Wednesday, October 3, 2018

Gambling With Sanity: Week 5


Through a haze of cough syrup and the sort of gentle but withering insanity that goes unnoticed until it’s too late, I bring you week . . . what is it? Five? I think? Yes, five of the NFL. Last week, I went 6-6-3 which represents progress and brings my overall record for the season to 23-34-6 and since to break even is about all that wretched fiends like us can expect from life, I suggest you stick with me because I have gotten incrementally better each week and by the end of the season you may even be caught up on your child support payments. Anyway, as usual, lines come courtesy of the VegasInsider.com consensus, and believe it or not they aren’t even paying me to do this because I’m a mark ass buster.


Indianapolis (+10.5) at New England

Man, just one good week and Las Vegas is all up Tom Brady’s ass again, but to be honest every good week he has this season is going to seem like a Triumph of the Will in which he pulls every sociopathic molecule in his body together in order to be Tom Brady again for a week, a day, even as he slaps his limp dick on Gisele’s ass while she yawns and reads a magazine the rest of the time. Yes, the sins of vanity come with a harsh price. One day you’re a Nazi on the verge of immortality, the next you drink from the wrong cup and Indiana Jones runs off with your lady. I was going to say “bitch” because it sounds funnier that way, but it’s 2018 and I’m now allowed to. You soft ass bitches.

Pick: Indianapolis


Baltimore (-3) at Cleveland

An underrated yet oddly forgotten thing: because the Browns have been so fucking wretched for so many fucking years, this particular rivalry has mostly gone unnoticed by the broader public, but you have to remember that the Ravens used to be the Browns before Art Modell snuck out of town like he fucked the mayor’s wife or some shit. Cleveland hates the Ravens. And now that Cleveland isn’t that bad (well, relatively speaking, I guess) they might want to finally take it out on the Ravens. Fuck it, I’m rolling with the Browns out of loser solidarity.

Pick: Cleveland


Jacksonville (+3) at Kansas City

It’s kind of weird that this is the glamor game in the AFC this season, isn’t it? I mean, it doesn’t get any more boring than Kansas City and Jacksonville. It’s like two different visions of American dystopia meeting for the right to be America’s trash. In that respect, I guess maybe that makes it the perfect game for the NFL. Anyway, Patrick Mahomes has been great, the Chiefs offense is kicking everyone’s ass, but Jacksonville’s defense might be the best in the league. This is an intriguing matchup, and if Mahomes passes this test, there’s probably no stopping him and the Chiefs. Imagine being fired up for a Chiefs/Jaguars game. Man, 2018 is so fucking dark.

Pick: Jacksonville


Tennessee (-3.5) at Buffalo

This line feels weirdly low given that the Titans are 3-1 with back to back wins over the Jaguars and the Eagles while the Bills are, well, the fucking Bills. This will probably be a low scoring defensive game, but still. It’s the fucking Bills. Come on.

Pick: Tennessee


N.Y. Giants (+7) at Carolina

Eli Manning hasn’t quite gone full corpse, which is both good for the Giants and bad. Good because they’d, you know, like to have a functional quarterback, and bad because it might convince them to keep rolling with Eli into a meaningless oblivion of a future. Luckily, Giants fans are all good-natured folk with infinite patience who haven’t literally buried mobsters in the fucking stadium itself, so it’s all good, I guess. Meanwhile, I think Cam Newton needs to get the fuck out of Carolina. Better yet, Vince McMahon should give Ric Flair control of a new XFL team in Charlotte and steal Cam Newton away and let them style and profile into America’s heart. But the reality is that Vince is a fucking Jerry Jones Trumpian pinch-face who will ban dudes like that from the league and hire whoever’s willing to salute a pink cancer ribbon pinned on the American flag while a disembodied voice talks about synergy and brand loyalty. Terrible, terrible.

Pick: Giants

Denver (+1) at N.Y. Jets

Man, the Jets are still getting Vegas love for that week one game against the Lions, but that game was all about the Lions going Full Lion rather than anything the Jets really did, aside from stealing Matt Stafford’s signals anyway. I told y’all that Case Keenum would be a disappointing shit in Denver, though, so I don’t know, dudes and lady dudes. Who cares?

Pick: Jets


Atlanta (+3) at Pittsburgh

Both these teams have disappointed so far, but it feels worse for Pittsburgh somehow. Like, you get the feeling that this is The End for them. Le’Veon Bell is probably getting high in a Bangkok whore house right now, Ben Roethlisberger wishes he could be with him but he’s been banned from Thailand and imagine the sort of degenerate who isn’t even allowed in fucking Thailand, and the whole thing feels rotten and wretched. Also, I can’t believe I haven’t mentioned that one story about that lady who said that Roethlisberger was getting Trump’s pussy runoff, which is a crude way of putting it, I admit, but these are crude times and these are crude people. Even worse is that this chick says that Roethlisberger creeped her out. Imagine being creepy in comparison to Donald fucking Trump. Good Lord.

Pick: Atlanta


Miami (+6.5) at Cincinnati

Look, whoever I pick to win this game is going to lose, so don’t even bother paying attention to this.

