Super Bowl LIII Predictions and Prop Bets

I'd say it's the most wonderful time of the year... but as I was starting to prep this Naperville was still facing subzero temperatures and wind chills that can only be described as "stupid cold."

But the biggest game in American sports over the course of a calendar year is upon us once again, and that means Adam and I have work to do!

In what has become another annual tradition, we've continued to make football picks into the postseason, and we expand that come Super Bowl Sunday to include some of the prop bets. We touch on a lot of the in-game stuff, of course, but I also like to dabble in some of the specials.

So below, Adam and I will give our Super Bowl picks, and then we will continue on to the prop bets.

The NFL Is Broken

I feel like there's a general rule with how I decide on topics for Confessions of a Sportscaster. There are the somewhat scheduled posts, either for the Death to the BCS Playoffs, Pigskin Pick 'Em contest, or Game Notes from North Central games. Then there's the unscheduled ones, where something happens and I feel compelled to write about it. It happened in September when the NFL couldn't figure out what the hell roughing the passer is. My most cited one is when Lance Easley and Golden Tate stole a win with their bullcrap (and make sure you see through The Ringer's lies; that play was not even remotely close to 50-50).

But Saints fans might be justified in thinking they got screwed over more than Green Bay did that fateful night in 2012. And Chiefs fans? They could serve as a catalyst for another rule change that's arguably just as important.

2019 NFL Championship Weekend Preview

It was another chaotic week at work, so I’m late getting these on record. But Adam just got me his picks, so we’re back to pick the conference championship games!

Formatting edits have been made to this post after the fact for readability. No changes have been made to the predictions.

2019 NFL Divisional Preview

It was a week full of chaos and a relatively heavy workload. And in Adam's case, being in a state of mourning and/or anger at Cody Parkey, so we're scrambling to get our Divisional Round previews up before kickoff!

We had a so-so Wild Card weekend, with Adam taking a narrow lead overall. But now the stakes are higher as the top two teams from each conference will make their 2018 postseason debuts this weekend.

Once again, below Adam and I will each have a little more in-depth analysis of the games this weekend and our final score picks, which will count as picks both straight up and against the spread.

Let's get to it!

2018 NFC West Preview

In October of 2011, I started this blog as a way to market myself and have some fun writing about sports. And today, August 30, 2018, marks a milestone for me: the 1000th Confession of a Sportscaster.

Most of these confessions have been about one of the seven Tournaments of Champions I've run, the most recent of which is awaiting its championship game this weekend. I'm also picking up a seventh year of my Pigskin Pick 'Em contest, renewing my weekly column with Adam Quinn where we pick NFL games.

But the honor of being my 1000th Confession goes to my preview series for the 2018 NFL season, in particular my picks for the NFC West. Let's get to it!

2018 NFL Wild Card Preview

I had a mediocre performance in the finale of the 2017 Pigskin Pick 'Em, which was enough to get me to .500, but not enough to overcome Adam catching fire to win the contest. Kudos to him. And now, my attention turns to the NFL playoffs.

It's weird following a playoff that doesn't have my Packers in them, something that hasn't happened since I was a sophomore in college. I'm old.

But even with them not in, we've still got 11 exciting games on tap, and I want to make sure I get a look at them all. I'll go a little more in depth than we did for the Pigskin Pick 'Em contest, but come the Super Bowl I'm hoping Adam and I will have our usual prop bets thing again.

In the meantime, here's a look at the four games coming up this weekend.

2017 NFC West Preview

It's Wednesday, and we're shifting things over to the West Coast as we continue our preview series for the upcoming NFL season.

Today is day three of eight straight weekdays of going division by division, alternating conferences, until I've hit all 32 NFL teams. So far, we've done both the NFC and AFC North, and no wild card spots are accounted for quite yet. We'll see if that changes today.

Before I get into the previews, I'm making yet another shameless plug for the upcoming season and my continuing Pigskin Pick 'Em series that Adam Quinn will join me for once again. You can come pick against us here.

And now, onto the NFC West.

2016 NFC West Preview

We've finally worked our way west in my series of NFL previews as we're now just two days away from the official start of the NFL season.

After years of rumblings, the NFL has also finally returned to Los Angeles, so I've had to alter one of my labels for this post. Sorry, St. Louis football fans. I hate a lot of the economics of the sport that forced the Rams out. They and the rest of the NFC West get their preview on today.

You still have a couple days to get in on the spread picking action. Adam Quinn returns to defend his crown in our annual ESPN Pigskin Pick 'Em contest, which you can join at the link provided. We weren't very good last year... or the year before... so you have a decent shot at beating us.

Without further ado, let's hit up the NFC West.