OK, it's time for this years football picking contest. We had a great group of 8 to 10 people last year, with Chris the eventual champion.

It's very simple to play. I'm going to simplify it this year. Each week I will have 5 games to pick. One game I will have as a 2 point game. The other games are worth one point each. I will have other little twists I'm sure as year goes on, but I'm not going to record games you missed as a loss. You just get positive points. It will be easier to give standings each week. I will take off your two worst weeks at the end of the year, so if you join late of forget a week, you can get away with it. I also have on my previous blog a chance to pick the 12 playoff teams and Super Bowl winner for bonus points at the end of the year. You need that done by Thursday night if you plan to pick either Washington or Giants for playoffs, but this weeks games are due sunday since I'm not going to include Thursday game to give people a few extra days.

(Don't forget to go back another blog and give me your Mt. Rushmore of NFL quarterbacks!)

This weeks games:

Dallas at Cleveland.   Cleveland was last years darling team, were they a fluke?

Seattle at Buffalo.  What's a contest without my Bills? Really is a tough game to pick.

New York Jets at Miami.     3 weeks ago this looked like a clunker, but with Farve on the Jets and Pennington set to get revenge on his former team, it's an interesting matchup.

Jacksonville at Tennessee.  Big things are expected of the Jags this year..can they go on the road and win in a tough place?

2 point game...Minnesota at Green Bay.  Two classic rivals square off in the Pack's first game without Farve.

I'll  either have my picks in the comment box with the rest of you, or in this spot, before Sunday. Picks are due by kickoff Sunday. Don't forget, if you want to play in a contest where you pick every game, see my last blog for details. That will seperate the contenders from the pretenders for football picking bragging rights.

Let's have a fun year, and let the games begin!

OK, this is the blog to record your playoff teams. Below is my peep Dougie from the U.K. picks. He has it really nicely detailed. You can just list the 12 teams if you would like. Every team that makes the playoffs will be worth a bonus point to the overall score at the end of the year. You can pick a Super Bowl winner for a 3 point bonus. (I have to go tell Doug to do that!) I still haven't made my picks yet..you will see them listed in this spot before Thursday night. Picks in the AFC can wait until sunday, but if you pick Washington or Giants for playoffs, they must be made before Thursday's game to count.

DOUG'S PICKS:

AFC EAST New England
AFC NORTH Pittsburgh
AFC SOUTH Indianapolis
AFC WEST Denver
Wild Cards Jacksonville & Kansas City

NFC EAST Dallas
NFC NORTH Minnesota
NFC SOUTH Carolina
NFC WEST Seattle
Wild Cards NY Giants & Arizona

Make your 12 picks in the comment box.

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Below is how to get into the national picking contest. We can see how we do against each other picking every game of the year. You can win prizes and talk trash to each other..good fun!

One of the features of ChicagoSports.com's free pro football
contest is that you can compare your scores with that of
your friends on a private page.

To join your friends' group, first sign up for the contest at
http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.profootball.upickem.net,
which enables you to win weekly prizes or the grand prize. Then, after you log in,
click on the "My Groups"
tab, and then click on "Join a
Private Group," and submit the following:

Your Group Name: Jimbo's group
Your Password: jimkelly

If you have a question just ask..Jimbo

Last week was great..I got a ton of feedback on your Christian artist Mt. Rushmore. If you haven't done that go back and check it out!

This week's category is in honor of the NFL season starting next week, as well as my NFL picking contest! This week's question is:

Who is on your Mt. Rushmore of NFL quarterbacks?

You can pick in who you think are the best 4 QB's of all time, or pick your personal faves, or a combination of both.

Who is on my Mt. Rushmore? These 4 guys are all hall of famers..have been in a combined 16 super bowls. and even though they only have a 6-10 record, it takes greatness to make that many.

1) Joe Montana. I think he is the greatest QB in history, 4 for 4 in Super Bowls. Cool as a cucumber.

2) John Elway. He took a Denver Bronco team with not much talent to 3 super bowls early in his career, all on his shoulders. The guy didn't put up the greatest stats, but he could do it all. Later when given a great running back, he finally won 2 super bowls and retired on top.

now for my 2 personal faves..

