NFL Week Eight ATS Picks

Returning to our regularly scheduled, football-oriented musings, let's turn our attentions for a moment to one Bert Bell. For some reason, the various professional sports Halls of Fame feel compelled to honor executives on an equal footing with players. I am not sure why that is, but I am sure that it doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

Anyway, one of the charter members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame was Mr. Bell. Bert was a Main Line Philly type of fellow. Went to Penn, played football. He got into the NFL as a coach, where he authored one of the worst head coaching records of all time. (This is where I had to start looking stuff up). His five years with the Eagles and a brief stint with the Steelers netted out at 10-46-2, for a glossy .179 winning percentage.

Bert Bell, baby...

Not only was Bell the head coach of the Eagles, he was also the team owner. Further, he was tight with Steelers owner Art Rooney, both of whom were short on cash. What Bell lacked in money, he compensated for with ideas. It was Bell who came up with the idea for the college draft, which enabled the Eagles to get the rights to players they wouldn't have been able to afford in outright bidding. 

This knack for innovation led Bell out of the owner's box and into the league commissioner's chair in 1946. He oversaw a post-war boom for the NFL, where it negotiated a merger with the All-America Football Conference, added a franchise in Los Angeles, and began to broadcast games on television.

During this time, Bell was big on proclaiming the league's intolerance for gambling in any form, and the purity of its competitors in that regard. Bell was positioned as a kind of McGruff the Crime Dog, waging war on gamblers much like J. Edgar Hoover was keeping America safe as head of the FBI. Both personas were mostly PR dreamscapes, but they established the public perception.

Bell continued a very successful 13-year run as Commissioner until 1959, when he suffered a heart attack at an Eagles game at Franklin Field and passed away. His tenure, while successful, merely set the stage for what was to follow.

Now the picks, generated via the proprietary Spreadbuster algorithm:

Three-Star Picks

WAS (+3) vs. CHI: Daniels a game-time decision.

PIT (6.5) vs. NYG: Tomlin will not be outcoached here.

PHI (+2.5) at CIN: Nice matchup.

DET (11) vs. TEN: Not a good spot for the Titans.

Last week: 3-1. Overall: 11-11.

Two-Star Picks

AZ (+3.5) at MIA: Looked good on Monday.

SEA (+3) vs. BUF: Bounced back big.

NO (+7) at LAC: Got no Carr.

BAL (8.5) at CLE: Looks like a walk over.

KC (10) at LV: Could be tricky. 

MIN (3.5) at LAR: Reality sets in.

Last week: 1-4. Overall: 11-15.

One-Star Picks

These games are anyone's guess.

DAL (+4) at SF: Keeps it close.

GB (4) at JAX: Classic trap game.

DEN (10) vs. CAR: On the rise.

HOU (5) vs. IND: Number going down.

NE (+7) vs. NYJ: Maybe a back door.

TB (+2.5) vs. ATL: Bounce back time.

Last week: 3-3. Overall: 21-19-1.

Total - Last week: 7-8. Overall: 44-45-1.