Ha! It's Back! RealJohnBoy's A2K NFL "Pick-Um" Game!

when is the first game this week?

Sunday, 1 PM ET. The Thursday night games won't kick back in until the college season ends around early December.

thanks

will start on my reading

I think they'll find that they are in a more competitive environment than they are used to. But I wish them well.

I've been looking at the AFL and NFL North, South, East and West divisions and I can't make head or tail of it. How does it work?

It's all a hash if you ask me. The divisions are mainly for the purpose of
seeding teams for the "postseason" tournament. They function a bit like
groups (except that teams within a division also play teams from outside
their division during the regular season.)

It's historical. That ought to explain it.

Cycloptichorn

Well, "back in the day" they used to have geographical meaning. But then one division added an expansion team, and then another one followed suit, and then another... by the time they all got done expanding the divisions no longer had much to do with geography.

I gave up trying to understand it.

The NFL was the "original" league, run by a bunch of rich white guys. The AFL was an upstart group of other rich white guys who wanted to get in on the action. Eventually they merged. The divisions (N S E W) were set up based not on geography but on the intensity of the rivalry (Baltimore and Pittsburgh or Washington and Dallas, for example). You can see that manifested here in some of the picks people make.
Teams in a division play each other twice per season. Most of their other games are within their conference but they do have the odd game outside their conference so that fans can see a matchup they normally would not see.
George correctly observed that the whole thing is set up to build to the playoffs leading to the Super Bowl.

Johnboy's expert picks for Week #5:
Jacksonville
Baltimore
Kansas City (!)
Green Bay
St Louis (snore)
Chicago
Cincy
Atlanta
Houston (mmm?)
N.O.
Tenn
San Diego
Philly
NY Jets 31-17

WEEK #5 -

Buffalo
Baltimore
Indianapolis
Green Bay
St Louis
Carolina
Cincinnati
Cleveland
Houston
New Orleans
Dallas
San Diego
Philadelphia
Minnesota 28-24

Thank for your replies friends.

If a team plays a team from outside its own division is the game of any significance other than as an event? Are star players rested for such games?

I imagine regional divisions were set up when people travelled on horseback and money was tight.

Why not have four divisions of 8 teams playing 14 games against each other, home and away, plus a knockout Superbowl starting with all 32 playing 5 weekends set aside for it to arrive at 2 finalists. "Friendlies" arranged for those who want them.

no.

all games carry equal weight during the season.

tie breakers start to take it into account.

There are 4 'friendlies' for each team in the pre-season every year.

Cycloptichorn

The NFL don't do "friendlies."

They don't exchange shirts afterwords, either.

The pre-season are the equivalent of friendlies. No hard hitting (unless you are Favre, apparently).

Cycloptichorn

How does a game between teams not in the same division carry the same weight as a game between two teams which are in the same division?

playoff berths are based on win-loss records first.

sorta.

Each division has a representative, so it gets kinda fun sometimes.

Your division schedule is the most important factor, but there are often ties; in which case the overall win-loss breaks the tie. And even then there are ties, and we get Wild Card games the first week of the playoffs!

Cycloptichorn