My 14-year-old son might know more about football than me

As a sports reporter who primarily covers the St. Louis Rams, people expect me to have some sort of insight into football. The expectation is that I will win my fantasy football league every year and be able to correctly predict most of the games correctly.

Well, while I do think I know football – and other sports – well, let’s just say I fall short of those expectations that are thrust upon me.

Let’s start with my fantasy football team. I was in a league with other sports media members and maybe that had to do with my four-win season. I have done well in the past with fantasy football, but this past year was brutal.

As far as predicting games correctly, we’ll go back to my preseason Super Bowl pick of Green Bay versus the New York Jets. The Packers looked great for most of the year, while the Jets, yeah, they sucked. So when the Packers were 15-1 and had the NFL’s best record while the Jets missed the postseason, I changed my AFC pick to New England.

Great picks still, right? Maybe my 14-year-old son, David, is some kind of playoff savant because his pre-playoff Super Bowl pick was San Francisco and New England and I watched the New York Giants beat the Packers last Sunday with David, who had picked the Giants, sitting right next to me.

He even said, “If the Packers win, it’ll be close, but if the Giants win, it won’t be.” Final score: New York 37, Green Bay 20.

I thought he was crazy at first and told him that if he was going to wear the Aaron Rodgers jersey my dad had sent him for Christmas, then he had to root for the Packers. He wasn’t doing it because he somehow knew that New York would win. And, damnit, he was right.

So here is my 14-year-old son who had San Francisco beating the Saints, picked the Denver Broncos to upset the Pittsburgh Steelers in the first round (his mother is from Denver) and had the Giants shocking the Packers at Lambeau Field. And I had the Packers beating the Saints in the NFC Championship game.

There’s a reason I don’t gamble, but if I did, I may have to lean on my son for advice. Maybe it’s not the sports reporter themselves who get the football expert gene, maybe it’s the son of the sports reporter. There is precedent to this football gene thing – the father of Pro Bowl receiver Larry Fitzgerald is also a sports reporter.

For what it’s worth, David has the Patriots beating the 49ers in Super Bowl XLVI.