OK, I have to admit, I did not think I would be writing this column again. After three football seasons and almost three and a half years of working in a race and sports book, I have moved on.
But as "they" say, you can take the man out of the sports book but you can't take the fan out of the boy, or something like that.
I will say that it is with some trepidation that I enter this season. It will be a challenge to remain focused; you see I used to be around this all day long. It was easy then, watching, reading, talking football all day long. Actually I had to do that for baseball, basketball and horse racing too. But I love a good challenge, so with some hesitation we go for our fourth winning season in a row.
This year the goal is the same as it has been every year, to pick a couple of winners each week. As always I recommend that each pick be used straight and not parlayed.
Actually the season has kicked off already. Thursday night the Colts looked sharp in defense of their Super Bowl championship, defeating the New Orleans Saints 41-10. But there are many interesting match-ups this weekend.
The Bears visit the Chargers in a possible Super Bowl match-up. The Giants will be at Dallas on Sunday night in a game that features the two NFC teams with the most questions to answer. Will Tony Romo prove to be a starting quarterback in this league and how will the Giants respond to the retirement of Tiki Barber are just the tip of the iceberg for both teams.
And in what will be the final game of the first week in the NFL, the late Monday night game will see a couple of upstart teams as the 49ers will host the Cardinals. These teams are expected to take a gigantic step forward, as good drafting has stocked both teams with great young talent.
After sitting and gazing at the lines for this weekend's games, I have it narrowed down to seven selections and in the past during the regular season I have made two selections a week, but this year I will break tradition and make three picks each week. The extra pick will be a special roll-over pick. It's a betting strategy that I will explain in the weeks to come.
The first pick this week is the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. They are traveling to Seattle to take on the Seahawks, and while there may be some negatives to the travel, Head coach John Gruden will have his team ready to go. The line favors the Seahawks by 6 and the total is 41. Take the points in this game, but take a look at the money also, a money line of +2.50 would be a good value.
The next pick is the over in the Giants vs. Cowboys game. As mentioned earlier both teams have more than a few questions to answer, so what better way than for both teams to come out with an offensive explosion. The game favors the home team Cowboys by 6 with a total of 44. I expect both teams to score their share to get us over our total.
The last pick is the roll-over pick. This is theoretically my favorite game of the week, and I will start to explain the roll-over part next week. The pick is the under in the Eagles vs. Packers game. The total on this game is 43, and although it may be quite temperate in Green Bay in September I think the scoring will be low.
Let's start with a straight bet of $22 on the roll-over pick, and I will explain more next week.
Jason Kolenut's columm appears every Sunday in the Appeal.