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Gary “The Gut” Goombah – Week 22, 2025/’26

Gary “The Gut” Goombah – Week 22, 2025/’26

As the ’25 football season winds down, it’s time to give thanks to all our readers. We know many of you have likely lost money if you followed Gary’s selections this season. However, we hope you found some good gambling tips anyway, and we certainly hope you enjoyed the ride. Hopefully you even chuckled a time or two.

Today is Championship Sunday, traditionally one of our favorite days of the year. What’s great about Championship Sunday is we have two games featuring the four best teams in the NFL. They are home games that often have weather that needs to be overcome. We have home fans in their home stadiums. We have the two best networks for broadcasting these games, CBS and Fox, with probably the two best broadcast teams. Jim Nantz and Tony Romo will be on CBS covering the AFC Championship, while Kevin Burkhardt and Tom Brady work for Fox and will cover the NFC Championship.

Let’s recap last week and get on with our predictions for this afternoon’s matchups.

Week 21 Recap

NFL Playoffs Selections 

Buffalo Bills (+1.5) over Denver Broncos (Team Rankings #4 over #10) – Yet another heartbreaker for Buffalo in the AFC Playoffs. Seemingly every year, the Bills lose in dramatic fashion, usually with controversial officiating. This year was no different. However, this year’s loss has caused fallout. Long time Head Coach Sean McDermott was fired after Buffalo bowed out to Denver by a score of 33-30 in Overtime. Don’t get me started on all the details. As a Buffalo fan, it sucked more than a Dyson. Result: Lost

Seattle Seahawks (-7) over San Francisco 49ers (#1 over #8) – Seattle dominated the Niners by a score of 41-6, as predicted by “The Gut”. Result: WON!

Houston Texans (+3) over New England Patriots (#3 over #6) – This AFC Divisional game was wild. Turnovers galore! The ball was slippery, especially for Texans QB C.J. Stroud, who threw four picks. In total, Houston turned it over five teams, which was only two more times than New England gave the ball away. That’s eight turnovers! Final Score: New England 28-16. Result: Lost

Los Angeles Rams (-3.5) over Chicago Bears (#2 over #16) – As a Bears fan, I am split on the outcome of this game, and this entire season. I’m very proud of this team! Before the season, people thought I was nuts to predict the Bears making the Playoffs with a 10-7 record, coming after 2024’s disastrous 5-12 campaign. Not only did the Bears make the Playoffs, they finished 11-6, outperforming Dutch Lion’s gushing prediction. Plus, Chicago beat Green Bay in the NFC Wild Card Playoffs with the magical finish by QB Caleb Williams, upending the Packers and ending their season. Then, when the Bears once again had a similarly outrageous comeback, led by Williams under the direction of wunderkind HC Ben Johnson, to lead to overtime, it got all of us Bears fans in a hysterical frenzy. But then….. the sudden interception and subsequent loss to the Rams in overtime. Awwww man. Tough loss…. but outstanding season! I bet this was kind of how the Blue Jays fans felt just a few months ago after losing the World Series to the Dodgers in Game 7. You’re happy, sad, ecstatic, yet miserable, all at once. It’s hard to put into words. As for Gary, he could care less about all that. He just wants to win cash, and the Los Angeles NFC football team didn’t win by enough points. As three and a half point favorites, the Rams won by only three points. Thus… the hook got “The Gut”. Wow! That’s a lot of hooks costing us money this year. Result: Lost

CFP National Championship

LOCK OF THE WEEK: Indiana Hoosiers (-8.5) over Miami Hurricanes – Both Gary and I were surprised that the point spread was only 8.5 points. As it turned out, the Hoosiers played one of, if not the, worst games of their season. Uncharacteristic penalties, drops, mistakes, etc. Nonetheless, Indiana held off the home field Hurricanes and won the National Championship with a six point victory! How about this kid Fernando Mendoza! What a great young man. He deserves all the accolades and all the awards. He’s one of our favorite players ever. Final Score: Indiana 27-21. Not an ATS victory for Indiana, but a win. Result: Lost

Week 21 Results: 1-4 (20%) Overall; (0-1 NCAA, including 0-1 on “Lock of the Week”; 1-3 NFL)
Season Results: 131-149-3 (46.8%) Overall; (67-80-2 NCAA, 64-69-1 NFL, with 2-1-1 on “Lock of the Week”)

Gary “The Gut” Goombah’s Week 22 Selections

NFL Playoffs Selections – Championship Sunday

AFC Championship: New England Patriots (-3.5) at Denver Broncos

With only a few plays left in their dramatic OT victory over the Buffalo Bills, Broncos QB Bo Nix broke his ankle. At the time, nobody seemed to notice, at least not the broadcast crew. So the Broncos ended up winning a couple plays later after a pass interference, a kneel down, and a field goal. Amid all the exuberance, Bo Nix knew something was wrong. They went into the locker room, got x-rays, and confirmed his broken ankle.

Therefore, today’s game is disappointing because we’re not seeing the teams at full strength. Jarrett Stidham will start at QB for Denver, which is ironic because he was New England’s backup for several years before moving out west.

So how did the point spread change due to this ill-timed injury? Well, you gotta believe Denver would be favored at home, as the #1 seed, despite their regular season records tied at 14-3. Home field in the Rockies, with the mile high altitude, means something. I’m guessing the spread would have been flipped with a healthy Nix, likely Denver by 3.5 points. Instead, we have the road Pats favored by 3.5.

In the end, Gary doesn’t see how Stidham can overcome this excellent New England defense, led by HC Mike Vrabel. PICK: New England to cover the 3.5 points.

