Miami doing - who will Fitzpatrick pass the ball to? It seems easy, but Baltimore is one-dimensional and that's easy to plan against.

Min 30, Atl 23. I don't think Atlanta has upgraded their secondary, so Min should move the ball; Atl's new coordinator will learn from the mistakes of last year and stay in this game.

NYJ 24, Buf 16. How is Buffalo going to score? We trusting Allen to be accurate week 1? But do the Jets have a pass rush? Darnold comfortable with short passes, avoiding Buffalo's good secondary.

Phi 26, Was 17. I think Phi's new run weapons will be stopped by Washington, who has a great run D; question is how do the Redskins score. Gruden will keep this low scoring.

LAR 30, Car 17. I think the Panthers are a mess. One-D on offense with McCaffrey; Moore is not a weapon yet and what is the injury status on Cam? Losing Davis on D hurts too.

KC 31, Jax 20. Another trap game that looks too easy. Jax will stop run, have pass rush -can it rattle Mahomes? What are Foles and Fournette going to look like vs. the worst run D?

SF 30, TB 24. SF passing attack was decent at the end of last year, questions on Tampa's DL and secondary. Jimmy G did not look good in preseason. SF defense will gamble and force mistakes.

LAC 31, Ind 23. What a mystery. What is the Chargers' secondary going to look like without James? Can Brissett take advantage? What will Gordon's absence do to the Chargers' o?

Sea 23, Cin 13. Cin will run the ball with Mixon- what else can they do? Sea wants to run - that's the strength of Cin's D - can Wilson take advantage of the weak Cincy secondary without weapons?

Az 30, Det 27. Worried about Az's pass rush here - if Stafford has time, will score a lot. But Det's D may not have improved yet; perfect first opponent for Kingsbury and Murray.

Dal 31, NYG 27.  The Giants can't just run the ball here. They have to pass and take advantage of the weak Dal secondary. I think they can do enough to keep it close.

NE 31, Pit 24. NE's D is awesome, but Pit always finds a way with their passing game to get points. Pit secondary is weak, so we may see more of Brady and the passing game than Bill wants.

NO 37, Hou 20. I feel like this is a trap also. Where is Houston's mind with all the moves? I don't know if Hou can get pressure on Brees. NO has to be motivated here.

Den 19, Oak 16. This game will be straight from the 70s - run run run. Lindsey will get plenty of carries as Flacco is eased in; Oak can't handle the pass rush from Den.

Best bets: 16 of them.
Chi -3
Chi/GB under 46.5
Bal -6.5
NYJ -3
Min -4
LAR -3
KC -3.5
Ind/LAC over 44.5
Cin/Sea under 44
Az +2.5
Det/Az over 47
NYG/Dal over 45.5
SF pk
NO -7
Den pk
Den/Oak under 43

Supercontest picks:
Still to come. Will be updated Tuesday evening.