Here's a secret about sportswriters. We have no idea who is going to win games. None.
Longtime readers of this journal know that - I think I picked the wrong winner of the Super Bowl and BCS title game every year for four straight seasons. One year, I was off by a combined 87 points on the margins of victory.![[info]](http://stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
drainbead, ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
marcy_italiano and gsguitar have all crushed me in NFL picking contests.
This year was the first time in the 21st Century that I even made it to the Final Four before getting eliminated from my annual LJ NCAA tournament pool. I didn't win, of course.
Now, you may be thinking, "Well, Dave, you're just stupid!"
But it isn't just me, and now I have proof. Bill Simmons, a well-known columnist for ESPN.com, has been posting weekly football picks for years. Last year, as an attempt to test the theory that sportswriters are just guessing when they make predictions, he had his wife pick as well, and she narrowly beat him.
They did it again this year, and she DESTROYED him. She's so far ahead that, even if she goes 0-16 this week and he goes 16-0, she still wins. This is a woman who doesn't like football and generally chooses teams based on their nicknames and/or home cities. Oh, did I mention that she had the mild distraction of giving birth halfway through the season?
As a reward for winning, she got to write Bill's picks column this week, and it is hysterically funny. She just kills him for the entire column.
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/sto
Longtime readers of this journal know that - I think I picked the wrong winner of the Super Bowl and BCS title game every year for four straight seasons. One year, I was off by a combined 87 points on the margins of victory.
drainbead, marcy_italiano and gsguitar have all crushed me in NFL picking contests. This year was the first time in the 21st Century that I even made it to the Final Four before getting eliminated from my annual LJ NCAA tournament pool. I didn't win, of course.
Now, you may be thinking, "Well, Dave, you're just stupid!"
But it isn't just me, and now I have proof. Bill Simmons, a well-known columnist for ESPN.com, has been posting weekly football picks for years. Last year, as an attempt to test the theory that sportswriters are just guessing when they make predictions, he had his wife pick as well, and she narrowly beat him.
They did it again this year, and she DESTROYED him. She's so far ahead that, even if she goes 0-16 this week and he goes 16-0, she still wins. This is a woman who doesn't like football and generally chooses teams based on their nicknames and/or home cities. Oh, did I mention that she had the mild distraction of giving birth halfway through the season?
As a reward for winning, she got to write Bill's picks column this week, and it is hysterically funny. She just kills him for the entire column.
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/sto
