King Kaufman's Sports Daily
NFL Week 2 picks: You can get hurt just thinking about some of these games.
Read more: Sports, NBA, Basketball, Predictions, Football, NFL, King Kaufman, Sports Daily
Sept. 14, 2007 | The rash of injuries that hit the NFL last week was so bad that Greg Oden's out for the season, and he's a basketball player.
Oden, whom the Portland Trail Blazers made the top pick in this year's NBA draft, had microfracture knee surgery Thursday and will miss what would have been his rookie campaign. Just getting in the spirit of things.
In the NFL, Orlando Pace, Jason Ferguson and Mike Brown were the most prominent players lost for the season in the first set of games, but they were merely the bone chip of the iceberg.
The most serious and frightening injury of the week was the one that left Buffalo tight end Kevin Everett in danger of lifelong paralysis. Doctors were sounding more and more hopeful as the week progressed, while warning that Everett has a long, long way to go before they can express optimism about a full recovery.
But the whole league looked like a M*A*S*H unit by Tuesday, offering once again a reminder that all the preseason predictions in the world don't mean squat once the games start and guys are crashing into each other and hobbling off. Two or three well-placed injuries can turn Labor Day's contender into a struggling mess by the equinox.
We have one more set of games before then, so we'll get some clues about whether the Baltimore Ravens and Chicago Bears, among others, can avoid that fate. Meanwhile the Portland Trail Blazers would like to say to the NFL: Be careful out there.
Here are the Week 2 picks, with winners capitalized and the picks of my junior partners included by popular demand. Daisy, coin-flippinest 2-year-old west of Dr. James Andrews' examination table, flips for her predictions, while Buster makes his calls based on whatever criteria occur to a 4-year-old with an active imagination. They both take all favorites of six points or more.
Sunday early games
Buffalo (0-1) at PITTSBURGH (1-0):
The Bills could pull off an inspired, win-one-for-Kevin upset, and reading too much into the Steelers 34-7 beatdown of the Browns last week might be a little bit like reading too much into an exhibition win, but I'm sticking with my pick to win the AFC North all the way to Week 2. That's loyalty, right there.
Kids: Pittsburgh (9.5-point favorite)
Next page: Banged up QBs in New York, Baltimore. Could Lions really go 2-0? Game of the week: Chargers at Pats