I was wondering when this thread was going to pop up. I've been watching the NFL a lot more consistently for about two and a half years now, largely due to me enjoying it more as a spectator activity than a few of the other major leagues.
A fun fact about me- I'm actually a decently big Seattle Seahawks fan despite living nowhere near there.
(Yes, I know they got rid of Russ and Wagner. I still love watching both of them, though.) The reason for this is because of when I played flag football for a year as a younger child. The league's teams were all of the NFL ones, and my dumb a** was under the impression that this was the real deal NFL, but just a flag football division or... something. Hey, we all had the weirdest ideas as a kid. Something about the idea of "Hey, guys, I play for the Seahawks!" must have stuck with me, because I never figured out what happened to the flag football league after that one year, and I didn't even know what Seattle was for another few years.
Um, so... uh, where was I? Oh, yeah. I absolutely
love looking at football stats, college level and professional, in my free time, and I'd like to think I have a surprisingly good track record of predicting teams and the games they play in. On rare occasions I've been able to call specific players having a break-out run, too.
(Still hilarious that people were sleeping on Johnathan Taylor last year at one point.) I'm ready for the new season, and... wait. I feel like I'm forgetting something.
My playoff bracket predictions record from last year: 8-3, 8-4 if counting the Chiefs/Bills divisional game (Not sure what to do about this one because of the whole "Bills didn't get a drive in OT" situation")
Playoff bracket record calls against the spread: 9-3 (My pick for the Bills/Chiefs game was Bills win but don't cover)
My playoff bracket record in games involving the 49ers: 0-3 (all three losses ATS)
...let me put this into perspective. I'm a long-ways-away Seattle fan for over a decade now, and a division rival from an entirely different state from either me or Seattle just cost me a perfect bracket against the spread. If anything I'm actually
thankful for the Chiefs getting that overtime win in the long run, because if they hadn't done so... well, you can imagine how that would have gone.