“When your enemy’s making mistakes, don’t interrupt him.” —Billy Beane

As a die-hard sports fan, Moneyball was enjoyable on a slew of different levels, and this quote was my hands-down favorite. I’m a firm believer in the sentiment, but there are times—serious times—when you need to break this rule.

Thuuz: We’re worried about you.

We’ve told you before about the danger of relying solely on algorithms to calculate game excitement, and…

Wait, no, don’t leave! Please sit down, Thuuz. All of us came over today to talk to you. Just hear us out.

…

First off, we love you. I hope you know that. We were elated when you first got started—what better demonstration of a rising tide lifting all boats? You were brash, and noisy, and plucky, and everything else we love about young startups. The Kansas City Royals are the most exciting team to watch in baseball? Umm, sure! Why the heck not! You guys were so adorable!

I know it has been a while since we’ve hung out, but we’ve been keeping a keen eye on you. We remember how hard it was just making it to year two, and we’re proud of you for making it to that milestone. Nobody is perfect (RUWT?! definitely had its year two issues), but what we’ve been seeing lately makes us worry.

You completely ignored us when we confronted you about the UAB Blazers being the most exciting team in college football. You’re an adult, that’s your choice.

But Monday’s NBA game between the Grizzlies and Warriors getting a perfect score? Last week’s San Diego State Aztecs and New Mexico Lobos 83-62 blowout was as exciting as the unbelievably epic Game 6 of the World Series? Really?! Are you hearing yourself?!

Wait! I’m sorry I raised my voice. Please sit back down.

…

I got off track there, I’m sorry. The reason why we’re here today is because of the NFL. We saw your stats about the most exciting teams this season, and we’re…confused.

Guys @Thuuz say the most exciting NFL teams to watch this year were: 1. Giants, 2. Pats, 3. Panthers, 4. Raiders, 5. Lions

— darren rovell (@darrenrovell) January 24, 2012

It’s mostly good—the Giants, Pats, and Lions are spot on. But the Panthers? The 13.06 average point differential Panthers are in your top 3? Okay, fine, Cam is pretty fun to watch.

But gosh, where are the Broncos? It doesn’t matter if you’re on Team Skip or on Team Steven A., if you don’t think “Tebow Time” was one of the most talked about and exciting storylines of the season, you’re not paying attention! Heck, even Thuuz employees are Tebowing!

We’ve been telling you from the start, algorithms are not enough. Just think, if you incorporated even the slightest bit of human interact…wait! Stop! Where are you going?!

…

Dangit. Sorry guys, I’m just no good at these interventions. I’ll call you when it’s time for the next one.

Most Exciting NFL Teams for 2011-2012 Regular Season, ranked by Are You Watching This?!

1. New York Giants (213.63)
2. Denver (208.72)
3. New England (203.94)
4. Dallas (193.81)
5. Green Bay (195.00)
6. Detroit (172.41)
7. New Orleans (183.50)
8. Pittsburgh (181.82)
9. Arizona (166.00)
10. San Francisco (173.17)
11. New York Jets (166.19)
12. Baltimore (169.67)
13. San Diego (159.63)
14. Minnesota (154.81)
15. Oakland (149.81)
16. Cincinnati (144.94)
17. Philadelphia (153.69)
18. Atlanta (147.53)
19. Kansas City (143.75)
20. Buffalo (143.31)
21. Chicago (146.00)
22. Washington (136.81)
23. Houston (131.39)
24. Indianapolis (130.75)
25. Cleveland (128.56)
26. Tennessee (130.88)
27. Miami (131.75)
28. Seattle (127.69)
29. Tampa Bay (124.31)
30. Carolina (123.75)
31. Jacksonville (123.00)
32. St. Louis (97.69)

Teams are ranked by average excitement rating minus one-quarter of the standard deviation.

We’re way overdue for a Pick ‘Em challenge on the site, so we’re going big for this week’s slate of NFL games!

The top 20 Who You Got? pickers (that’s right, 20!) of this week’s NFL games will have their choice of a $25 AmEx gift card or a world-famous, handmade RUWT?! T-shirt. End up on top of the stack? Say hello to 10 roots status for the next 12 months.

Scoring is dead simple: 1 point for each correct pick, with the Sunday Night and Monday Night games counting double. Check out Small Business Saturday and get started with those picks!