3) Jim Kelly.  First ballot hall of famer. The Bills were basically a lousy team for 15 years before he joined, and a lousy team since he left. While in Buffalo, they made it to 4 straight Super Bowls, and were in the playoffs nearly every year. Though they lost them all, that may never be done again. He always played great in the AFC playoffs to get there. Dan Marino gets more props but Kelly owned him head to head. He's been a great asset to the western New York community, and has raised a ton of money for the disease that claimed his young son Hunter.

4) Fran Tarkenton. My team growing up was the Vikes and Fran was the reason why. He scrambled around in the snow like a kid in the park, making something out of nothing. He held the touchdown record for years until Marino broke it. Though he stunk out the Super Bowls like Kelly, he got there 3 times.

So many guys could have been on this list...Johnny Unitas...Joe Namath..(first really cool QB!)...Troy Aikman...Terry Bradshaw...Tom Brady..Peyton Manning...Brett Farve...Dan Marino...Roger Staubach...Otto Graham.

So now give me your Rushmore of QB's! If you are going to play in my picking contest my blog will appear for that Tuesday. I'll be asking for your 12 playoff teams so start thinking of that!

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 A few days after I wrote this this little bit came in our newspaper..I found it interesting on this above topic...Sean Lahman of Rochester is the author of an extremely interesting new book, The Pro Football Historical Abstract.

Among other things, Lahman ranks the all-time players by position.

Some of his opinions are sure to spark debate:

The top 10 quarterbacks (in order) are Joe Montana, Dan Marino, John Elway, Brett Favre, Johnny Unitas, Otto Graham, Steve Young, Peyton Manning, Fran Tarkenton and Roger Staubach. Others include Tom Brady (18th), Jim Kelly (21st), Terry Bradshaw (25th), Donovan McNabb (26th), Troy Aikman (27th), Warren Moon (29th), Drew Bledsoe (46th), Joe Namath (47th), Jack Kemp (52nd) and Doug Flutie (80th).

(he also gives a list for other positions..I will have those when I ask for those positions.) Steve Young is the guy I totally forgot about!

Lately I have had a drought on blog topics that would interest everyone. Now some of that issue will be solved when I start up the football picking contest for the NFL.

But now I have a great idea for everyone. The sports guy I listen to in the morning is always asking "Who would be on your Mt. Rushmore of football coaches...or quarterbacks..etc." Yesterday he asked if anyone has actually ever been to Mt. Rushmore! I couldn't call him since I was delivering mail..but I got home and e-mailed him that I had been and sent him some pictures. He loved them and posted them on the radio website!

So I thought it would be neat to do a weekly topic of "WHO WOULD BE ON YOUR MT. RUSHMORE?" I will have all kinds of topics in the coming weeks..from your favorite guitar players, TV actors, football players..or any topic you want be to bring up!

This week's topic is..Who would be on your Mt. Rushmore of Christian music artists? Some of you who have been following Christian music since the 80's will ahve a whole different perspective then some of you who just started following it. I think it will be interesting to see evryone's opinions.

I've been trying to think of my top 4 artists all day and came up with these 4:

Michael W. Smith...Bob Hartman..Michael Sweet...Kerry Livgren.

Why and who are these guys?. I picked guys who made the most impact on me going from secular music into Christian music..which led to me rededicating my life to Christ when I was a young man. Kansas was my favorite group in high school, and when Kerry Livgren, the guitar player and main lyric writer found Christ..he basically made Kansas a Christian group for 3 albums in the early 80's. He then started his own group called A.D. which was great and had several solo albums right into the 90's.

Michael W. Smith needs no introduction..he was the first really cool solo artist I heard of and 25 years later he still is one of my faves!

Petra was the first Christian band that had any teeth to them..they were my favorite group in the 80's and loved them right until they finished a few years ago. They had two great lead singers but Bob Hartman was the guitar player, lyric writer and brains behing Petra.

Michael Sweet founded the first Christian metal band, Stryper..who were cool in secular circles but Christian critics said their music was of the devil. They stayed faithful throughout the 80's and led the way to every hard rockin Christian group of today. Michael is still doing projects for Stryper and ironically is singing on tour for Boston right now.

Here is my Rushmore shot of all 4 of them..I took all of them except Kerry Livgren, which was taken by my friend George Parker.

