The 'dog days are coming

Just three weeks from now, 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. (That's a $5 increase over past years; the amount had been unchanged since 2009.) 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 long 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.

Last year we wound up sending $570 to charities. The top score for the 21-week game was 64.5, or roughly 3.1 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 dogpdx24@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, except for the entry fee increase) posted by the end of this week. The first lines will be posted on Labor Day, September 2. The first regular season game is scheduled for that Thursday, the 5th.