Week 1   Igor Tumkin (yes, that Igor Tumkin) had the Vikings plus 4½ on opening night. The final score should have been 14-10 but Minnesota's Ryan Longwell had an extra point blocked and Igor lost his $110 wager by a lousy, stinking ½ point. If that wasn't bad enough, he also had Longwell on his fantasy team. As TIG often says, one man's bad beat is another man's good fortune. Que sera, sera!

 Week 2   Poor me. Poor, poor, pitiful me. TIG had the under in the Saints-49ers MNF affair. Under 44. Niners score late to cut lead to 22-20 but their two-point conversion fails! Alas, upon further review, it succeeds and the score is tied 22-22. In case you're from Kentucky and didn't know, 22 plus 22 equals 44. You know the rest. SMFTB

 Week 3  Jane Prompter had under 44 in the Chargers-Seahawks game. Neither team showing any offense at all and at halftime the score is 10-0. Then Seattle runs a kickoff back for a touchdown. Then Philip Rivers starts throwing for hundreds and hundreds of yards. Seattle's defense, once strong, is now Swiss cheese. Guys are wide open. WIDE OPEN!!! They tie the game at 20-20 with a two-point conversion. That's okay. Someone will kick a field goal and the game will sneak under. But then Leon Washington runs another kickoff back for a touchdown. Poor Jane is steaming. She's still steaming. She might still be steaming a year from now.

 Week 4  Delvin Macaroon was feeling right proud of himself for having the under in the Patriots-Dolphins MNF game. The total was 48½ and the score at halftime was 7-6. That meant they could score 35 points in the second half. Then, just as had happened the week before in the SD-SEA game, the second half kickoff was run back for a touchdown. Then there was a blocked field goal for a touchdown and an interception for a touchdown to put the game over at 55. WARDTW

 Week 5  This was one of the worst beats that a gambler can take. How many poor souls had the Vikings plus 4 against the Jets? Thinks looked bleak for the first 2½ quarters but suddenly Brett Favre got it going. The Vikings rallied, fell back, and then rallied again to pull within 2 points. All the Jets had to do was get a first down and take a knee. Couldn't do it. No problem, all the Vikings have to do is not have a turnover that the Jets run back for a touchdown. And that's exactly what happened. Curse you, you football Gods!!! As miserable as that was for Viking bettors, it was super sweet for Jets backers. Oh well. All the more reason to double up next week. Better yet, triple up! That way a win will give you a profit instead of just breaking even.

 Week 6  Navajo Jack had the Ravens plus 2½ against the Patriots. A lot of books had the game at 3 but no big deal. How often does that half point come back to bite you? Baltimore looks solid as they take a 20-10 lead in the fourth quarter. New England's newly acquired wide receiver Deion Branch then takes it upon himself to ruin everything. The Pats rally to send the game into overtime and then kick a field goal to win 23-20. While many bettors push, Navajo Jack tastes a painful defeat by a lousy ½ point. TILSNC

 Week 7  Beasley Pantishaw is one of the most mild mannered chaps you'll ever find. A bit on the snobby side, Ivy League education, but always on an even keel. If his set of Queens gets beaten by a 7-4 offsuit that sucks out a runner-runner straight, he's got no problem. Hey, that's poker. Anything can happen. But the MNF Vikings-Packers game just about pushed him over the edge. B.P. had the Vikes plus 3. Minnesota had one touchdown taken away by a horrible call that the league later apologized for. The late game-winning touchdown didn't count because Percy Harvin couldn't get his second foot in bounds. Randy Moss just missed catching a touchdown pass on the final play. Brett Favre got picked for six. Favre played at the end with two fractured bones in his ankle. Despite all that, the Packers only covered by one point. One lousy, stinking point. Did I mention Beasley has a drinking problem?

 Week 8  A bettor who wishes to go unnamed had the Bills plus 7 at the Chiefs. Hey, he won! What's so bad about that? Because he also had a large wager on the Bills to get their first win of the season straightup. A nice +280 would add a huge amount to his bankroll. Well, you know what happened. The Bills kicked a game-winning field goal in overtime but KC's coach called timeout a split-second before. That's bush league! Alas, when Rian Lindell tried the kick again, doink, he missed. KC went on to win. Dirty, rotten, no good, yadda, yadda, yadda. Where's that liquor cabinet, Beasley?

