Friday is normally the day that sports writers print/post their picks for the weekends' game and even though the Super Bowl is the only game in the world this weekend, they're still posting their picks today. I've got to say I'm pretty surprised by the love/respect that the Arizona Cardinals are getting. Maybe they're just trying to convince fans that it'll be good game or maybe they've all become ROTB readers and we've convinced them that these Cardinals are for real (I'd like to believe the latter). Whatever the reason, I hope that the players don't pick up a paper and they just keep the "us against the world" mentality.
- Sports Illustrated has ten guys picking the game and six of them are picking the Cardinals to win. Only one guy has the margin of victory (either way) by more than 7, and he picked the Cardinals to win.
- ESPN has 16 guys who picked the game and four of them pick the Cardinals, but only three guys have the Steelers winning by more than one score.
- Scouts Inc (same link but further down the page) has seven picks and two of them pick the Cardinals and the widest margin of victory is seven.
- The last of the ESPN picks that includes analysts and editors includes 12 picks and half of them are going with the Cardinals. The best description I've read so far was in these picks by someone named Sheldon Spencer who says the Cardinals will win 30-27 and "Neil Rackers wins the game with a 50-yard field goal in the final minute." (If it comes down to a long, long Rackers kick, I'll have a heart attack, no seriously.)
- Yahoo Sports has four picks with one guy backing the Cardinals, but they don't provide scores.
- USA Today has eight picks and they're split right down the middle at 4-4. Two guys have the Steelers winning by double digits and one guy has the Cardinals winning by 10.
By my grade school math that's roughly 43.4% of the picks going the Cardinals way. Not that it means a single thing to the game itself, but it's more than I would have expected. So what's the point of all this you might ask? Well it's your turn to put your prediction on paper (so to speak). Leave your prediction about who will win and score.
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Also for anyone looking for a great Larry Fitzgerald piece of memoribilia regarding the Super Bowl, check out his poster from EAS. You can order the poster from EAS for just $10 and all of the net proceeds go to his First Down Fund. His fund actively promotes the health and education of children of their families.