Almost underdog time again

Hard to believe, but the big daddies of American pro football were back at it last night, smashing and crashing in exhibition games. It reminded me that it's time to start thinking about the charity pro football underdog game that we play here on the blog when the regular season starts.

Will we do it again this year? I should have my head examined, but yes. So long as we have at least 10 players. Last year we had 27 hardy souls.

The regular season doesn't start for nearly another four weeks, and so there's no need to do anything yet. But I wanted to alert prospective players to an executive decision: This year the donation will increase from $20 to $25. So take some bottles and cans back to the store.

We started the game in 2009, and since then inflation has eaten into everyone's buying power, including the charities that benefit from our game. To buy what $20 bought in 2009, you'd need something like $29.13 today. But let's call it good at $25.

Other than that, the basics of the season-long underdog contest will be unchanged. Each week, you pick an underdog that you think can win its game outright, without the benefit of the point spread. If your underdog does indeed win outright, you collect the number of points by which they were expected to lose. The players with the most points at the end of the long season get to steer to entry fee pool to their favorite charities.

It's been a lot of fun over the years, and it's all for good causes, so please think about playing. More on the game next week.

By the way, if you haven't been paying attention, the NFL has changed the way kickoffs are handled, to reduce injuries while still having a meaningful starting play. I haven't quite figured out what the rules are there, and last night, to be honest, I fell asleep with the game on before I could catch up. If anybody has a link to a writeup or video that explains it well, please drop a link in the comments.