18to88 Goes Ice Cold

In case you haven’t checked out Cold Hard Football Facts today, I suggest you give it a look.

Why would you want to check out that Colts hating, Dungy smearing, Manning trashing rag, you ask?

Because DZ is chipping in there on Mondays.

Yes, that’s right, despite raging against the dying of the light between their ears over and over again, 18to88.com has been asked to help out with the weekly Monday Morning Hangover column.

Now, before you charge me with rampant whorism, please understand that whores actually get paid for their work.  All I get for my efforts is a reputation and a temporary feeling of inflated self-worth that quickly degrades into a sick shameful pall over my soul.  What does that make me then?  Oh yeah…I guess that’s not really much better is it?

Seriously though, a couple of thoughts on the process:

1.  I’ll be covering the Colts’ game each week for sure.  So whatever else, you can be sure I’ll tell the cold statistical truth of the game, no matter how ugly.  What I write may not be pretty, but it won’t be driven by any secret agenda to bow at the alter of Tom Brady.

2.  It’s actually a much harder process than I realized when I agreed to help.  Yesterday, my submissions were sound (all the stats provided were the ones I came up with), but lacked that certain CHFF flair which serves to entertain and incite the masses.  The versions you see in the piece today were heavily edited by the staff who I assume are angry drunks slamming at their keyboards with crushed beer cans.  It shames me to admit that their versions of what I wrote are vastly superior to what I submitted.  I’d say it gave me a new found respect for what they did, but then the world would implode under the weight of the cosmic irony vortex which would open up above my head and swallow us all whole.

3.  Obviously, I’m watching every play of the Colts’ game, and while I try to track the other games and watch whatever plays I can, ultimately, I rely heavily on the stats.  I learned a lot of cool facts and trends in the process, and it gave me new insight into the teams I wrote about.

4.  Thanks in part to sloppy communication on my part, there were some slight details that came out hazy in the final version today.  Here’s what I was trying to communicate:

• Colts Jags games…5.1 has been the average margin of victory between the two teams in Indianapolis.  Games in Jacksonville have included a few blowouts on both sides.
• The five QB list involving Sanchez isn’t just in a rookie’s first game.  It’s the list of the 5 QBs who threw for 250 yards when starting the season opener their rookie year.  Some other guys not starting the first game might have accomplished the feat.  I was only looking for rookie QBs playing in week one.  The final version could be misunderstood.