Fearless Predictions - Week 9

Now here's something we didn't anticipate. The People's League has something you don't see in hockey or college football anymore: a tie.

But even that result couldn't save these fantasy football picks from a dismal outing. They went 1-3-1 last week, dropping our season record to 16-23-1. Like the New Orleans Saints, we need to make a quick comeback, and here's how we're going to do it.

People's Pigskin vs. Arcadia Roses: We've got Eli Manning reliving his finest hour. That should get the Pigskin an elusive win.

Hudson Valley Hawks2 vs. VinSethVaughn Bears: This one really could go either way. The Bears have a bunch of Monday night players, so a late comeback is always possible. However, Philip Rivers is the type of player who follows up a rotten performance with a great one. He should lift the Hawks to a winning record.

Team Brotherton vs. Minneapolis Fantastic Houll: The Brothertons are on a roll, having won three straight. And the Baltimore Ravens defense/special teams should be much stiffer against Ben Roethlisberger than the Patriots were last week. Make it four straight for the Brothertons.

Glen Gardner's Finest vs. t-bay jacks Youngry Buccs: Expecting Josh Freeman & Company to beat the New Orleans Saints twice this season may be asking a little too much of a team that's still up and coming. Look for the Finest to prevail here.

Palm Bay, Fl. BearDown85 vs. LA Lockouts: Cedric Benson is back from his suspension, and he'd like to remind the NFL that it was supposed to miss him last week. He'll run over the Tennessee Titans and life the BearDowns to the upset here.

Thanks again for reading, and enjoy the games. We'll be back with some results.

Our New Kicker (and London Calling)

First of all, thanks to those of you who voted on which kicker the People's Pigskin would claim off the waiver wire for this week's People's League matchup against the nuckin' futs. The winner of this poll was Jason Hanson, who has been added to the lineup in place of the unneeded Randy McMichael. (We hardly knew ye, Randy.) The results appear at the bottom of this post.

Now, it's time to turn our attention to the renewal of an annual NFL tradition. By "annual," of course, we mean "in the last few years." The National Football League, in its never-ending quest for more money fans, has instituted an International Series of games. This year's version has the Denver Broncos playing the San Francisco 49ers Sunday in London's Wembley Stadium.

The 49ers will make the journey without Alex Smith. (I'll leave it those players who have Smith on his roster to say whether that's a good thing.) The Broncos may be making the journey without their pride after the shelling they suffered at the hands of the Oakland Raiders last week.

There has been some debate about whether flying to and from London puts too much strain on an NFL team, even one that gets its bye week immediately after the game. But the New England Patriots probably would beg to differ. They hammered the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last year in London by a score of 35-7. Tom Brady threw three touchdowns, and the Patriots defense/special teams benefitted from an interception that Brandon Meriweather (yes, that Brandon Meriweather) returned for a touchdown.

The lesson: Just because a game is being played in an unusual time zone doesn't make the players any less relevant in fantasy football.

Remember to vote in our polls. The NASCAR polls will close Friday night, while the football polls will close Sunday morning.

[polldaddy poll=3984062]

Fearless Football Predictions - Week 2

Someone call the Pope, because we may have a miracle on our hands.

Last week's predictions for the People's League were perfectly accurate. That's right. FIVE-AND-FRICKIN-OH, BABY!!! That still doesn't mean you should use them for anything other than entertainment purposes. (You listening, Tim Donaghy?) It does mean the bar is set pretty high for the rest of the season. Here goes.

People's Pigskin vs. Hudson Valley Hawks. The Internet's favorite fantasy football team had no trouble cruising to victory last week. And there's no reason for the winning ways to stop here. The Pigskin takes another one.

NFL2K10 RedZone vs. t-bay cuervonatersXXL. Both teams won their week 1 matchups, and both have players in the Monday night game. In the end, though, Vernon Davis will make the difference and lead the RedZone to another victory, no matter what play his coaches call.

Feely Her Up ... vs. nuckin' futs. In addition to Beanie Wells' gimpy knee, the former Beanie's Weenies now have to deal with an injury to Kellen Winslow. Both players are being called "game-time decisions." Those decisions usually don't end up going well for fantasy players. Look for the futs to win here.

