2022 NFL Pick-the-Loser Game

[Westheim]

(opens his box of donuts, only to find – to much dismay – an eggball in the box)

Is it that time of year again? Must be time for the NFL Season and the universally beloved annual “Pick the Loser” bonanza! …where conventional wisdom is scattered into the wind and the Jets are everybody’s favorite team! It’s all about being taken on the shoulders by a losing team and being carried to victory, err, defeat, err…

Please find the rulebook below. Returning participants will find it unchanged from last season.

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Section I - General Rules

1. Picks must be submitted by posting in this thread at least 30 minutes before the start of the respective game as given on the schedule posted in this thread. The reason for this is that start times in US sports as given by networks and homepages are notoriously not true and will include relentless time for pointless babble in the run-up to the main event, and I can never be bothered to find out when actual kickoff took place. If you miss the deadline for the Thursday game, however, you can still pick f.e. a team that plays on Sunday.

2. Submit your picks as early as you want, but if you change it for whatever reason, make a new post with the new pick since I might have drafted your pick into my Excel file already. Your most recent post in this thread will count.

3. The deadline for changing picks is 30 minutes from the start of the respective game as given on the schedule posted to this thread by your very understanding but ultimately can't-be-arsed host.

4. You must not pick a winning team with any pick. If you pick a team that wins its game, you are out. In the case of a tied game, postponement, and other acts of god, the disaster draft rules in Section IX shall be applied.

5. You must make a pick every week. If you miss to make a pick on any team, you are automatically out.

6. You must not pick the same team multiple times.

7. Please consider that your host's knowledge of football is limited to random trivia like the Heidi Game and he doesn't know that one team from that other team. Please state your picks clearly with either team name or team city, or both. No clever word plays, no pseudo nicknames, no fun slang. Your host does not know who the Sycophants, Slimebags, or Scatterbrains are. If your most recent pick does not state a team city (or state where applicable) or name, and your host can't make sense of it, you are automatically out.

Section IX - Disaster Draft

8. In case of a tied game in which you made your pick, since tying is for losers, you shall advance to the next week.

8a. In case of nature, invasion by Canada, or other acts of god causing suspension or postponement of a game in which you made your pick *before* the announcement of the suspension or postponement, you shall advance to the next week. Your host *will* make an effort to investigate the time of postponement.

9. In the case that all players in any given round lose (all picked a winner), the game will continue with all players in the most recent round still eligible for the next round, except for those that made no valid pick at all.

Section XIV – Various Inconveniences

11. While your host will usually provide the next week’s slate of games in a post on Monday or Tuesday morning (depending on whether there were picks in the Monday night games) unless he's overslept, you obviously can post your picks for the following week early in case you’re going on vacation in central Montana or wherever else there is no Internet. Please state clearly though which week the pick will be for.

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I hope that no clarities whatsoever remain.

Appeals against these rules or any decisions by your host can only be directed at Jeff, the foam finger-wielding cucumber, who is always excited and really dislikes negative Nancies that complain about decisions by your host.

Speaking of host, even he made it into the list of winners engraved on the trophy:

2003: The Professor outlasted 37 others
2004: delgadodawg outlasted 68 others
2005: remangiii outlasted a record number of entrants while edging out hollis in week 16! Yes, Week 16!
2006: melo outlasted MorseMoose in week 16
[stains on trophy have rendered 2007-2014 illegible]
2015: psd edged Cobra in week 8
2016: Bluenoser beat MorseMoose in week 8
2017: Bobbuttons squeezed past pgjocki in week 14
2018: Cobra Mgr defeats Ragnar
2019: monkeyman576 out-losers rudel.dietrich
2020: Westheim stumbles to a stunning defeat of CONN CHRIS
2021: rudel.dietrich returns the favor by tanking below monkeyman576

If that doesn’t prove that anybody’s got a shot…! Thus, do not hesitate - join the other aspiring losers in the pool to-day!

[monkeyman576]

Seattle Seahawks

[Bluenoser]

Might as well make this quick and painless

Rams

[dsvitak]

Seattle Seahawks as well.

[rudel.dietrich]

The dreaded week 1

[Jason]

I want to save the Seahawks for a later week, so I'll go with the Dallas Cowboys to lose to the Bucs.

[damientheomen3]

I'll take the Raiders.

[DamPenguin]

Originally Posted by Bluenoser

Might as well make this quick and painless

Rams

I'm with you Bluenoser... I'll take the Patriots

[TC Dale]

I might wait till after week one. There is a lot of unknowns right now, and the games for preseason didn't help much for anybody I think. Following along on it though.

[BBGiovanni]

Wow, the Jets are fielding a team again this year! Off to a hot start with the QB already having knee surgery! Let's go Gang Grene!!

[jumpSeat]

Great idea @Westheim!

My money's on the Arizona Cardinals?

Don't go team!

[Leo_The_Lip]

Well, Washington is improving! They had a player shot over the weekend, and he didn't die!

Still, too early to pick the first week.

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by TC Dale

I might wait till after week one. There is a lot of unknowns right now, and the games for preseason didn't help much for anybody I think. Following along on it though.

Just to clarify, you must make a pick in Week 1 if you want to lose it all.

[TC Dale]

Originally Posted by Westheim

Just to clarify, you must make a pick in Week 1 if you want to lose it all.

LOL. Ok. Bears to lose.


Niners better save me. :P

[pilight]

NY Giants

[CONN CHRIS]

Ooh, this time of year again!

Texans to lose week 1

[damientheomen3]

Originally Posted by BBGiovanni

Wow, the Jets are fielding a team again this year! Off to a hot start with the QB already having knee surgery! Let's go Gang Grene!!

As a Jets fan I know my best bet is to save the Jets until Zach Wilson comes back. They'll probably be pretty competent offensively with Flacco at the helm, although their difficult early schedule should have them a prime candidate for a while.

[dsvitak]

Fun quote from Baker Mayfield..which he is now denying.

"I want to f*** the Browns up." For the record, Cleveland is the week one opponent for Carolina, on 9/11.

[Ragnar]

I'll take the trash Giants team to lose.

[Leo_The_Lip]

Houston Texans