NFC Championship: Los Angeles Rams at Seattle Seahawks (-2.5)

Today’s main event will be in Seattle, Washington starting at 5pm central time. The Rams (12-5) travel to the Pacific Northwest to face a daunting ‘Hawks team (14-3), not to mention the 12th Man, the super loud Seattle crowd.

The quarterbacks are Matthew Stafford and Sam Darnold. What a long strange trip it’s been for Darnold, who once looked like a major bust after struggling for the New York Jets, the Carolina Panthers, and then the San Francisco 49ers. However, his career took off in Minnesota last year under Vikings mastermind coach Kevin O’Connell. So now Darnold is in Seattle after the Vikes already committed to J.J. McCarthy. He’s on his fifth NFL team, and he’s only 28 years old! He has now led teams to 14-3 records in back-to-back seasons! I mean, this is quite a story. Yet, it’s not talked about that much, but I’m sure it will be if he leads Seattle to the Super Bowl.

Meanwhile, the Rams, led by HC Sean McVay and QB Matt Stafford can get to their second Super Bowl together with one more road victory. Can they do it?

Gary thinks they can. It seems mighty tough, but the Rams are mighty tough. “The Gut” has a gut feeling about these L.A. Rams. PICK: Los Angeles to not only cover the two and half points as underdogs, but to win the game straight up.

Good luck and have fun today. We’ll be back in two weeks for our last column of the season with our Super Bowl Preview.

“Whether rich or poor, thou shalt gamble more” – Gary “The Gut” Goombah’s mantra

13 comments

    1. They were really good games Valerie! I especially enjoyed the NFC game as both teams kept scoring. The last few play calls by the Rams were questionable, and that’s what makes it fun for analysts. I didn’t really like the run play on 2nd down, for example. It was a no gain. Plus, my wife thought they should have taken the field goal on 4th down with about 5 minutes left. I was more in agreement with Coach McVay, but obviously it might not have mattered either way, except in the final score. Instead of a four point loss, the Rams might have only lost by one point. It was all very interesting.

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  2. My son got me a ticket to the Seahawk/Ram game. I could almost see the field from the last row in section 306 (Row QQ). I have never been happier about Gary being wrong than when he picked L.A. to win straight up.

    Liked by 1 person

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  5. Thank you for asking because I’d just love to vent about this!! My thoughts on the firing of Coach McDermott are as follows: WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK?!! His firing twisted the knife in my already jabbed and mangled heart.

    I will be the first to say honestly that I don’t know all the things I don’t know, so keeping that in mind, any of you out there who ARE privy to the type of football/sport intelligence, statistics, insider info, and general knowledge of the aforementioned that I may not have, (this is the type of knowledge my late cousin, Aaron inherently possessed- sports and all of its many intricacies was his LIFEBLOOD and he was always my go-to in situations like this where I wanted a reliable opinion and possible explanation) don’t come after me because without him here to shed some light on factors I’m clueless to, I can only speak from my heart and gut regarding Coach McDermott’s firing. And yes, it takes me a long time to get to the point (adhd-er trait 🤭) but here it is:

    In the highly appearance-based world we live in, firing the coach is the quickest and easiest way to appear to the world as though you’re doing what’s necessary for your team before actually knowing through the more mindful and painstaking means that require taking the “time” that most humans are loathe to spend, to pinpoint what specific measures would BEST serve overall.

    I’m not saying I’m right. I’m just saying that’s how I feel it.

    I value your expertise and knowledgeable opinion, so if you’re open to it, please share your thoughts on the firing and again, thank you for letting me vent!

    Liked by 1 person

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    1. Hey Lisa “L.A.”, I’ve been carefully contemplating your message. First of all, I love your passion. I tend to agree with you. I think the loyalty, or lack thereof, is sad. I love Coach McDermott. He did so many great things and I will miss him. I really hope that Buffalo can remain as a contender for years to come.

      However, let me throw out the other side to this argument. Way back in the 80s, I was a huge Chicago Bulls fan growing up here in the suburbs of Chicago (I’m still here). Like Coach McDermott, I really, really liked Coach Doug Collins. He was a winner, helping the Bulls with a young Michael Jordan move up to contender status. However, they never made it all the way. Suddenly, Coach Collins was fired. I was SO upset. He was the man! How could they do this!?! The GM Jerry Krause said that Collins took the Bulls from Point A to Point B. But he fired Collins and hired Phil Jackson to take the team from Point B to Point C, “C” as in “Championship”. Lo and behold, it worked! It turned out to be a masterful move. Now, would Coach Collins have won 6 championships moving forward? Maybe he would have! We’ll never know. But obviously Coach Jackson did, and he became one of the greatest coaches ever.

      So what does it all mean? It means that as sad as we are TODAY about Coach McDermott, it might turn out to be a blessing. We’ll find out over the years.

      Sometimes these hard decisions have to be made. I hope and pray that it works out positively for the Buffalo Bills.

      Thank you so much for your impassioned message!

      Reid

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      1. Now THIS is what I’m talking about!! This is the just the kind of talking me off the ledge-let’s take a deep breath-simmer down mindfully and examine the situation from all angles using past experience, knowledge, and flexibility of mind without condescension view that my late cousin always offered me- one which my loyalty infused, emotion driven processing methods (on everything, as it turns out! 😳) challenge me in reaching on my own.

        I. LOVE. THIS.

        Not only have you have lifted the heavy weight on my heart regarding Coach McDermott’s firing, offering an alternate lens through which to view it, you’ve also given me fresh hope for the future of a team I love and you’ve gifted me with a message SO very much like the ones that my cousin would share, that I felt him there in your words.

        Yesterday was my 61st birthday and that’s the best kind of gift a person can receive.

        Thank you Reid!!

        Liked by 1 person

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