Office Pool Pick 'Em

This is the magical time of year where the real games seem too take a back seat to the fake games played in offices around the country: Fantasy football and office pick 'ems. When my sister-in-law asked me to help her with her picks for her weekly office pool, it occurred to me that she's not alone in looking for guidance.

Thing is, it's really a crapshoot.

What everyone from Coach, Dan, Shannon and Boomer, to the woman at the front desk who picks based on who has the prettier jerseys (and frustratingly, usually wins) doesn't want you to know is that anyone can win on any given Sunday and no one really knows how it's going to turn out. Someone should fit that into a movie. If this stuff was easy, we'd all just bet the line every week and rack up lots of fake money in MyBookie - and, frankly, that's what makes it so much fun.

What Keller and I decided to do was to give all of our readers out there two sets of picks for their office pools each week based on our methods. Keller, with his quarterback ratings, point-spreads, Vegas lines, conference records, scouting reports and weekly analysis...And me, with my basis of which team has players on my fantasy team (guaranteeing a loss) and which team is more likely to hate Ray Lewis. (Look, there's a reason I usually write for Arena Football.)

We're going to give you our picks and keep a running tally here each week (So bookmark this page!) Given the Rule of Secretaries, we've got equal chances of being right. Digging deep, we've put $50 on the line - a sum that exceeds the total annual budget of Steelers 'N At by...well, $50 - and the winner at the end of the season takes all.

We didn't start this last week for the following, scientific reason:

• We didn't think of it.

So, we hope that our picks will be of some use to you weekly pools, and check back each week for our latest. Be sure to let us know in the comments what you think!


Weidman's Picks, Week 2.............................................Keller's Picks, Week 2
Weidman's Picks, Week 3.....................................................................Keller's Picks, Week 3