Last week: 8-3 (72.7%) <\/p>\n
Season: 24-10 (70.6%) <\/p>\n
Watching the Steelers game Sunday, The Birdie hatched a plan.<\/p>\n
\u201cI deserve a new contract. I\u2019m going to hold out,\u201d the cocky prognosticator offered. \u201cWorked for T.J. Watt. Worked for Cam Heyward. Worked for Chris Boswell. Worked for Joey Porter Jr.\u201d<\/p>\n
Worked for Joey Porter Jr.?<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah. He got paid Sunday without doing any work,\u201d The Birdie explained. \u201cThat\u2019s my dream job.\u201d<\/p>\n
At first, The Birdie thought he\u2019d try a hold-in instead.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know how a hold-in works, right?\u201d he asked. \u201cYou show up for work but don\u2019t actually do anything. Then you get the new contract.\u201d<\/p>\n
When informed that absolutely no one would notice if he showed up at the office and didn\u2019t do any work because that\u2019s what he does every week anyway, he changed his tune.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, forget that. I\u2019m holding out,\u201d he pouted. \u201cNo picks until my demands are met.\u201d<\/p>\n
When reminded that he didn\u2019t actually receive any financial compensation for his weekly columns \u2014 he\u2019s paid in pizza \u2014 he was not deterred.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey announce all kinds of crazy contract details all the time, but the key are the guarantees,\u201d he asserted. \u201cAnd here\u2019s my demand. When I get paid in Lelulo\u2019s, I want the sweet sauce guaranteed.\u201d<\/p>\n
As of press time, The Birdie and management were at an impasse. Stay tuned.<\/p>\n
Now here are the Week 4 picks in the A-K Valley.<\/p>\n
Deer Lakes (0-3) at Valley (2-1): The Lancers desperately need a win, but the Vikings aren\u2019t the easy out they once were. In fact, this one should be a barnburner. Valley scored 41 points last week. Deer Lakes scored 48. Deer Lakes, 41-34<\/p>\n
Woodland Hills (2-1) at Fox Chapel (1-2): Coaching turmoil has hit the Wolverines, but they still have a ton of talent. Woodland Hills, 34-20<\/p>\n
Freeport (3-0) at North Catholic (0-3): The Yellowjackets are flying high after beating Apollo-Ridge, but the Trojans are way better than that record indicates. Expect another slobber-knocker. Freeport, 30-27<\/p>\n
Highlands (2-1) at Knoch (3-0): To go from nice story to conference contender, this is the kind of win the Knights need. The Golden Rams are probably an ornery bunch after a loss to Beaver last week. Highlands, 38-21<\/p>\n
Apollo-Ridge (2-1) at Brownsville (0-3): No shame in losing to Freeport. The Vikings should bounce back big. Apollo-Ridge, 28-6<\/p>\n
Riverview (0-3) at Leechburg (0-3): In battle of teams off to tough starts, the Raiders have more depth. Riverview, 21-20<\/p>\n
Springdale (1-1) at Jeannette (2-1): The Dynamos have made real strides, but the Jayhawks are birds of a different feather. Jeannette, 34-12<\/p>\n
Burrell (3-0) at Belle Vernon (2-1): What an opportunity for the Bucs. Beat Belle Vernon, and Class 3A will have to take notice. Belle Vernon, 28-20<\/p>\n
Ringgold (1-2) at Kiski Area (0-3): Time for the Cavaliers to put a foot down. Kiski Area, 21-14<\/p>\n
Shaler (1-2) at Plum (3-0): The Mustangs are humming along, especially on offense. Shouldn\u2019t change this week. Plum, 42-21<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last week: 8-3 (72.7%) Season: 24-10 (70.6%) Watching the Steelers game Sunday, The Birdie hatched a plan. \u201cI…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":850848,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[427,99],"class_list":["post-850847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=850847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850847\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/850848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=850847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=850847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=850847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}