I've been listening to the Dan Patrick show the last couple days on ESPN radio. Let me start by saying it's a fine program and one of my favorites to listen to right up there with Mike and Mike in the morning. On his show he posed the question, why is it more acceptable for pitchers to cheat? Certainly you can talk about ball doctoring compared to bat corking. And all though they are both crimes it seems ball doctoring is not quite the sin, probably for the simple fact that it's much harder to do. In the age of technology it would seem very unlikely that a pitcher could get away with scuffing, or keep that smudge of "dirt" on his thumb hidden from TV audiences, let alone umpires. Corked bats are harder to see. They look just the same as normal bats, and you can really only see it when the bat breaks, ala Sammy Sosa.

Well, I hope everyone had a good Turkey day...ate their fill, and then some. I sit here downing another helping of stuffing, as I think over my picks for the week. A couple orders of business before we get to the picks...

So for the Thanksgiving games, I went 3-0. Between all the cooking and cleaning before guests arrived, I got to watch parts of the 2 games that were on network TV...and then saw some of the highlights of the NFL Network game. Here's a couple quick thoughts on those games...

I was going to try to bang out my full set of predictions today, and buck the trend of spitting out just the Thanksgiving picks...but then life happened. Work got busy, and I've got dinner guests...so looks like I'll have to just spit out my Turkey day picks and then come back around with my full slate tomorrow.

A quick review of the weekend of football, and also a question for every father out there...is it really brain washing?

Has it really been a week since my last post? Really? Where did the week go you ask? Life happened...but more on that in a second.

Week 10 proved to be a wacky and wild week. Several upsets, several "almost upsets", a crazy shootout, and fantastic Sunday night game. What can we take away from last week? Is there anything we can learn? There are a few things...

1.This season...anything goes. A favorite really isn't a favorite. I think we're all aware of that by now.

2. The Colts and Ravens barely pulled out wins over lesser opponents...were real weaknesses found? Or just a case of a good team taking a week off? We'll find out this week.

3. The Bengals have some serious issues, and were overrated coming into the season. But man, what a fun game to watch.

4. A trained chimp...hell, an untrained one at that...could do better picking winners by throwing darts at a board than I can using all my logic and rational thought. On second thought, the untrained chimp probably wouldn't do very good...he'd eat the dart and then pee on something...the trained chimp though...he's a force to be reckon with!

With that ringing endorsement...let's get on with the picks...

Okay, I think I'm mostly over the trauma I experienced last week. I've taken some deep breaths, sat and contemplated life and what it all means, drank some beer, ran over a couple cats in my car, and berated several homeless people just cause I could. And now I feel better.

Been pretty busy this week, so I don't have many thoughts before I get to the picks...but I thought you all might get a kick out of the following...

While reading Arthur's post, I started to formulate answers to all his questions...and realized that a simple comment might be a bit much. So I thought I'd answer with a full on post....I'll try as best I can to give some answers...

They go up.

Figured that line from Ghostbusters works well for how I feel right now. I feel lower than low, the only place for me to go is up right now.

Let me start by saying, I'm a very competitive person. I don't like to lose, not many of us do, but I really despise it, and haven't totally learned how to deal with it. I especially hate to lose when I think I should win...in many ways that's the worst feeling in the world. Yeah, I was the guy that would throw a controller, or just stop talking to someone after getting beat at a video game. And I've been known to throw a couple cheap shots in my day. I've mostly grown out of it, the ultra competitive streak giving way to a guy that just likes to have fun...but this weekend, it all came rushing back.

Well, here we are at the halfway point, and we're starting to separate the men from the boys...the good from the bad...the "With the 1st pick of the draft..." from the "well, they snuck into the playoffs..." And if you've been paying attention, I ran through a quick breakdown of all the teams at the midseason mark, so I won't go into that here.

Here's the deal...you're sitting there after your team played (or didn't play) this past weekend...either bummed that they lost, or excited about their victory...but you know there is something that they need to get them to Miami, or at least close to Miami...the state of Florida at least. And you're sitting there thinking things through, and you open a bottle of Coors...the official Beer of the NFL...and out pops a Genie in officially licensed NFL apparel.

And he simple states, "You have 1 wish that you make for your team"

First the Raiders win, and then a World Series game is rained out...grab the women and children, the apocalypse is coming!!

In other news, several teams in the NFL have been receiving copies of my predictions, and using them as bulletin board material. I know, I know, sounds silly...but seriously, how else can you explain that I went 7-6 last week? Oh, well, I guess you could go for the obvious "Josh, you're an idiot", and you probably wouldn't be far from the truth. But in my version of the story, 6 teams used my predictions as motivation. Jerks.

And I think it's the coaching. You'll say, "I didn't know Denmark had a team." And I'll say, "shut it mr. snappy, I'm quoting Shakespeare to sound all intelligent."

Bad coaching has always been a hot topic with me...maybe because the Bears have been swamped with them the 10+ years between Ditka and Lovie. During that time, the Bears never had to worry about being out coached, it was a given, which freed the players up to worry about other things....but this is a constant problem for all NFL franchises at one time or another, everyone gets stuck with a crappy coach...unless you're the Steelers, and you only have 2 coaches in the last 38 years...for the rest of us, crappy coaching is never far away. The current practitioners reside in Oakland, Arizona, and Dallas...there are others...but these are the current crème de la crème.

First, read this (another quality post from Josh).

As for performance enhancing drugs (p.e.d.), I certainly can't disagree with Josh that they probably get used a lot more than we'd like to think. where i don't totally agree, though, is in thinking that these guys do things that can't be done otherwise.

October 26th, 2005. Juan Uribe streaked accross the field toward a high bouncing grounder just over Bobby Jenks' head. A snap throw to Konerko.... pop the champagne.

So many things to talk about this weekend...where to start...

I think I'll start and end with the following 3 topics...

Kenny Rogers

Shawn Merriman

and the NFL