Chicago VinSethBears vs. Fighting Amish. The Amish plodded their win to a narrow win last week, but now they have to face Tom Brady. Children may be scared of Brady's Javier Bardem haircut (can't you picture him going out to the coin toss and telling the Jets, "Call it ... friend-o"?), but fantasy players should fear his arm. It will produce enough points to lead the VinSethBears to victory.

cowboys romero vs. Team 9. This one is a puzzler. Both teams lost last week. As of this writing, one plans to start Kevin Kolb (who is out for being concussed), while the other plans to start Ben Roethlisberger (who is still out for being stupid). Still, Marques Coltson should give the Cowboys just enough points to seal the late win.

The lineup polls are still open, but they will close Sunday morning, so please vote now if you haven't done so already. We'll be back with some NASCAR predictions.

How to Treat Cuts

For most fantasy football players, one of the hardest parts of the last week in August, other than watching the last preseason games, is making sure their draft picks actually can take the field when the season gets started.

National Football League teams had until Tuesday to get their rosters down to 75 players. This round of cuts was not the deepest (next week, that 75-player roster has to get down to 53), but it was extensive, and it can affect your roster if you're not careful.

With that in mind, here's a survival strategy for the season of The Turk.

1. Draft as late as possible. If your draft was in early August, you might know someone who took a late-round flyer on Antonio Bryant or Derrick Ward. That's why the People's League plans to hold its draft the night before Labor Day. (By the way, we still need six teams to join, so feel free to join now.)

2. Know who was cut. This is not as easy as it seems. A lot of the "usual suspect" Web sites don't seem to have a list of all the people released by 32 NFL teams. This seems to be the closest thing ESPN has to such a list. At least it does let you know that the Broncos running attack won't include Huggy Bear's kid.

3. Know your terms. The NFL seems to have more lists than the folks who put together the Top Ten of Everything books. The injured reserve list (home of Jim Sorgi and Sinorice Moss) is for players whose seasons are over. The physically unable to perform list (where Sidney Rice resides) is for players who are injured but could still contribute to their teams during the season. Then there's the "waived failed physical" list, which means the player is off a roster but free to sign elsewhere. And if the player was put on the list by the Bengals, the player's agent is free to crucify the team for it.

By the way, the Bengals may not actually have these folks on its medical staff, but they may want to consider getting some second opinions.

We'll be back with a look at this week's NASCAR track.

Quarterbacks, Quarterbacks Everywhere ...

There's still time to vote on the People's Pitstop lineup for Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Bristol. While you ponder your votes and your brackets, it's time to ponder something football-related at the People's Pigskin.

First, some basic math. There are 32 teams in the National Football League. Let's take as a given that the typical NFL team has three quarterbacks on its roster: a starter, a backup and an emergency third quarterback. I think the teams that collect quarterbacks the way some people collect stamps (yes, I'm looking at you, Jon Gruden) are balanced out by the teams that use a wide receiver who played quaterback in high school as their third quarterback. That means that, in any given season, there are 96 quarterback slots available in the NFL.

Now let's look at college football. According to the NCAA, 630 teams played college football in one division or another last year. If you add the 111 teams that play NAIA football, then you have 741 college teams in all, each of which has a starting quarterback. I have no idea exactly how many of these teams had a junior, senior or fifth-year senior starting at quarterback this past season, but let's just say, for the purpose of this exercise, that two-thirds of them did. That would mean there are 494 quarterbacks who would be eligible for selection in next month's NFL draft.

Think about that stat for a moment, fantasy football fans. Hundreds of quarterbacks are coming out of college every year, and you would think at least a few of them are coming out with the particular skills that make them NFL-ready. Yet so many of the stories you'll read over the next few months are about quarterbacks who are considered "projects" (even prospective top draft picks) or are being told they need to make "ridiculous" changes in the way they play if they want an NFL job.

Think about these things the next time someone working on the personnel department of an NFL team is called a "genius."

And despite the steady flow of candidates for the QB slots, people still end up recycling such stellar passers as Rex Grossman, and performances like JaMarcus Russell's are tolerated...oh, wait, Russell's tolerated because this guy likes him. Never mind.

Anyway, the polls close Thursday night so we can get a lineup submitted in time for Friday's qualifying session. We'll be back Friday with a new poll.