Seth's 50 Centers

Another week of football is in the books and my teams, college and pro, haven’t fared well of late.

Undeterred, I marched on, rooting for good football all around the rest of the weekend. Hurricane-like winds quite literally blowing down the world around us — yes we’re in Central Ohio — while we watched football in the man cave.

Much of the area is still without electricity, so I’m keenly aware just how lucky we are to have power and to have not lost trees or portions of our roof as people even in our cul de sac have.

Rather than focus on Ohio State’s big loss out west — I don’t really want to think about it anymore — I was reflecting on a story I read last week in the Columbus Dispatch.

It was a story about the Frambes brothers, who grew up in Ohio before the Civil War, but one moved west and the other returned here after the war. Each had a hand in either founding or growing USC and Ohio State, respectively.

The idea of the feature was that if these two brothers hadn’t done what they did, the two schools might not exist as we know them, let alone serve as the center of the college football world Saturday night.

I began to think after reading the story about all the things that happen in life that have a domino effect on other things in the world.

I think because I was hearing NFL scores going over the car radio at the time it made me remember how I became a Bengals fan, which doesn’t feel all that great at this point, but I still believe it’s better than the alternative.

I was six or seven years old and my parents joined my grandparents on a trip to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton. I stayed behind with my other grandparents and when my mom returned to pick my sister and me up, she had a gift from my grandpa; a Bengals pennant.

At the time I knew very little about football. My only real sporting interest at that point was baseball and the Cincinnati Reds. We didn’t have cable and lived in a rural part of Southeastern Ohio, so my influences were few, but I didn’t react well to the Bengals pennant, telling my mom I would’ve rather had a Browns one.

She explained that the Bengals were my Grandpa’s team and that’s why they got that one. I mulled that one over, and it wasn’t long before I favored the black and orange.

It was the next season that the Bengals started 5-0 en route to a near miss at a Super Bowl championship and I was hooked. That pennant was proudly hung on the wall of my bedroom, and still hangs in the man cave!

Regardless of what happens, or has happened in the past, I’m still a fan of the Cincinnati Bengals. I won’t waver in that.

I’m still here, now lets see an actual offense on the field next weekend!

NFL Picks

tom s got the job done in a tie with Kara, as he picked 38 points to her 24 — shenanigans have been called, however, because those two point total guesses added together weren’t even close to the actual total of 78!

We welcome Nick B. and JMB to the picks, and bid adieu (for now) to Randy, who failed to turn in his picks.

tom s 11-4 (he’ll get an extra point on his final total for winning the week)
Kara 11-4
Adman 10-5
JMB 10-5
Nick B. 10-5
Seth 9-6
Steve-o 9-6
mary the nurse 9-6
Howard 9-6
The CPA 8-7
Jessica 8-7
Brian 8-7
Big Game 8-7
bermuda funk 7-8
Crazed Wolverine 7-8
nora peanut 6-9
Jack 10 4-11
gatorbuckeye 4-11

Overall standings

Kara 22-9
tom s 21-10 (plus 1)
Adman 21-10
Big Game 20-11 (plus 1)
Seth 19-12
Brian 19-12
Howard 18-13
The CPA 18-13
mary the nurse 16-15
nora peanut 17-14
Steve-o 17-14
Jessica 17-14
Crazed Wolverine 14-17
Jack 10 14-17
bermuda funk 14-17
gatorbuckeye 13-18
JMB 10-5
Nick B. 10-5
Randy 9-7

NFL Week Three

Kansas City (0-2) at Atlanta (1-1)
Oakland (1-1) at Buffalo (2-0)
Tampa Bay (1-1) at Chicago (1-1)
Carolina (2-0) at Minnesota (0-2)
Miami (0-2) at New England (2-0)
Cincinnati (0-2) at NY Giants (2-0)
Houston (0-1) at Tennessee (2-0)
Arizona (2-0) at Washington (1-1)
Detroit (0-2) at San Francisco (1-1)
St. Louis (0-2) at Seattle (0-2)
New Orleans (1-1) at Denver (2-0)
Pittsburgh (2-0) at Philadelphia (1-1)
Jacksonville (0-2) at Indianapolis (1-1)
Cleveland (0-2) at Baltimore (1-0)
Dallas (2-0) at Green Bay (2-0)
NY Jets (1-1) at San Diego (0-2) Pts.______

Make your picks by using the “Comments” section under the headline.