Pick: Miami


Oakland (+5) at L.A. Chargers

I almost guarantee you that the Raiders will have more fans in L.A. than the Chargers, which will make for a weird atmosphere. Then again, it almost feels like the Raiders should have no fans at this point because they keep burning all these damn cities, which is appropriate I guess because they’re moving to a city of transients and degenerates with no loyalties in Las Vegas. The Chargers, though, are spiritually empty in their own way, so to be honest, this game is just sort of sad. On the other hand, it’s Still Real to Marshawn Lynch, so maybe the Raiders aren’t spiritually dead yet. It seems unfathomable that the fucking Raiders of all teams could be in that sort of spiritual abyss, but that’s Mark Davis for you.

Pick: Chargers


Arizona (+4.5) at San Francisco

The Cardinals might be the worst team in the NFL this season, while the 49ers season basically ended when Jimmy Garoppolo got hurt, so fuck it. I don’t really have anything interesting to say here, but, I mean, when do I ever?

Pick: 49ers


Minnesota (+3) at Philadelphia

I told y’all that the Eagles would fuck this up. They might still get it together but they don’t exactly look like a repeat Super Bowl champ, do they? Still, it’s really hard for me to put any faith in that fucking dork Kirk Cousins and so I won’t.

Pick: Philadelphia


L.A. Rams (-7) at Seattle

This is clearly the Rams season, which has to make the people of St. Louis feel just great, I’m sure. Speaking of, nobody really talks about this, but St. Louis has really been fucked hard by the NFL, hasn’t it? First there was the Cardinals and now the Rams. To be fair, that’s what you get when you steal somebody’s else team, which they did both times – the Cardinals from Chicago, the Rams from L.A. – so fuck ‘em, I guess. Also, how fucked up is L.A.’s own history with the NFL? They stole the Rams from Cleveland, lost them to St. Louis and then stole them back, they stole the Raiders from Oakland and then lost them back to Oakland, who just had them stolen again by Las Vegas, and then there’s the Chargers, who started out in L.A., went to San Diego, and then came back to L.A. where nobody gives a fuck about them. lol what a town.

Shit, I forgot to talk about the whole Earl Thomas thing, which is pretty fucking crazy, right? I mean, the dude flipped off his own team – coaches, teammates, everyone – as he was carted off the field. Not exactly Mike Utley with the whole thumbs up. I mean, on the one hand, I get it. Fight for what’s yours, dude. I support this. On the other hand, Woke NFLism is fucking absurd. I mean, the entire thing is just so fucked up, but it’s still just a dumb game and getting all worked up for the sake of millionaires who never had to grow up is pretty crazy to me. I mean, you can fight for what’s yours without being a petulant cock about it. I’m not saying “that boy better behave and salute the flag” like some common Jethro here. What I’m saying is that it’s okay to believe in both your own value as a player and a human being and believe in things like loyalty to your teammates, pride in what you do, etc. That might sound corny and eye-rolly as shit, and I admit that it is, but only because we’ve convinced ourselves of the binary in anything, which is kind of fucking insane and amazing given that we profess these days to be trying to constantly shatter binary thinking. Somehow, it’s just made us all even more binary and stupid and it fucking sucks. Good for Earl Thomas. That’s what I think. But fuck him too. That’s also what I think. It’s okay for things to be complicated.

Pick: Rams


Dallas (+3) at Houston

JJ Watt as roid monster hero to white monster truck America is all too obvious. Like, try harder white folks. But this is the age of obvious racism, in which barely concealed racism has been cast aside in favor of soft-faced proudbois carrying tiki-torches they bought at Wal-Mart. And nothing is as nakedly proudboish as cheering for the Dallas Cowboys. I mean, I mentioned this in my game recap that nobody read, but I can’t get over the replay of Golden Tate scoring the go-ahead touchdown because in the background you see a row of fake cowboys wearing crisp, brand-new cowboy hats like 21st century JR Ewings, nice, neat white pressed button up shirts all tucked into their just-off-the-rack blue jeans, all stiff and and . . . and white. It was fucking absurd, a caricature of a caricature of America. Welcome to tha Future. Ordinary race-bait like JJ Watt doesn’t stand a chance.

Pick: Dallas


Washington (+6.5) at New Orleans

Alvin Kamara is fucking gross. I mean that in the best way. Dude is sick. Maybe New Orleans isn’t broken after all if they can embrace a dude like him while Drew Brees fades away to his life waterboarding blacks and gays. That sort of transition takes time, though, and it shows this season, in which the Saints have been inconsistent and generally mediocre as fuck. Actually, fucking by nature is not mediocre, so I don’t know. Can you have a mediocre fuck? Of course, but only in the context of fucking itself, like a mediocre fuck can only be mediocre relative to other fuckings. The basic act of fucking in itself is better than just about anything else. Like, I can’t think of a single thing I’d rather do. Anyway, fuck Drew Brees and not in a good way, but in the fucked in the ass in a prison shower kind of way, which probably isn’t even that bad if the guy has a big dick and hits your prostate. Drew Brees doesn’t even deserve that.

Pick: New Orleans

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