Got this letter today from old friend
King Kaufman of Salon.com. It's a pretty interesting testament to the power of the Cold, Hard Football Facts.
***
Hey guys,
I saw
your humility lesson and thought you might be interested to know that I track a whole bunch of "pundits" picks - I sniggeringly refer to them/us as "experts" - including my own. And last year CHFF would have finished tied for second behind Aaron Schatz's personal picks (but ahead of the Football Outsiders site picks).
Street & Smith's annual also picked four division winners and two wild cards, and I think Aaron picked five and two. I'll include you guys on this year's panel. You're in good company. I think I'm going to use the weekly picks of a porn star in my tracking of weekly game picks.
- 2 points for picking a division winner
- 2 points for picking a wild card team
- 1 point for a division-winner pick winning wild card, or vice versa
Entry - Points (division winners picked)
Aaron Schatz, Football Outsiders - 14 (5) (all 4 AFC division winners)
Cold, Hard Football Facts – 12 (4)
Street & Smith's - 12 (4)
Athlon Sports - 10 (3)
Football Outsiders - 10 (3)
Jim Buzinski, Outsports - 9 (3)
Pro Football Weekly - 9 (3)
Greg Garber, ESPN - 9 (2)
Clark Judge, CBS SportsLine - 9 (2)
Steve Young, ESPN - 8 (4)
Dan Pompei, Sporting News - 8 (3)
Len Pasquarelli, ESPN - 8 (2)
Joe Theismann, ESPN - 8 (1)
Experts consensus - 8* (2)
Chris Mortensen, ESPN - 7 (3)
Mike Golic, ESPN - 7 (2)
Merril Hoge, ESPN - 7 (2)
King Kaufman, Salon - 7 (2)
Sal Paolantonio, ESPN - 7 (2)
Cyd Ziegler, Outsports - 7 (2)
Don Banks, Sports Illustrated - 6 (2)
John Clayton, ESPN - 6 (2)
Dr. Z, Sports Illustrated - 6 (2)
Sports Illustrated - 6 (2)
Pete Prisco, CBS SportsLine - 6 (1)
Peter King, Sports Illustrated - 6 (1)
Michael Smith, ESPN - 5 (2)
Vinnie Iyer, Sporting News - 5 (1)
Mark Schlereth, ESPN - 4 (1)
* Experts consensus is a totalling up of the picks of all other entries. The consensus resulted in a three-way tie for the last NFC wild card between Dallas, Seattle and Arizona. I gave the benefit of the doubt, counted that as a pick for Seattle, and awarded one point.
- king
