Today's Guaranteed Picks

Discount Packages

Today's Free Pick

2022 Playbook Football 10 Questions Interviews

1. When did you begin handicapping sports professionally, and how did you get started?
I worked for a sports service called Players Choice from 1988 to 1992. I got a job because a local bookmaker in my city happened to be friends with one of the owners of Players Choice. He mentioned to the owner on a few occasions that I had been giving him and some of his former players winning plays on a consistent basis for quite some time and as they say the rest is history.
 
2. Who has most influenced your handicapping career?
The same local bookmaker that introduced me to the owners of Players Choice. He was a wealth of information teaching me most of what I know about sports wagering and how to handicap games. It was a much different environment in the seventies and eighties. One major difference was the way you acquired information back then compared to the way its done today. There was no internet, so you had to develop sources for information. He knew how to find the right people you needed to talk to and what print resources you needed to follow.

3. What is your primary method approach to handicapping sports?
I utilize my own power ratings and math models. With detailed analysis of team fundamentals and situational analysis on a game-by-game basis.
 
4. What is the biggest score you've made in your sports wagering career?
It wasn't my biggest score financially, although it paid very well. But it was the most unlikely score I have ever made. I hit two four-team parlays and two three-team parlays on a Saturday in college football. That may not seem like a big deal, but I did not use any of the same teams in any of the four individual parlays.

5. What is the worst bad beat you've suffered in your sports wagering career?
The 2013 Iron Bowl. The miracle at Jordan Hare Stadium the infamous "Kick Six". The worst bad beat for me was a money line bet on Alabama versus Auburn in the 78th Iron Bowl. This one was especially painful because we never make money line wagers on favorites that big. The Tide was ranked #1 and the Tigers were ranked 4th in the nation. The game was back and forth early but Auburn fell behind and needed to rally in the fourth quarter to tie the score at 28. After the ensuing kickoff the Tide quickly moved the ball into Auburn territory at the thirty-eight-yard line. There   was no time left on the clock and Saban challenged the time used on the last play. After reviewing the last play the referee put one second back on the clock. Alabama was ready to attempt a fifty-seven-yard field goal to win the game. The kick was just short of the goal post and Auburn's Chris Davis was positioned perfectly to catch the ball. Alabama had their heavy lineup in the game to protect against a blocked kick. Those 300+ pound young men were no match for the speed of Davis as he proceeded to run 109 yards for the winning touchdown. It is still painful to talk about or even think about years later. Still fresh in my mind as I watched that young man run past the opposing players as if they were in slow motion and he was on fast forward. With each brisk stride he made a larger hole in my pocket, and yes, the one with the money in it.   Painful.

6. Who are your favorite NFL and College Football teams, and why?
Because of my profession I have tried not to have favorites. But as a kid from Orlando Florida, I grew up a Miami Dolphins and Florida State Seminoles fan. The why is simple. For Miami its Little, Buoniconti, Kuechenberg, Morris, Warfield, Kick, Csonka and Griese to name just a few. For FSU its Bobby Bowden and a deep dislike of anything to do with the Gators. 

7. Which NFL and College Football teams do you feel will be the biggest surprise in 2022?
In the NFL we like the Miami Dolphins. In college football we like North Carolina State.

8. Which NFL and College Football teams do you feel will be the biggest disappointment in 2022?
In the NFL we feel the Seattle Seahawks will struggle with major questions in personnel. In college football it's the Auburn Tigers who get the call as possibly the biggest disappointment. The groundwork was laid last season with an attempted coup of head coach Bryan Harsin the attempt almost worked. Harsin enters his second season on the plains with questionable support including the locker room.

9. Do you feel the College Football Playoff should expand, and if so to how many teams?
I guess I would add four more teams to the playoffs. It's a bonus for four more programs giving their young men a chance to play against some of the best talent in college football.
 
10.What is your best handicapping advice heading into the 2022 football season?
Diligence when it comes to your power ratings and patience when deciding which teams to play on.

Articles