The First Sports Bar, Or: How I Learned To Stop Caring And Love Baseball Cards

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I’m 33 years old and I should be retired by now. As an impressionable and extremely lazy 11 year old, The Guy Behind The Case (official title) at the baseball card shop assured me this would be the case.

If everything had gone according to plan, I would have paid this months cable bill with a handful of Donruss ’89’s from that one factory set I still had laying around.

Instead? I’m pecking at keys, with boxes of Bobby Bonilla rookie cards in the darkest corner of my most unfrequented closet.

Washington Redskins 2015 NFL Draft Drinking Game

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During the Dan Snyder regime, the Washington Redskins have not given their fans much to cheer about when it comes to the NFL draft. Spending free agent money like a poet on pay day and trading away picks for pennies on the dollar has resulted in two division titles, and two playoff wins over 16 seasons since Danny Boy bought the team.

Since the 2009 season, the Redskins have 32 wins total, for an average of a little over 5 wins a season. 

The Redskins Obsession: DC Fans Or DC Media; Who’s At Fault?

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Photo: John McDonell/The Washington Post

 

The frigid temperatures and sunless skies of February in DC are accompanied by a barren sports landscape; that is, if you ask a producer of any local sports show on radio or television. Their reasoning is simple; this point on the calendar is one of the furthest dates away from a Redskins game. What else could they possibly talk about?

Fortunately for them, the NFL has successfully rolled out a calendar that keeps the league in the sports news cycle year round, save for a few weeks in the summer when Roger Goddell is vacationing on the Isle of Capri with Peter King, Mike Florio and any other NFL shills with a press pass and a lap top.

NFC & AFC Championship Game Picks

 

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Will we get this rematch in two weeks? Photo: Elaine Thompson – AP

 

Season record: 77-47-5 (62%)

And then there were four…

Two weeks from today, Super Bowl XLIX (yea, I’m still a sucker for the roman numerals the Super Bowl uses) will be played in Glendale. Today we’ll all figure out who will make the trip to Arizona. 

NFL Win Total Review, NFL Playoff Preview & Super Bowl Pick

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Get ready America. Photo: AP

 

All the way back in August, I posted previews for every NFL team with an emphasis on the Las Vegas win totals that were posted for each. You can see all the divisions previews here, except for the AFC West, which I posted on Facebook.

Rather than rehash every single team, I decided to look back at several teams I had a lot of confidence in to see what I got right and what I got wrong. I’ve pulled a quote from each teams August write up that I felt best summed up my thought process for predicting their win total.

6 Tips On How To Pick Football Games

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So I’ve been posting picks on NFL and College Football games on the Fake Sports Bar Facebook page all season, and have had some success (58-41-4, for a success rate of just under 59%) coming out on the right side of sides and totals. A few of the readers of this site have asked if I there is any rhyme or reason to the picks I make, so I decided to audit my picks and see if there were any trends of note. I also thought it might be helpful to pass along a few tips that can apply to NFL/Survivor Pools, office pools or a long weekend in Vegas or (if you’re lucky) Delaware, where you can bet parlays in many bars on the NFL games. If Chris Christie gets his way, sports gambling will come to New Jersey next, and if national trends continue many more states will adopt it as well so that they can tax it like marijuana and casinos.

The Home Stretch: Top 10 NFL Games You Should Watch In December

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The sun is slowly setting on another NFL season. It feels like it was just yesterday we were talking about Johnny Manziel’s prospects with the Browns, the Ray Rice fiasco and the Redskins name change drama. Actually, that was yesterday. But, since late august when I previewed all the divisions and predicted the win totals, there’s been a lot of football played. For those looking to audit my performance on the predictions, the AFC West preview was posted on our Facebook page.

FSB In The Stands: A Train Ride To The Meadowlands

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EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ —

The entire day really couldn’t have gone any better, up to this point. My weekend excursion to New Jersey had included some of the best pizza I’ve ever had, a tailgate menu worthy of it’s own review in the Food section of The New York Times, several different beer fueled BS sessions with friends old and new and an ill gotten yet spirit lifting win for the 49ers. Did the Niners deserve to win? Probably not. But as an East Coast Niners Fan, leaving a road stadium with a W in my back pocket doesn’t get old.

Done Too Soon: The Marcus Lattimore Retirement

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Every day, people retire. On November 5th, 2014, at the age of 23, Marcus Lattimore retired from professional football. 

Retirements from professional football at such a young age more often than not aren’t a headline grabber. Typically, very talented yet undersized or under skilled athletes stop getting phone calls from teams offering a practice squad tryout and a guaranteed contract that might last a few weeks. A life spent playing football ends abruptly; the only life these players have known ends in silence. No more phone calls, no more locker rooms, no more pads cracking into moving targets. 

Redskins & Cowboys MNF Drinking Game

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Colt Mccoy returns to Texas tonight for a showdown with Dallas

 

The Redskins and Cowboys meet tonight for 109th time in NFL history, and 16th time on Monday Night Football. Living inside the Beltway and only a handful of exits away from FedEx Field, I have a front row seat for the yearly circus of over inflated expectations, over priced veteran free agency signings and predictable disappointment that the standard issue Redskins season brings. At 2-6 and facing the 6-1 Cowboys in Jerry World, it may seem like another season is evaporating before the calendar even hits November. Well I’m here to tell you, noble Skins fan, that tonight your beloved team is actually playing with house money.