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JIGGY'S FREE NFL FOOTBALL PICKS
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Jiggy's 2006 Football Picks Season Record
Wins: 2 | Losses: 2 | Ties:
NFL Free Picks Winning Percentage: 50%
Record updated Mondays
Contact Jiggy at jiggy@wagercom.com or post your questions/comments on the Wagercom Message Board
For those of you new to this football betting picks column, our expert NFL football handicapper Jiggy is coming off a money making 2003-2004, 2004-2005, and 2005-2006 NFL season.posting a winning record on both his NFL football picks and NFL Lock of the Week against the spread. Each week during the NFL season Jiggy will share his free winning NFL football picks as well as his entertaining take on the current happenings of the NFL.
NFL Week 1 Free Picks & Column
So many times in life, the build up outshines the moment. For me it is almost more exciting to get my hands on the new Jenna Jameson (now a friend of Jiggy’s on myspace) DVD case then it is to actually watch the movie. Before I actually pop that DVD in the player and watch the dirty, yet beautiful, acts that ensue, I have my imagination, (my imagination and the airbrushed, mid-action scenes on the cover). The DVD (although glorious) never lives up to what I had conjured in my filthy mind.
Sure, the DVD can last months and months (if you know what I mean) and it provides an invaluable salve against the cold, black, loneliness of real life – but I can’t ever get that ‘ever-so-slightly-cheated’ feeling out of my mind.
I have spent too many hours pondering this seeming injustice. And the simple solution materialized. Just make the box covers worse. It is with that logic that I am not going to hyperbolate (it should be a word) about the upcoming NFL season. Yes, we will make lots of money, yes we will have ample opportunity for Bill Cowher, Peyton Manning and Vince Young jokes, yes, there will be myriad porn references (or is it myriad of porn references?) and yes this column will also teach you lessons about yourself, your relationship with others (specifically those young girls that always seem to end up in your trunk) and about your relationship with fate. [Editorial note, I could have brought religion in to this discussion here, but who wants to sully a perfectly good gambling/porn column with something as polarizing as religion – and further, perhaps for some, fate and religion are not even separate ideas, but rather different names for the same thing.]
So with little sense and virtually no sensibility (or was it little pride and virtually no prejudice - Jane Austen jokes always kill during the first third of the season) the inaugural Jiggy column begins.
I am sure that you have all already done the following things; you have already read Jiggy’s AFC and NFC previews, you have already jerked off three times today (oh wait, that was on my to do list and all I can say is ‘check’), you have already signed up with your online gambling account (Sportingbetusa.com) and you have cleared your schedule for the next seventeen weeks. Now it is time to delve and delve deep, maybe not ‘balls deep,’ but deep.
I could bore you with Sagarin power ratings, statistical analysis of gambling returns and other esoterica (another word that should be a word), but instead, let’s keep it light. The following are the five stories that I am most interested in this season. They are in no special order.
 When will the Reggie Bush façade crumble?
When one lives on the west coast, and specifically in Southern California, like I used to (I have recently moved back to the Bay Area so that I can go through Alex Smith’s garbage, stalk Mike Nolan and longingly miss the Charger Girls – editorial note – why can’t the Niners find any good looking cheerleaders? Really? We are a major metropolitan area. There are hot girls here, I sit outside their windows at night and pleasure myself, why can’t some of those girls join the Goldrush? Maybe they can’t dance well enough? Ha ha.) one gets bombarded with Reggie Bush hype. He played at USC and he went to high school in San Diego. If I see any more area codes imprinted in eye-black I may have to soil myself out of anger – but I digress. I have seen the high school video and I watched many of the USC games, or at least the ones that I bet on and made money by following DJ’s (Pluggers) picks.
Here is what was fascinating about Reggie. He didn’t even start for his college team. Yes, he is fast, yes, he has some shimmy (and a not insignificant amount of shake) and yes, he seems to change directions faster than the defensive backs at FSU (Fresno, not Florida or this might be a real laudatory comment). He is a small guy, with good speed. The bad news is that NFL just happens to be filled with people like that (except that these people are usually big). Did y’all see Demarcus Ware toss Reggie’s salad on a would-be sweep? I am afraid that Reg just may not have what it takes. But I am excited to see if he does. In fact, I would be really happy to be proven wrong on this one. I mean wouldn’t it really help all of those Katrina victims that lost their homes, their businesses and their ability to sleep at night if their professional football team had someone that scored lots of points? (Dear networks that show NFL games, please stop making it seem like the Saints are some proxy for the people of New Orleans. Rant aborted in the interest of time.) Let’s watch the Reggie Show!
 How long before the Herm Edwards magic rubs off on KC?
Herm Edwards is a loser. This fact is not in dispute. He is 39-41 in the regular season and 2-3 in the playoffs. That makes him 41-44 overall. Sounds like a savior to me. The Jets were a relatively talented team and he managed to keep them mediocre. I know he had quarterback trouble last year. I am not sure that Bill Walsh could win with Brooks Bollinger at the helm, but come on. Why does a losing coach end up with a new job and then somehow get the city excited about what’s to come? I suspect that Herm will cause the Chiefs to significantly underperform this year. Look for Larry Johnson to be less than all of his fantasy owners (who took him with their first pick) expect and look for the team to struggle to be 9-7.
When does Matty Leinart take over and show that he should have been the first QB taken in the draft?
