Thin ain't in

Last week I mentioned that I was going to reveal my super-secret system for picking the winners in the NFL football pool. Since I still don't have internet access at home --I only ordered DSL a mere, oh, 35 days ago^*, I wasn't able to update until this morning.

As I mentioned, the clue to the method I used to pick teams this week was to "think fat". Here's the skinny...

There’s a new report out from www.healthyamericans.org that says that pretty much every state in the US has an increase in obese people. Yep, we’re all getting’ fatter by the minute!

I theorized that the fattest states are gonna have the football players in the worst shape. So my strategy was to pick the team whose home stadium is in the “healthier” state.

Below is the data from 2004, and I simply picked the team that had the fewer amount of chubsters…



I don't feel like posting all the individual matchups and their point spreads, so let's just cut to the chase. How did the "Slim Pickin's" method pan out?

In reality, the only things that stayed slim were my WIN column and my wallet. Although the Monday night game hasn't been played yet, I am nowhere in contention this week. Of the 15 out of 16 games played so far this week, my patented "Slim Pickin's" method only netted a paltry 6 wins. The winner this week, who pulverized the competition with a dominating 13 out of 15 wins so far this week, was Pete "Have I Got A House For You" Bruinsma.

My picks as well as my opponents are here (you will need to scroll right to find mine under the name "Kurt").

Well, there's always next week and a new system, I suppose.

^* Yes, I have lived in the new house since the end of July, and TDS Metrocom still hasn't released my phone number over to SBC. I switched because TDS didn't offer DSL in my new 'hood and there was no way I was going to make Comcast cable's coffers any fatter. So SBC was an attractive alternative with them currently offering DLS for $14.99/mo, cheaper than dial-up.

The catch turned out to be getting TDS to release their vise-like hold on my telephone number. SBC is pretty much powerless to do anything more until they get the phone number transferred from TDS to them. Hence weeks and weeks of waiting for internet at home. Yuk.