Is anyone out there sickly?

Of course you are. We here in the Designated Writers offices can’t swing a cat without hitting a person who is either coughing up a lung or challenging the Consecutive Sneezes record. (JJ once sneezed 33 times in a row; he’ll have to tell you about it but I think it was in fifth grade. He came close to breaking his own record one morning at the Shreveport Journal, circa 1987. I was there. It was a joy to witness.)

Half of the DW team has been placed on the Physically Unable To Perform list. (That would be JJ.) The other half (me) is soldiering on and almost over a cold that started the day before the Hawaii Bowl in Honolulu (Hawaii Bowl Eve was Dec. 21) or on the plane home. Being in a plane with 215 other people for eight hours is like swimming in a giant petri dish. (“Yes, I’ll have coffee, tea, and bacteria. Thank you!”) People don’t realize how sick teams get during the course of their season, spending all that time together in the weight room and shower and sweating on the field/court. Injuries are more than pulled muscles and wrecked knees.

Anyway, we’ll be back to 100 percent by … well, by at least spring.

Meanwhile, if you are sick as we are, we feel your pain. And ours.

So a quick word to say we whiffed on the Los Angeles Chargers, who apparently never left Los Angeles for their unwatchable game in Foxboro, and we whiffed on the Colts, who never left Indy for their game against the “Chefs,” correctly picked the Eagles (who should have won on the scoreboard although they had no business even being in the game) to cover, and correctly picked the Rams to cover. The Rams offensive line is still knocking the Cowboys into next week.

Sunday is the best sporting day of the year, not counting possibly Masters Sunday. I have the Rams and the Chefs to cover. If I miss, well, I’m already sick, so who cares.

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