Last Saturday was a bro-party at the Florence household.  Mom was out on a spa day with friends which left Jack and Dad to their own accord.  As a father, I always enjoy and relish these opportunities, especially since Jack has gotten a little older.  His personality has started to shine through – for better or worse – and I can’t help but see some of myself in him.

As the day was winding down, I asked Jack if he wanted to play one more game.  He went to his playroom and came back with an unexpected surprise – a 755 piece, 3-D Tiger Lego Set.  Jack had received this toy during his 5th birthday party last fall (even though the box clearly states it is designed for those who are 9+) and I immediately feared for my own sanity.However, I had a plan – one that I thought was foolproof.  I would take this poorly chosen present and bury it with a bunch of Jack’s baby/less-used toys.  He’d never take the time to even glance at that bin, let alone sort through all of it to find this tiger set at the bottom.  My assumption was right for nearly six months … until it wasn’t.

You can imagine my shock when after a couple minutes of searching, Jack came back with said Lego set in hand.  “Dad, look what I found!  I’ve been looking for this!  Can we put it together, pleeeeease?”

The universe remains undefeated.

Last week I talked about making mistakes, and I made a couple here.  It wasn’t saying yes despite having less than 90 minutes to Jack’s bedtime.  It was choosing to put together this massive set on the basement carpet and not at a table.  I never thought that some of these Lego pieces would be so small that they could actually get lost in the carpet.  The other mistake was letting Jack open some of the bags.  He made it through the first two with no issue, but the third was giving him some pushback, so he used those newly-developed muscles of his and yanked with all of his might.  The bag gave and the pieces exploded in the sky like a 4th of July Fireworks show.  100+ pieces smaller than my pinky-nail were sent sprawling on our basement carpet.

To Jack’s credit, he immediately went for a flashlight and searched under the furniture and “cleared” them all, one-by-one.  Once we cleaned up to the best of our abilities, I proceeded to Step One (out of 290) and away we went.  The process was slow – made even slower by Jack’s desire to hand me every single piece, but slow motion is better than no motion.

As we reached Step 230, I thought we actually may be able to finish with Jack only being 60 minutes late for bed.  It was bro-day, and as long as we got him to bed before Mom came home, I’d be in the clear.  We had all four legs done, the body and the tail.  All we needed was the tiger’s face and we’d be all done after just a couple of short hours.  But along came Step 276 and the missing piece.  Everything came to a standstill.

We searched and searched but could not locate one small piece that essentially acts as a springboard to the entire face.  Without this piece there would be no eyes and no nose.  Finally, I made the executive decision to stop (my back was entirely grateful for that choice) and to call it a night.  Jack could play with the headless Tiger tomorrow and I’d try to find the piece online.  While we were both disappointed with the result, I tried to take the opportunity to pass along some fatherly advice.

“Everything in it’s own time Jack.  And besides, I bet a lot of kids have a full Tiger, but you might be the only one in the world with a headless Tiger, that’s kind of cool right?”

“Dad, when do you think that piece will get here?”

As any father knows, you win some and you lose the rest.

The lesson – as it applies to these NFL Supercontest picks – is to try and build piece-by-piece throughout the season.  Slow and steady wins this race.  If you go 3-2 every week you’ll eventually be up towards the top.  But that consistency is very hard to come by and you have to be careful not to have a couple negative weeks with missing pieces.

My 3-2 week four mark has me tied for 689th (out of 1598 entries), so another slight drop despite hitting 60% the past three weeks.  Since I’m failing miserably on non-Sunday games this year (2-4), I’m hitting the pause button on Thursday and Monday night games moving forward.

If I had only picked Sunday games this year I would be sitting in 250th place.  But if my aunt had balls, she’d be my uncle.  So much for ifs.

Let’s see if I can continue to build without losing any key pieces during my week five picks.

WEEK FIVE PICKS

Atlanta @ Tampa Bay (-8.5)

Even though there’s been a ton of close games over the year and even though the Falcons have been one of the best ATS teams through four weeks, I’ll ride with the home favorites.

(Insert Tom Brady divorce joke here)

The Pick: TB (-8.5)

Tennessee @ Washington (+2.5) – Los Angeles Chargers @ Cleveland (+2.5)

Home dogs can often be looked at as easy selections, especially in rivalry games.  However, these teams hardly ever play each other, and the road teams have a substantial talent advantage that should be enough to cover the small spreads.

I’ll give the points and take the better squads.

The Picks: TEN (-2.5) – LAC (-2.5)

Philadelphia @ Arizona (+5.5)

The Eagles are the only undefeated team in the NFL, but that won’t last too much longer.  My crystal ball sees it ending here on the road to an under-rated Arizona Cardinal team.

Besides, what’s the chance two different Philadelphia teams defeat a “Cardinal” in the same weekend (Phillies over St. Louis)?  I doubt that’s ever happened and I like having history on my side.

The Pick: ARI (+5.5)

Cincinnati @ Baltimore (-3)

Before the season I was all-in on Baltimore.  I thought they had the best coach, the best QB, and the best defense in the AFC North.  Four weeks in, despite their 2-2 record, I still hold all of those beliefs.  Had Baltimore managed to beat both the Bills and the Dolphins, this spread would be around a touchdown.

I’ll take those completely made-up extra points Vegas wants to give and ride with the team who stole the Browns from Cleveland.

The Pick: BAL (-3)

Peace Be The Journey.