Last Man Standing: Number 12 is back and so are we!

Ponied up a 50 spot this week to enter the Last Man Standing competition.

Many are familiar with the drill -- though it has multiple different names. Each week, you pick one NFL team to win straight up -- no having to mess around with Wise Guy point spreads.

In our particular league, once you pick a team, you can't select them again for three weeks. So, if you take the Buffalo Bills in week one, for example, you can't pick them again until week four. Your pick has to be in by 3 P.M. every Friday.

And so it was Thursday afternoon we sat down for a whole 10 minutes and plotted The Pick. There were not a lot of games/teams jumping out at us. We took the Eagles off the board, because, well, because we love the Eagles. It's enough having to worry about them losing, without having to worry about it getting us ejected from the league. (One loss and you are history.) We thought long and hard about the taking the Colts at home against the Bears. But with Peyton having missed the whole pre-season, factored in with him having to play without Jeff Saturday, it just was too much of a gamble. (Plus, we loathe the Colts and seldom, if ever, find a reason to cheer for them.)

The Chargers (at home against the Panthers) were tempting. Very tempting. But Norv Turner is, well, Norv Turner. It would be just like him to make us one and done. Finally, both Monday night games seemed like tossups (Denver at Oakland and Minnesota at Green Bay).

So ultimately, we relied on some sound (sound!) advice that was given to us many moons ago: You go with what you know. And we know that Tom Brady is playing at home for the Patriots today, coached by Coach Bill. And we know that on the other side of the field, Brodie Croyle is playing for the Chiefs and coach Herman Edwards.

Our Pick: The New England Patriots.