Podcast Ep 5: Bad Football Predictions, Robo-golfers, Aussie Open Tennis, White Quarterbacks

Show Notes for Season Ticket Episode 5

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Review of Cob’s Football Picks for GameWeek 23

The gods weren’t kind to our Premier League specialist again this week. His record falls to 1 from 12 after all three picks let him down again this weekend

Saturday 23rd January

15.00 Watford v Newcastle Utd: Ended with a Watford win where our hero picked a Newcastle win

Sunday 24th

13.30 Everton v Swansea: Our here had a draw here, but despite lots of pressure, Everton couldn’t come back and Swansea won.

16.00 Arsenal v Chelsea: He forecasted an Arsenal win in this one but Chelsea got the job done against a 10-man team after Mertesacker got sent off early.

Spanish Football

We talk a little bit about the poor timing of games in Spain, Valencia fail to win again, Barcelona scrape over the line, and Sevilla grind out a cynical draw against Atletico Madrid.

Tennis

We revisit the match fixing allegations from last week, and wonder if the whole thing is fizzling out for now. In the Aussie Open, Djokovic and Federer are safely through to the quarterfinals, and Djok gets some coaching from the crowd

HSBC and Career Builder Challenge Golf

We mention Rickie Fowler’s win in Abu Dhabi and his muted celebration after holing an incredible bunker shot on the 8th in the final round.

Contrast that with Tiger in his prime (any excuse to post this):

We also talk a little bit about the Career Builder Challenge and the approach of Bryson DeChambeau.

NFL Playoffs and White Quarterbacks

Why are quarterbacks historically white, while running backs and wide receivers typically black in the NFL. It’s probably been analysed to death in America, but not by us!

We propose a few off the cuff theories.

With 1155 players, the black population of the NFL runs away with a 68% majority. In a distant second are the 470 white players who make up 28% of the league. The following three racial categories, Other, Asian/Pacific Islander and Hispanic, make up a combined 4.36% of the league.

http://www.besttickets.com/blog/nfl-player-census-2014/

The Betting Challenge

As mentioned above, all three of Cob’s picks fell short this week.

Rob had the following picks:

Malaga/Draw at 2/1 against Barcelona…1 unit……2-1 win for Barcelona there but only barely

McIlroy to beat Spieth at 10/11 at ladbrokes….2 units…..winner!

Colsaerts top 10 in Abu Dhabi at 11/1…..1 unit……missed cut

In America Zac Johnson for the top 5 at 5/1……1 unit……missed cut

Carl didn’t have any picks this weekend.

That leaves the standings as follows:

Des: 102 

Cob: 91

Earl: 104