The Cardinals have sick offensive weapons. They have all-universe wideouts, they have a formerly great running back (The Edge is old – but he probably has some miles left in the tank) and they also have Kurt Warner. One of these things is not like the other ones, one of these things just doesn’t belong. Matt Leinart is the future of this organization. He would have (and should have been) the first player drafted if he had come out of college in 2005. How is it that nine players surpassed him in the year that he was honing his skills and almost three-peating as national champion? The answer is that they couldn’t. Can you imagine how much hair Norm Chow must have pulled out of his head when he was directed to take Vince Young instead of Matt Leinart. Matt had mastered his complicated offense as a sophomore and was already trained to run a pro-style offense. Vince Young was sounding out complex sentences like, ‘see dick run. Run dick, run’ while Leinart was boning Paris Hilton (we have since found out that Matt was boning – without a condom – Brynn Cameron too, but that is just more drama for him) and winning games. Leinart (despite the fact that he is a Trojan) is a great player, a proven winner and someone who will do big things in the NFL – it is just a question of when.
 How will Peyton handle being the third best qb in the family (Archie has to be number one)?
This is the year that Eli Manning excels. It pains me to write it because he is a grade A douche bag. Any player that has the chutzpah to ask a team not to draft him number one should have his freaking head examined. But that being said, he is a good football player with a great cast around him and he should have a great year. While the NY Football Giants are accelerating, I am afraid the Colts will likely be decelerating (slightly). The NFL, despite its idiotic love of coaches that have losing records, is still a very competitive league. Where there is both fame and gobs of money to be made, there will be smart, talented people competing to get those things. As such, new things don’t stay new for long. The league has figured out the Colt’s offense. I don’t think the Dolts will have a losing record, but their offense can’t be as amazing as it has been. So look for Eli to have better numbers that Peyton. It should be OK for Peyton to play 2nd fiddle, I mean he never won a big game in college and always seems to fold in the play offs in the NFL, but now he will have to sit at the kiddie table during thanksgiving, I bet that is too much for his fragile ego to take. The melt down should be glorious.
 Who will be blamed for the downfall of the Steelers?
The Steelers were a great team and a great story last season. Jiggy picked them to win it all when the playoffs were starting and forecasted the Rothlisberger superbowl win when he was drafted. The Steelers will not be able to repeat as superbowl champions. The main reason is that winning involves a host of factors, luck happens to be one of them. Teams can’t expect to get the breaks every season. Big Ben will be great again (if he ever stops having medical mishaps) and the Steeler D always seems to shine. They’ll miss Jerome Bettis and they will need Wee Willy to step up. But the NFL is not forgiving. Their opponents will be better prepared and ready for the Steeler offense, Coach Cowher will make some boneheaded calls and Hines Ward just can’t be that good again. I like the Steelers and I would love to see them do well, but they are not going to be the next dynasty and they may not even make the playoffs this year. So who will be to blame? I don’t think anyone will be – but it will interesting to see who gets put in the dog house.
On to the picks…
Let me preface this by saying that the preseason is no indication of how teams will actually play. No one plays their starters very long and teams all want to keep their strategies (and tactics) under wraps. As such, we are left with few clues as to how teams will perform this year. Nonetheless, a few games stick out as being easy ones to pick.
Fish (Miami) at Steelers (Pitt) – Miami +1
This pick is based on two theories. First, the Dolphins were surging at the end of last season, they won their last six games of the year and that was with Gus Frerotte at the helm. Let me write that again because I am sure that none of you understood the gravity of that sentence. Nick Saban and the Dolphins managed to win six games in a row with Gus Frerotte at QB. They have upgraded on offense with Duante Culpepper and they are ready to roll. I would rather have had Big Ben starting for the Steelers and taken the 6.5 points, but we will have to make do with one. The second reason is that Charlie Batch ain’t Ben Rothlisberger. It is often foolish to think that one player matters that much on a team of 53, but this is one shabby fill in for one great player. Look for the Fish to shock the world and begin the season with a win against the Superbowl Champion Steelers.
Bungles (Cinc.) at Hermie Edwards (K.C.) – Cincy +2
Despite what I said about the preseason, the Carson Palmer-led Bengals looked fierce. Or let me say this differently, the Bengals last year, with Palmer, were something special. One could argue that they had a real shot at the superbowl if it weren’t for that knee injury to Carson. So now the question is whether Carson Palmer’s knee is back to normal. That question was answered during the preseason. Carson is back, the rangy Cincy D is back, Rudy, Rudi, Roodi is back, the river dancing one is back and it is time to scalp some Chiefs. Look for the Bengals to welcome Herm Edwards to the Midwest with an upset victory.
Whiney Peyton (Ind.) at Whiney Eli (NYG) – NYG +3.5
I said it above and I will say it again here. This is the year of the Eli. I don’t like him, I don’t respect the way he carried himself during the NFL draft and I generally don’t like the Manning family – but I love making money on them. The Giants are an improved squad and Colts are on the downswing. I love taking the home team and the points. Go G-men.
Bolts (S.D.) at Jeff George (Oak.) – S.D. -3
 I know that Jeff George was cut, but the fact that they picked him up explains this whole fiasco quickly. The Raiders just don’t have a qb yet. Andrew Walter is their future, but Aaron Brooks is their present and their present just isn’t very good. Couple a crappy qb with the fact that the Chargers are loaded on both sides of the ball and this one gets ugly fast. Look for the Chargers to blow the Raiders out the stadium.
Many of my fans ask me where I wager. I have a gambling problem so I bet on everything from the ponies to how long (in inches) my excrement is. But I have been a proud customer to sportingbetusa.com for some time (
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