[Bread]

Since I’ve been on SBR, I’ve witnessed hundreds of cases of posters blindly following or fading a fellow poster’s plays. I myself had never gone this route. I usually enjoy sailing or sinking in my own ship. Then I got a wild hair up my Bread bottom on Sunday, and blindly played off of someone else’s picks. How did it turn out, you ask? We’ll get to that in a little bit .

There are several reasons to follow someone’s games. Some people pay touts for their plays. Many others will find a well-respected capper on the boards and put their faith in their capping abilities. Up until quite recently, there was a certain internet celebrity with a flair for the absurd giving out his college football plays on SBR. On the surface, he seemed to have a rather large following. I was seriously considering joining his faithful congregation because he seemed a little unhinged to me, and I’m generally drawn to those kinds of people. But now he is gone.

JJ Gold is another poster with a huge following. The head clown of SBR is… ummm…well what’s a nice way of putting this…he’s not very good at picking games. JJ keeps an ongoing spreadsheet that has proven to be pure gold for anyone playing the opposite of his picks. If you didn’t worry about matchups, injuries, spreads or anything else, and faded JJ Gold everyday, you could’ve made enough money to cure the male pattern baldness that he sadly suffers from. You could look at it as a way of giving back .

Fade JJ Gold. Always

There are several other random posters who have gained a reputation for being reliable follows or fades. Also, anytime you see a thread posted containing giant capital letters, and a barrage of various punctuation marks proclaiming any promise of a LOCK, it’s usually a safe bet to play the opposite.

So this brings us to Sunday. The games were kicking off soon, and I had already made my main plays on New Orleans and Tampa Bay, but I was antsy. I felt like I needed more action, and didn’t want to put any thought into it. I had to find someone to fade.

There is one particular poster on the boards, I won’t mention his name to protect the anonymous, but I’ve dubbed him “Chicken Little” because there is rarely a post where the sky is not falling in his world. He has given me the nickname “Popeye” which stems from some pictures he saw of me where my cheeks were inflated Dizzy Gillespie style. I was just storing some excess beer for later in the evening. As you can see, real riveting stuff here. He doesn’t like me (or much else in life, it seems) and I really don’t care for him. Classic internet nerd battle, for sure.

This was when I recalled his previous week’s NFL picks. They were dreadful at best. The proverbial light bulb flashed above my head . I had to fade Chicken Little. Just a couple of clicks later and there were his NFL plays. After tossing aside a few that I also liked, I quickly put in five games and 3-team teaser as well. Then I sat back and looked at what I had done.

Fading someone blindly might be a bad idea when you are suddenly rooting for Washington, Cincinnati and Tampa Bay. Yes I already had a play on the Bucs, but did I really need anything extra on Raheem’s Nightmare? Flash ahead three hours, and my proverbial light bulb had transformed into my proverbial Wile E. Coyote anvil. Oh dear.

It didn’t take long for Chicken Little to show up to let me have it. In an R-rated assault I was reminded that I was an idiot, that I had no clue what I was doing, and that I looked like Popeye. What could I even say? He was right. The sky had surely fallen in my world. An 0-5 start leaves a much bigger lump on your head than a silly acorn. I knew I was in even bigger trouble when I needed the Eagles to complete my 3-team teaser to bring me back close to even, and they were getting beaten BY THE RAIDERS. Momma said there’d be days like this.

So to answer the original question of when is the wrong time to fade blindly – well that’s simple. When your target is an outspoken enemy and he ends up hitting over 80% of his games on the day. Duh.

Will I end up trying this again? Of course I will. The worm always turns, and I have some funds to recoup. But next time I’ll be sure to eats my spinach beforehand .

Fade Chicken Little. Sometimes

[GELATINOUS CUBE]

Someone should just get their wife or their kid or their mom to come on here and randomly pick games all day. Then see how they do. If they are awful after a few days, well all fade them and if they are really good well just tail them.