And thank you for subscribing to the Rainman News! I’ll probably tell you this at least a thousand times this season, and we’ll start with the first edition– this Newsletter is not intended to take the place of monthly or season service. It is not intended to take the place of the 900 lines.

All of the information presented in each week’s newsletter is the result of work done early in the week. The top plays listed in the newsletter may or may not be included on our actual card we use on gameday. For instance, final decisions aren’t made on the games we use on Saturdays until 2 to 3am Saturday morning. The same is true for Sunday’s NFL card– final decisions aren’t made until very late on Saturday night or early Sunday morning. The newsletter will give you our opinion on every game on the schedule based on the best information available at press time.

To understand how we arrive at the games used on the card we give to our monthly and season players and put on the 900 lines, here’s a brief look at the steps we go thru. Over the years, we’ve developed a system that takes into account 28 different items that we use to start

handicapping the games. Each of the 28 things we look at has a numerical value. Most are statistical in nature– average yards per run, average yards per catch, numbers on grass, numbers on turf– things that everyone would take into account.

Eight of the 28 are much more subjective– coaching matchups, injury evaluations, quality of backup players, weather, and four others (I’m not giving you all my secrets). The system produces a line which we compare to the actual line on the game. If our system says one team should be favored by 14, and the actual line is, let’s say, 8 or 9, we take a hard look at the favorite. If our system says a team should be favored by 7, and the actual line is 12 or 13, we look hard at the dog.

We use this system to evaluate every game on the board and we cut the card down from 35 to 40 games on a given Saturday to the best dozen or so games, and those are the games we concentrate on.

has solid information about two or three teams in his area. I take all these conversations, mix in the results from our evaluation system, my interpretations of any line moves we’ve seen, plus my own personal thoughts on the teams based on what I’ve seen when they play, and I cut the card down to 4 to 6 games. Then I rate the games from a Regular Play to a Five Star Play, and that becomes our card for gameday.

That’s why the plays aren’t ready until early on gameday, and it’s why the newsletter can’t take the place of season service or the 900 lines.

It will give you our opinion on every game, and some great information you can use to look at the games yourself.