Week Two is Through…but Vanilla Ice, Mullets and Guinness (not the beer, the record book) are Alive and Well!

So that’s two weeks in the books. Are you glued to the set all day Sunday yet? Have you declared Monday your best day of the week as you prepare for Monday Night Football? And are you as thrilled as I am that Thursday is now a bonafide game night? Then this week’s Huddle-Butt is for you.

Let’s learn a few football terms, work some odds better than Pete Rose at the races, and try to understand why injuries in the NFL are as common as haters on Twitter.

First off, there are eight teams who have started the season 0-2 – The New York Giants, Washington Redskins, Minnesota Vikings, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Cleveland Browns, Jacksonville Jaguars and Pittsburgh Steelers. If you play the odds, historically there’s only about an 11% chance that these teams will make the playoffs, so a slow start is not a good place to be. Who do you think has the best chance of breaking out of this group? To me, it’s the Giants (weak division) or Pittsburgh (strong division, but Troy Polomalu’s flowing hair provides magic ju ju).

On the flip side, there are eight 2-0 teams, and they have about a 66% to be in the playoffs. From my vantage point, it’s looking like the Broncos and Seahawks are the front runners from the AFC and NFC, respectively. However, there are still 14 juicy weeks of football to go and lots can change – injuries, early retirements, arrests. Crazy baby mamas.

Under the category of “I is smarter than an offensive lineman”, here’s the answers to some burning questions this week –

What is a 12th Man?
Last week’s Sunday night game was supposed to be a barn burner in Seattle, with Seahawks hosting divisional rivals 49ers. However, Seattle made it a rout with the help of the 12th Man, a common term referring to the way the fans can help their team of 11 men gain an advantage against their rivals. Often the noise is so deafening that the team’s offense can’t hear the plays being called or may even get a “false start” penalty for starting the play too early when they can’t hear the quarterback’s count. Seattle fans actually set a Guinness Book record for loudest crowd noise!

If I only watch one game this week, what should it be?
That’s an easy one…never watch just one game! But to be honest, this weekend’s match ups seem awfully lopsided. I’d go for the Sunday night Bears at Steelers game to see if the Steelers can shake their slump, or if the Bears are really as good as they seem. When your quarterback is married to a former reality vixen, it’s definitely a distraction.

Most importantly, how did your fantasy team do this week?
Well, thanks for asking. Luck Beat A Brady Tonight (yes, that’s really our name) won our first game of the season on the strength of Brandon Marshall and the arm of Matthew Stafford. Well done, boys…except for you, Jason Witten! You will be benched again.

In the “Somebody thought it was a great idea” category, check out these pics of the Houston Texans cheerleaders dancing to Vanilla Ice. And now I hear mullets are making a comeback. Yeesh…is it any wonder I try to find solace in the hard knocks, manly game of football?

This week I travel to San Francisco with my littlest fan to see the battle of Colts vs. 49ers. A rite of passage for any child of mine! Enjoy the games, girls!