October 28, 2020
Good Day Grover Pickers,
Ever feel like your choices are limited? Do you feel stress when you have to go with A or B, and there is no C?
It’s not a great feeling. Not in America. We are supposed to have unlimited choices. 45 kinds of Cheetos. Unlimited plastic surgery options for any body part. 331,000,000 Americans running for office and sending you a daily post card. A pot for every chicken.
And here in America we have more American Football by volume than any other nation on earth.
The Declaration of Independence, The Beatles, Santa Claus, Chinese food, and Football are the things that make America the envy of the 78% of the world.
Except this weekend.
This weekend we have just two competitive football games; Three if you count University of Florida versus Covid. (Gators are currently losing that one at halftime.)
College Football
#17 Indiana v Rutgers
A game so big it’s moved from the Big10 Network to FS1! That’s like the big move from Applebees to Chili’s!
Rutger’s is rebuilding under the tender tutelage of former Tennessee football coach Greg Schiano. As all fans know, Rutgers defeated Princeton 6-4 in the first collegiate football game of all time in November 1869. In the 55,144 days since, the Scarlet Knights have won 654 more games (92nd all-time), won exactly ONE conference title, and been to 10 bowl games.
17th is the Hoosier’s highest ranking since 1993. Last week’s win over Penn State was Indiana’s first home win against a Top 10 team in 53 years!
Indiana is BACK!
Indiana has 492 wins since its first game in 1887 (123rd all-time). IU also plays for two of college football’s greatest trophies: The Old Oaken Bucket (IU v Purdue) and The Old Brass Spittoon (IU v Michigan State).
Indiana’s nickname is ‘Hoosiers’, which is a term used to describe people from Indiana. It’s based on a 19th century poem and the United States Federal Government officially calls anyone from Indiana a “Hoosier” which replaced “Indianans”.
That said, the team has no mascot. Through the 1950’s they used a bulldog owned by Theta Chi fraternity.
In the 1960’s the student senate adopted the bison as the athletic symbol since bison were once common roaming through Bloomington.
That only lasted until 1970. In 1979 the school introduced “a red-bearded man in a cowboy hat called “Mr. Hoosier Pride.”
Mr. Hoosier Pride lasted one season. Barely.
I hereby suggest this as the new mascot for the Hoosiers, the real “Mr. Hoosier Pride”.
Professional Football
Ravens v Steelers
It’s like….
Superman v Captain America
Hulk Hogan v Andre the Giant
Bruce Lee v Chuck Norris
Jason Bourne v Treadstone
Brady v Time
Saban v Smiling
Sugar Ray Leonard v Marvelous Marvin Hagler
Ja Rule v 50 Cent
Auburn v Alabama
Maddie Hayes v David Addison
Targaryen v Stark
USA v USSR
Snickers v Kit Kat v Reeces Peanut Butter Cup
As ESPN points out, since 1999 the Steelers and Browns are 23-23 against each other and both teams average 20 points in these games.
Harbaugh and Tomlin will set a record Sunday as the two coaches who have faced each other the most in the regular season in the Super Bowl era.
Watching this will be almost as much fun as watching the Chiefs lay 70 on the Jets this Sunday.
That’s it. Those are the competitive games this week. Still, we pick on and we will make fun of every picker who misses more than 4 picks this week because it ought to be that easy when you have so few choices.
Happy Picking,
The Commissioner
The Grover Picks 