Monday, I stayed up late watching my beloved Buffalo Bills outplay the Dallas Cowboys, but they still lost on the last play. Dallas won the game with no time on the clock. As long as the knife is in my back I might as well twist it. My Bills could have pulled the upset of the year. Instead SI has voted it the greatest comeback on Monday Night Football. The knife continues to twist. My Bills scored 24 points. 14 of them came on two interceptions. The other 7 came from a 103-yard kickoff return. The defense deserves the game ball for playing over their heads. The offence played well too, but could not put Dallas away. They only scored 3 points and let the Cowboys hang around, and we all know what happens when you do that. You get bit in the end, and the Bills did. So in honor of what could have been, and the Kentucky Wildcats stunning upset of LSU, here are my picks for this week. Remember I like my beer straight up and I don’t pick with the points. The Icehouse 20ozers make the best six packs.

I don’t pick with the points, but I did notice that there are a few home underdogs this week. First off I will go with the Cowboys at home against the Pats. Everything is telling me to pick New England. Dallas is coming off of a short week. Romo had a bad game. The Bills played them harder then anyone expected, and beat them up a bit. They also exposed some things. I have heard it all. So have the Cowboys. So I just have this feeling that Dallas is going to suck it up and pull an upset at home.

Atlanta is a home underdog to the Giants on Monday Night Football. Atlanta has not been playing all that bad. They almost pulled it out last week. The Falcons know that if have any chance of saving their season they need a win on the National stage. I’m going with them.

The Raiders are coming off a bye. The Chargers are not the same team that they were last season. They have only played one good game this year, and that was the blowout last week against Denver. If Daunte Culpepper wants to keep his starting job this is the game that he has to step it up. Because the Raiders have a number one draft pick sitting on the bench. If Oakland wins then they could be in first place in the AFC west, believe it or not! I just smell an upset here. Look for the Raiders to keep it close. Then win by a field goal.

             It has been awhile since I have blogged. Yes, I know you missed me. For some strange reason I was surprised that I didn’t see more notes in my inbox at JoeSportsmanship@hotmail.com. Must have been a problem with my server. Probably crashed from the thousands of e-mails wondering where I was. No matter, I would not have been able to reply anyway. These last few months have been a bit hectic. I have been working tons of overtime at my job. What little free time I had was spent working on my house. So let me apologize to my hundreds of fans who missed me these last few months. Just like you missed Terrell Owens at the end of last season too.

             It seems like Terrell and I have been going through a bit of a dilemma these last few months too. His happened during training camp. So I was glad to hear that his hamstring problem is better and he is ready for the regular season.  

            How could anyone dare say that he was faking just to get out of practice, or better yet not wanting to play in meaningless pre-seasons games. That’s like saying that there were never any messages in my e-mail account.

             My dilemma is a little bit different than his, but mine usually happens right around the beginning of August too. It lasts just about a month, but this year it came early. It began right around the fourth of July and lasted about two months. That is when I began seeing ads for Direct TV, and the NFL Sunday ticket.

Now before you say dilemma, what dilemma? Just order the damn thing and shut up. Well, hear me out first. Have you ever heard the old saying what you want isn’t always what you can afford. $70.00 a month for four months leading up to Christmas just might not fit into the budget. Not when you have things like mortgages and electric bills to pay too. Direct TV would not do me much good without a house to put the dish on top off, or electricity to make it work.

It’s my own fault. You see I got spoiled at my old house. I didn’t have pay TV there. I bought a good old-fashioned roof antenna at Radio Shack. The biggest one that they had. Where my old house was located I was able to get pro-football games out of Buffalo, Rochester, and Canada. Because of the NFL broadcast rules these markets sometimes had to carry different games depending on if my beloved Buffalo Bills were playing at home or on the road. So some NFL Sundays I was lucky enough to see four or five different games. All for free too. Still, that was never enough and I wanted it all. Every August when I would see those Direct TV ads I would debate back and forth for a month. Because if I ordered this system then I would be able to see all the football games. Then my school tax bill would come just before Labor Day. And that as they say would be the end of that.

Last year at this time I bought my new house. The drawback for this NFL fan is that now where I’m located I can only get channels out of one market. Even with my super-sized antenna I still can’t get all the stations that I use to. The local cable company came to my rescue with a pretty good deal. So even though I didn’t have as many games as I used to on Sunday afternoon it was nice to have Sunday night football. Plus all the different highlight shows on Fox Sports, ESPN, and HBO.

Well, now it is a year later and my dilemma is back. My cable TV deal is set to expires and the price is going to double. I have called the cable company a few times and tried wheeling and dealing with them, but I can’t seem to get a deal as good as the one I had. So it was off to the satilite companies to try and make a deal with them. Besides, they have the one channel that I really want, The NFL Network.

 Direct TV is running their annual football package deal. For $70.00 a month I would get the HBOs. That is one, two, three, classic HBO, Spanish HBO, and I’m guessing HBO eighty-three and a half. Also Showtime, but not just Showtime. Showtime East, West, North, South, Northwest, Southeast, and North Pole. Plus all the Cinamaxs, Starzs, Movie channels, Sundance channels, and Independent film channels. Has there been enough movies made to film all these channels?

The problem is that you have to commit to this for a year and to be honest the only channels I really want is the NFL Network, and the NFL Sunday Ticket. Because like I said before I will then be able to see every pro-football game played every Sunday afternoon. Except those Sundays in which the Buffalo Bills home games don’t sell out 72 hours in advance. Thanks to that wonderful NFL blackout rule. I guess I could watch a movie on one of my 847 movie channels instead.

Then along came The Dish Network with their deal. Their channels are grouped in packages called American’s Top Something. American’s Top 60, American’s Top 60 Plus, American’s Top 120, American’s Top 120 Plus, American’s Top 120 Plus Plus, American’s Top Plus Plus Plus…etc…etc…etc. You get the drift. These packages sound like a radio countdown show. Probably because like Direct TV half of Dish Network channels are satellite music channels. If I wanted a satellite radio system I would buy one. By the way one satellite radio system has all the NFL games, but no MLB baseball. That’s on the other system, but they have no football. You also are given the choice if you want the system with Howard Stern or Opie and Anthony. Thanks a lot.

 Anyway, back to television, Dish Network is a little bit cheaper then Direct TV because they don’t have the NFL Sunday Ticket, but they do carry the NFL Network. You also have to commit for a year. That is unless you order their Super Duper Everything package. I’m guessing they call this one their Kitchen Sink package because this one gives you everything. This deal is so special you don’t even call Dish Network. You have to contact the phone company instead. I’m guessing because it is a top-secret deal and a covert operation. Besides TV you get high speed Internet, and unlimited long distance service. The difference is that you don’t have to commit for one year. You have to commit for two. 

           Confused yet? Boy, I sure was. Then I wondered why am I putting myself though all this? Once the tax bill comes all these deals will be null and void anyway. Well now the #### wrench comes into the picture. My school taxes were not as bad as I thought. I probably can afford any one of these systems. It would be a struggle but I’m guessing I can go without water, heat, and food, for a few months. I needed to lose a few pounds anyway.

          Now, I just have to decide once and for all which system I was going to go with. Surprisingly the decision came very easy. My tax bill came on the one-year anniversary of hurricane Katrina and today is the five-year anniversary of 9-11. There is football on tonight also, but the only way to see tonight’s games is to have to have a pay TV. Suddenly cable, satilite, and being able to watch lots of football games does not seem so important anymore. Ironically, I was reminded of these two events from television.