I got 8 this week, and nobody else did.  Awesomeness.  I haven’t had a bad week yet, which means I’m penalized by the "worst-week" rule… Tony’s in the "lead", because his 10+9+5 = 19 (not 24), and my 8+9+8 = 17 (not 25).  Ah well.

Tim, Thad and Benno all picked home teams and got 7, in a three-way tie for third.  Those are also the default picks, so I guess that worked out for them.  Everyone else who changed their picks fared worse, and had their worst-yet week.  Soup lady hit 10/14, but she’s not playing with the spread, so it doesn’t count, really.

FOOTBALL PICKS!  FOOTBALL PICKS!

Observant reader "TR" points out that the football season starts tomorrow, and there’s no picks-related linkage yet.  Are you ready for picks?  I am!

Let’s do it on ESPN.com this year.  (I am so tired of Yahoo!… seriously.)  You can (probably) access the dnord.com picks group at ESPN.com by clicking that link, and if you need to create an ESPN.com account, you can do that, too.

You’ll need a password, and it’s "dnord". 

I’d also like to welcome our guest picker: Donovan McNabb’s mom, Soup Lady McNabb.  She comes with the group, and I can’t turn her off.  I heard she has a mean gambling problem, and bets heavily on quarterbacks with tight butts.  (Okay, enough mean talk about Soup Lady McNabb for now.)

Join!  Join!  Join!

Oh wow.  Oh WOW.  You know how EA Sports locked up an exclusive agreement with the NFL, so Madden would be the only football game with actual teams and players for years and years?

Well, Midway is going ahead with their NFL Blitz franchise (now just called Blitz), and making fun of the NFL in the game.  The most stunning thing I’ve read is that the Atlanta "Redhawks" have a speedy quarterback, maybe you’ve heard of him: "Ron Mexico".

In a lawsuit filed earlier this year, a woman claimed that Michael Vick gave her herpes, and that he used the alias "Ron Mexico" to receive VD treatments and check into clinics anonymously.

Tacky.

Chele hipped me to the following news:

"Monday Night Football," a landmark
of U.S. broadcast television since 1970, will move next year
from Walt Disney Co.’s ABC to sibling sports cable network ESPN
in an eight-year deal industry sources said was worth nearly $9
billion.

The agreement, announced on Monday by the National Football
League, ESPN and ABC, came as the league and rival broadcaster
NBC said they had reached a separate six-season deal for NBC to
acquire Sunday NFL games now aired on ESPN.

That’s something of a total bummer, but when you think about the state of network TV, they aren’t going to be able to afford first-run Fear Factor in a few years.  It’s all niche, niche, niche, all the time, and NFL football is expensive.

The more interesting thing is that Sunday night football is moving to NBC, meaning that three broadcast networks and a cable channel will combine for four ways of broadcasting, calling, reporting and advertising NFL football.  (Previously, ABC and ESPN combined efforts.  Will NBC share with anyone, or send their own Jim Lampley / Bob Costas sports crew for the 17 games?)  That means… competition?  Eh, probably not.  The last competition in football I remember was when one FOX game a week had the magic first-down line and the others didn’t. 

Yahoo! Sports - NFL - Moss headed to the Raiders.  Probably for the best.  In short, Vikings get Napoleon Harris, and Oakland’s first round pick (7th overall), and Oakland gets a world of trouble. :)