Barstool Sports: Capping the 'grudge' factor

 “It’s not enough to succeed.  Others must fail.”
-David Merrick

“What is best in life? To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of their women.”
-Conan the Barbarian

I’m no sports handicapper. I can’t tell you who’s going to cover this week. I’ve got no information about how the injury report will move the lines or what the weather in Philly will affect the over/under. 

To me, all that stuff, while useful, is minutiae. I’m more of what you’d call a ‘big picture’ guy.

I’m that guy who can spot trends. Like someone staring at a magic eye picture, I’m the one who can step back and see the patterns others can’t. I’m the guy in the brokerage house who sees where the market is headed even if he can’t tell you what stock to buy. 

I’m the sociologist who sees the major societal changes but doesn’t notice his teenagers have been into his liquor cabinet.

And through my powers of deduction I’ve spotted on trend what’s going to affect every game in the NFL this year - a Unified Field Theory of the 2009 season that you need to take into account on every wager you make, big and small.

This year, more than any other in league history, is all about personal vendettas. This is the Year of the Grudge.

Everybody is pissed off at somebody. There’s never been anything like it.

I mean, there’s always some sort of bad blood in the league, it’s the nature of the beast and part of what makes the NFL the best take in sports, even in the offseason. But no year has ever been this full of personal gripes, revenge, schadenfreude, grudges, blood feuds, discord, hostility and conflict. 

It’s like Shakespeare, a Telemundo soap opera and the holidays with my wife’s family all rolled into one. 

And this year more than any other, you’ve got to take the Grudge Factor into account when you make your wagers.

Forget about your quaint notions about being championship-driven or the road to the Super Bowl. That’s so 2008.

This year is all about bathing in the blood of those who’ve done you wrong and sucking the marrow from their bones.

We’ve just passed the quarter pole of the NFL season and so far there’s been no greater blood feud than the one between Brett Favre and the Packers.  It’s been well chronicled how Favre felt slighted two seasons ago because the Packers took him at his word that his fifth retirement was for real (pinkie swear) and turned to Aaron Rogers, a grudge that Mr. Relaxed Fit Wranglers carries to this day. 

To Green Bay, the game last Monday Night was a key divisional matchup and a chance to prove they’re a better team for having moved on from Favre. For Aaron Rogers, it was an opportunity to show they were right.

To the Mississippi gunslinger it was nothing less than a sacred quest. His chance to smite those who dared blaspheme a football god. The Packers - and however many points they were being given - never stood a chance against his wrath. 

If you bet the Green Bay-Minnesota matchup like a football game and not a holy crusade then you haven’t been paying attention in the Year of the Grudge. This year is being fueled by more personal hatred, revenge schemes, secret alliances and vendetta subplots than entire seasons of Big Brother or WWE Raw. 

Jay Cutler is on a mission to prove Josh McDaniels was wrong about him. McDaniels is fighting an insurgency led by Brandon Marshall who wants a new contract.

Braylon Edwards wants a new contract and resents being overshadowed by Lebron James in Cleveland so he punched out one of Lebron’s entourage and got himself traded to the Jets, who tampered with Michael Crabtree, who wanted his first contract. 
Meanwhile Edwards’ old team is in revolt against Eric Mangini over his draconian rules that make Capt. Bligh look like Capt. Steubing.

Terrell Owens is starting to undermine his fourth straight quarterback while his old QB is trying to prove he never needed TO and he and Jason Witten are just friends. 

And on and on it goes.

So you can keep looking at your injury reports, your home/away records and your weather reports all you want. But if you’re not following the Year of the Grudge, you’re missing the big picture.