The 'dog days are coming soon

Just three weeks from tonight, the big daddies of American pro football will be knocking each other around to start another regular season. Which for this blog means it's time to yank the old pull cord on the underdog game again.

Here's how it goes: Each player donates $25 to a charity pool at the start of the season. Each week during the season, each player chooses one underdog team to win its NFL game outright (without the benefit of the point spread). If the player's underdog wins, the player earns the number of points that the underdog was predicted to lose by. At the end of the season, the players with the most points get to say which eligible charities get the money in the pool. The higher in the standings, the more dough the top players get to direct.

The last time we played, two years ago, we wound up sending $625 to charities. The top score for the 21-week game was 44.5, or a mere 2.1 points a week. Piece o' cake, eh?

If you think you might be interested, send a no-obligation email message to that effect now to dogpdx26@gmail.com. This will not only confirm that there's interest in the game again, but also test out the year's new email address. I'll have the official rules (pretty much the same as ever) posted this weekend. The first lines will be posted on September 1. The first regular season game is scheduled for Wednesday the 9th.

'Dogs rule!