(Kerry Livgren photo copyright George Parker)

I asked my wife who who Rushmore four would be and it was:..Michael W. Smith...Mylon LeFevre..Russ Taff..Bill Gaither. (She's not a rocker!)

Who almost made my list?..TobyMac..Amy Grant..Phil Keaggy..Steven Curtis Chapman..Jon Foreman..Matt Thiessen..Mac Powell..to name a few worthy choices. I was also giving strong thought to Bono. Thay might make other list in the future if I narrow things down more.

So please tell me your "Rushmore group!" if I keep getting feedback I will keep doing these. God Bless..Jimbo

I haven't found myself following the summer Olympics in decades. I like the winter ones because you are cooped up in the house and the figure skating is always must see. But this year Olympics ROCK! From the opening ceremonies right through Michael Phelps quest to get 8 gold medals, it's been top notch. The relay race the men's team won to edge out the French after they talked trash was the sporting event of the year. The pure joy and excitement the guys showed below was so sports at it's best!

(Later note..I had to remove Michael Phelps photo because myccm doesn't want shirtless men's pictures..sorry!)

Then to top it off, Phelps pulls off another miracle last night and wins by .001 of a second. What would have happened in the days before electronics? To the naked eye it sure looked like he came in second!

The gymnastics had not been without controversy..with questions of the Chinese girls not being 16 and old enough to compete. But the competition has overruled that..with the epic dynamic duo of Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson bringing home glory for the country. Who should we have pulled for? Shawn is a great story of a young girl being entered in her gym in Iowa and being brought along by a Chinese coach to greatness. Nastia had gymnastics in her bloodlines, as her dad was a gold medal winner for Russia then came to realize the American dream when he moved here to open a gym. Both have girl next door good looks..a dream for advertising companies. Either way we couldn't lose!  Nastia had the better night in all-around,.but tonight they go for individual exercises so maybe more gold is in the horizon.

Shawn showed great class in being happy for her friend. When I saw the American trials I thought they may be cool to each other but it's obvious that wasn't the case.

Here is one more picture of the beauty and grace of Nastia:

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In other news..I got the new Jonas brothers CD the other day. I can see why they are so popular..the hooks and vocals are great. I think I can take them best in doses of 5 songs at a time. The lyrics of broken relationships can get a little old for me, but for teens I realize it's real life stuff, and you won't find anything too offensive.

So far this year Third Day is the best CD by far. Some of the other top notch CD's I have been playing on my MP3 are Mike Farris, TobyMac's live CD, David Phelps from a few years ago..KJ-52, Natalie Grant, P.O.D's and Alter Bridge's new ones. Relient K's is pretty cool too.

My daughter just got back from girls summer camp and had a great time. I see a little bit of a positive change in her attitude, praying God is working on her heart!

Well, it's back to the Olympics. We are getting it live in New York and I have to stay up past midnight for the gymnastics, but I hear it's the same thing on the west coast..don't you guys get it live?

Football contest starts in 2 weeks, so if you like the NFL let me know if you are in this year!

God bless everyone!..Jim

Hey guys..lot of you were praying that my route would go well when they added to it..here is the update.

They eliminated two routes last month so most carriers got an additional 20 minutes added on to their routes to absorb it. In order to do this they usually have to take some of your old streets away and add even more new ones. I made out good as they took away my least favorite spots like the high school and UPS store. Now most of my route is close together. They did add 15 minutes of street time but I'm supposed to leave 22 minutes earlier, so I made out OK. My new streets have a lot of great customers that  I met already.

Now for the funny story..our postal trucks are over 20 years old and they have been talking about replacing them with slick vans for years. Well, the first batch of over 100 were ordered for the city and arrived yesterday:

What's not to love..these are the same Grand caravans that my family rented on our trip to Rushmore! These babes have CD player..air conditioning..great sight lines..it's too good to be true..and it IS! The idiots forgot to put the drivers wheel on the right side so we can make curbside deliveries. So they can only be used in inner city areas that have no mounted deliveries. Now you know why the term postal intelligence is an oxymoron!

We also have to start at 8 instead of 7 so all our customers are getting mad at us for arriving so late...if your mailman comes at dinnertime now you know why!