I PLEAD GUILTY. "I love your column and Mondays feel incomplete without it. This e-mail is not to single you out, rather an observation about sports pundits in general, but since I read you more than others, I can only quote your examples. You seem to be a having a tough couple of weeks in your predictions; you dedicated quite a lot of column space to Charlie Whitehurst in the NFC wildcard game, and he never got to play a snap. Then there was the raving about James Starks, who averaged a paltry 2.6 yards per carry and wasn't a factor in the GB win over Atlanta. Mark Sanchez was supposed to suck in the cold, yet he outshined Tom Brady. I'd love to have a job where I could be wrong more than half the time and still get nothing but love from my employers and fans.''
-- Zeeshan, Irvine, Calif.
You're right. I try to use what I see and what I know from people in the game I talk to in an effort to read the future, and very often it doesn't work. (Though with Whitehurst in the example you cite, I was simply talking about the game he just played, not projecting what would happen the following week.) The fact that I'm wrong quite often when I try to predict the future is my fault. I try to own up to my mistakes and do the job the best I can. But as you've pointed out, I often look like a dummy. Hazards of the game.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/peter_king/01/18/nfl-all-pro-team/index.html#ixzz1ByMjhBAZ