 Week 9  The Trooper, one of IG's top handicappers, had the Chiefs -1 at the Raiders. With time running out, KC led 20-17. They just had to stop a last-ditch Oakland drive. Somehow, the Raiders complete a pass to get into field goal range to tie the game. Still, if KC wins in OT or the game ends in a tie, The Trooper gets the money. But we know what happened. Janikowski's field goal wins it for the Raiders. The Trooper's a reasonable fellow. Takes defeats with class. But this one was tough. How many beers will it take to erase that memory?

 Week 10  TIG had no personal knowledge of any bad beats this week but there had to have been thousands of bettors cursing the end of the Jets-Browns overtime game. The Jets were favored by 3 or 3½ points. If you had the Browns and 3½, the only way you lose is if the Jets score a touchdown in overtime. What are the odds? It's almost always decided by a field goal? Right? Right, but only not in this case. Jets 26, Browns 20. KTBGB!

 Week 11  TIG is not so sure this qualifies as a bad beat but Gerald Cupertino has been bitching about this for the past three days so we'll just go with it. He had the Patriots minus 3½ in their big showdown with the Colts. The Pats are up by 17 in the fourth quarter only to see Peyton Manning put together two scoring drives in the blink of an eye to cut the lead to just 3 and cost Gerald the money. Hey, it's Peyton Manning. He's supposed to do that stuff. To me, a bad beat is when something totally unexpected and unfair happens to cost you a winning bet. But try telling that to Mr. Cupertino and his total detest for the Patriots pass defense and inability to pick up some first downs to run out the clock. Que sera, sera!

 Week 12  Fantasy Football was definitely invented by a masochist, someone with a twisted mind who knew exactly how to torture fans. Somewhere in Fantasyland there was an owner who had Frank Gore and was trailing by 5.3 points going into Monday Night's game with Arizona. Gore came out firing and had 52 yards on his first 5 carries. Just one more carry should do it and, and, and, he got hurt. He walked to the locker room. He walked back but never got in the game again. The horror! The pain! The anguish! Man, that must have hurt. Our condolences to anyone who suffered this bad beat. Oh, and condolences to Frank Gore for missing the rest of the season.

 Week 13  Bob the Bridge Jumper had the Ravens -3 against the Steelers on Sunday night. Baltimore is leading 10-6 late in the game. They just need to get a few first downs to run out the clock. Or at worst, punt the ball and make Pittsburgh drive the length of the field in the last few minutes. Then along comes Troy Polamalu. He knocks the ball away from Joe Flacco, the Steelers recover, and the next thing you know they're in the end zone and win the game 13-10. It's not really a bad beat, as Polamalu does that sort of thing all the time. It's just, it's just, it's just...so...frustrating. Fortunately, Bob did not live up to his name. He won several earlier games and was able to end the day with a profit. Rest easy, Bob.

 Week 14  It didn't take long for a bad beat to rear its ugly head in Week 14. Thursday night's Colts-Titans game provided a brutal defeat for several IG staffers. Colts favored by 3, the seconds ticking down, and the Titans score a "meaningless" touchdown on the game's final play. The Titans get the cover. Money bet on Indy is lost. People cussing, jumping up and down, throwing things. If you had just bet on Tennessee, think how happy you would be. But you didn't, so you lost. Get over it.

 Week 15  That was brutal. I had the Giants over the Eagles. The game was in the bag. It was over. O-V-E-R. But no, it all fell apart. 550 clams down the drain. It's so painful I just can't write about it. Goodbye.

 Week 16  TIG has still not recovered from last week's collapse by the Giants.

 Week 17  Well, at least the Giants aren't going to the playoffs. After what they did to the bankrolls of bettors across the nation, they deserve the worst. I know, I know. What's bad for Giants fans was good for Eagles fans. Oh, well. On behalf of the entire staff, TIG wishes everyone the best. See you next season!

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