Sure, we haven’t had two ranked teams face off yet (Boise/VaTech is going to be awesome) and we have one more weekend before the pros start, but we had our first Upset, first Epic game (admittedly a smidge too soon), and our first Overtime thriller that had me yelling at the TV.

RUWT?! has always been about cutting down on the noise, and focusing on getting your butt in front of the TV when it’s crunch time. For better, and for worse, we’re getting more and more games, on more and more stations every year. For the next four Saturdays, we’re averaging 300 sporting events a day.

300.

RUWT?! alerts work great for the right now, but we can do a better job of letting you know what’s on deck. Very soon you’ll have a great new way to keep an eye on the big picture.

Really vague? Yeah, I know. Just sit tight.

In just five days we’ll have T.O. and the Bills go up against the Titans in the Hall of Fame Game on NBC. Granted they’ll all be just going through the motions, but it’s football, people. Nothing says “The dog days of summer are over!” like Football and a good ol’ YouTube Tuesday, and thankfully our friends from across the pond have the perfect video for it.

March was a major letdown.

Whew. Finally got that out.

I don’t know if it was just me, but it just seemed like March was a month full of total snoozers. March Madness was so Badness I even sat down to watch the Women’s title game hoping for something good—22-point blowout.

But boy, has April stepped it up. We seem to be having at least one great game every night, and today we have 4(!) NBA playoffs games, 2 NHL playoff games, Yanks/Sawx at the Fens, 500 miles of Talladega, AND the 2nd day of the draft!

It’s a smörgåsbord of great games on TV today. Check the snack situation and slide on the sweatpants. No reason to leave the couch today, kids.

Well, it’s been a week. Hopefully the withdrawal symptoms are dying down, and you’re not waking up in a cold sweat screaming, “Cover 2!” Yes, the NFL season is over, but pitchers and catchers report in a week, and March Madness is just around the corner, so don’t fret. But to truly give you pigskin fiends the closure you deserve, I’ve gotta announce the winners of the NFL Playoff Challenge.

The plan was to make RUWT? shirts for the top 3 pickers. Coming up with a random tiebreaker for all the folks tied for 3rd that picked the Steelers over the Cards didn’t seem fair, so they’ll all get one. Congrats to all 5 winners!

Tied for 1st: 7 picks

bouch	mrman226

Tied for 3rd: 6 picks

alacy52	jjuva13	McTool

Anyways, you didn’t come here to hear about my picks, you came to hear how you’re doing! With just the Superbowl left, we have a logjam at the top. The three users with the most correct picks will get a handmade RUWT? t-shirt from yours truly (check out senorpepr in his) and bragging rights for life.


MattDOOM777  6
mrman226  6
bouch  6
alacy52  5
jjuva13  5
SuketoKetchi  5
McTool  5

one more thing: If there’s a tie, getting the Superbowl right will be the tiebreaker. If we need more tiebreakers I’ll make some up.

Here’s how it’ll work:

• Predict the winner of each of the 11 NFL playoff games
• After the Super Bowl, the 3 users that picked the most correct games will win a RUWT? Sports T-Shirt
• If one fan gets each of the 11 games right, he or she will win a $50 gift certificate to Amazon.com
• If multiple fans run the table, up to five will each win a $25 gift certificate to Amazon.com

Be sure to check back here on the blog for updates and standings. What are you waiting for? Get picking!

First Round Games:
Falcons vs. Cardinals
Colts vs. Chargers
Ravens vs. Dolphins
Eagles vs. Vikings

Hope everybody is having a great holiday week…

Fresh off of a 10-3, rolling through the playoffs to win it all performance in my NFL Fantasy league last year, I put up a big stinker in 2008. I’ll finish under-.500, miss the playoffs, and I’m still blaming Eli and the Giants D for costing me a must-win back in Week 6.

And just as a side-note, you shot yourself Plax? Really? Really?!?

Anyways, without Fantasy to keep me occupied my productivity on Sundays is threatening to skyrocket, and I just can’t have that. So to keep things interesting I’m dipping my toe into the world of BetUS.com, out first NFL sport sponsor at areyouwatchingthis.com. I’m a sportsbook n00b, but I figure this is a great way to add some spice to the rest of the regular season. This week? I’m liking the Colts giving 6½ at the Browns.

This should be fun.

Are you looking to reach the most passionate sports fans? Start advertising on RUWT? Sports today!