After five weeks, a 22-7 record against the spread, and a 3,700-SFBay Buck-sized bulge in my leatherette bi-fold, I'm finally willing to admit: I'm kicking butt.
After five weeks, a 22-7 record against the spread, and a 3,700-SFBay Buck-sized bulge in my leatherette bi-fold, I’m finally willing to admit: I’m kicking butt.
A perfect 6-0 record in Week 5 buoyed my confidence to the point where I can do a wee bit of chest-thumping.
But not too much. I want to show some — but not too much — respect toward my fellow SFBay pigskin pickers Ali and Chelena. They’re still scratching and clawing to get back to break-even.
They might look to ParksideGreg for some inspiration on bet size. The leader among SFBay readers, ParksideGreg has been bold with his bets. And for the most part it’s paid off, based on his 16,900 SFBay Buck balance.
For Week 6, Oakland is back in the mix, getting nine points as visitors to Atlanta. Some of us have taken chances on Oakland this year. But not now.
San Francisco, Atlanta and New England are all 4-1 against the spread this season, while St. Louis is 3-0. Just sayin’.
Fair warning: We’re not touts, sharks or bookies. We don’t splash action around the web or line up bets in back alleys. We’re just a few local writers picking games without much of a clue. So using these picks for your own gambling is probably a very bad idea.
| Name | Bankroll | Last week |
| Jesse | 13,700 | +2,800 |
| Chelena | 9,700 | +200 |
| Ali | 9,000 | +400 |
| Game | Ali | Chelena | Jesse |
| New York Giants at San Francisco (-6 1/2) |
SF 100 |
SF 100 |
SF 400 |
| Oakland at Atlanta (-9) |
ATL 200 |
ATL 200 |
ATL 200 |
| New England (-3 1/2) at Seattle |
SEA 100 |
NE 100 |
NE 300 |
| Dallas at Baltimore (-3 1/2) |
BAL 200 |
BAL 100 |
BAL 2000 |
| St. Louis at Miami (-3 1/2) |
STL 200 |
STL 100 |
STL 400 |
| Denver at San Diego (-1 1/2) |
DEN 200 |
SD 100 |
DEN 200 |
To refresh anyone’s memory on how point spreads function, the team with the “minus points” is the favored team, and has the “point spread” deducted from their score at the end of the game. The final score adjusted by the point spread determines the winner of the bet.
If a team is favored by three points, they must win by more than three points to win a point spread bet.
Of course you can play along with Bettin’ or Braggin! What kind of pro football picking game would Bettin’ or Braggin’ be if you couldn’t play?
You can win prizes! (We can’t. All SFBay staff can win are bragging rights over each other. In other words, priceless.)
But first, some rules:
* – Actually, we will be picking two Thursday games, the Seattle-San Francisco game Oct. 26 and the Denver-Oakland game Dec. 6. On those weeks, the deadline for weekly picks will be Thursday at 5 p.m. See why we don’t like Thursday games? Too complicated.
Third-place: SFBay black fleece hoodie, high quality. Nice stuff. $50 value.
Second-place: Limited-edition, authentic SFBay Golden Gate FC soccer shirt, customized with your name. $120 value.
First place: A green Joe Montana Notre Dame Adidas jersey, “True School Authentics,” Size 56. Very high quality retro-authentic heavy mesh. Brand-new, never-worn condition. All tags attached. Very collectible. $250 value.
Jesse Garnier is the editor and founder of SFBay. A Mission District native, he also teaches journalism as associate professor at San Francisco State University.
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I’ll brag later…
SF over NY $5000
Atlanta over Oaktown $1000
Seattle over NE $500
BAltimore over Dallas $500
St. Louis over Fins $500
St. Diego over Manning $500