You hear that? That’s the sound of the Pantheon opening its doors at the start of a new season. That’s the sound of another season off football starting. And the start of another football season can only mean one thing.
That’s right — the time has come yet again for us to begin Call Your Shot Thursday!
The Rules
If, after all these years, you are somehow still unfamiliar with this tradition, let me assure you that it is actually quite simple to understand. All you need to do is take a look at this weekend’s slate of games for the NFC North and the NFC South (posted in a wonderful list below) and predict the outcome of those games in the comments below. For my own sanity, I have limited it to only the games feature teams from these two divisions. It just makes my job that much easier, and far less time consuming.
Once the predictions have been posted, I will make a note of them, and then compare them to the actual results after the games have been played. The results of these prognostications will then be posted for all to see the following week.
Right about now, you may be wondering, “What’s in it for me?” Well, I’m glad you asked. As it has been the last two years, the first person to correctly predict the final score of a game will receive a $25 gift certificate to NFLShop.com. After that? It’s only bragging rights among the posters here, and really, isn’t that enough?
So if you would like to have your name forever enshrined in the vast expanse that is the internet, simply call your shot in the comment section below.
Usernames
But wait! Before I post the list of games, I have a simple request of all of you potential prognosticators. Please use the same username each week when calling your shots. I don’t want to prevent you from changing your username as often as you like, so all I ask is that you either put the name you would like to use in your Livefyre profile, or to put it in the body of your post. That way, when your username involves the player dujour in week 13 (that Lacy is so hot right now), I will still know who you were at the beginning of week one.
One last fun thing that I will be doing this year will be comparing our results to those of ESPN The Magazine. In their NFL preview issue, the writers at ESPN made score predictions for every game of the season. So, each week, you will get to compare your own predictions to those of “professional” writers. I hope that this exercise turns out to be a fun one.
Now that all that is out of the way, let’s move on to the games! Football is back, baby!
Simply copy and paste this list to the comments, and add your predicted scores after the team names. (Substitute scores for the XX and YY.)
Here is this week’s slate of games:
- Green Bay Packers XX @ Seattle Seahawks YY
- Buffalo Bills XX @ Chicago Bears YY
- New Orleans Saints XX @ Atlanta Falcons YY
- Minnesota Vikings XX @ St. Louis Rams YY
- Carolina Panthers XX @ Tampa Bay Buccaneers YY
- New York Giants XX @ Detroit Lions YY