Columnist Sal DeFilippo: Monday night home teams no wizards at winning

Sal DeFilippo

Friday, Nov. 7, 2003 | 11:27 a.m.

Sal DeFilippo's pro football picks column appears Friday. Reach him at sal@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4076.

Brett Favre and his Green Bay teammates should leave the cleats in the locker room as they take on Philadelphia Monday night at (insert deep voice and enunciate slowly) Lambeau Field.

Instead, they need to come out for the coin toss wearing sequined heels.

Close your eyes, Brett, and click three times. Repeat after me. There's no place like home. There's no place like home. Pay no attention to the columnist behind the curtain, either.

Sure, Green Bay is a good team on its home turf, but it doesn't matter. The game is on Monday night, and for some reason, despite huge crowds and a national spotlight, the home squads aren't winning with Michaels and Madden in the booth.

This year, home is where the loss is. The host teams are a baffling 2-7 straight up on Monday, bloody Monday.

Sure, it's as easy as ABC to know that the prime-time network tries to schedule matchups that are more conducive to competitive games, where you'd expect the visiting teams to have a decent chance to win.

But they do that every year, and last season home teams were 12-5 on Mondays. This season, home cooking has been mostly roadkill -- the only host teams to win were Denver in Week 3 against suddenly pitiful Oakland, and St. Louis in Week 6 against Michael Vick-less and equally weak Atlanta.

Road, Sweet Road? Consider these collapses: The Super Bowl champion Buccaneers, with arguably the best defense in the league, allowed 28 fourth-quarter points, including three touchdowns in the final four minutes, in an overtime loss.

The Giants blew a home game in a fashion almost as amazing. Leading by a field goal with 11 seconds left, Matt Bryant sent a kickoff out of bounds, allowing Dallas a chance to move into field goal range and leading to an overtime win for the Cowboys.

Three weeks ago, the Raiders were stopped less than a yard from forcing overtime against Kansas City, and last week, Tom Brady rallied the Patriots in the final minute for another road win.

What's the solution? Should the home teams wear road jerseys? Should the public address announce instruct the crowd to cheer for the opposition? Should the home team move the game to another stadium?

Actually, that's been tried, too. San Diego still managed to lose its "home" game against Miami, which was moved to Arizona's Sun Devil Stadium -- a mecca for losses by the resident home team, might I add -- two weeks ago because of the wildfires.

I'm sure it's just a lingering phase the league is going through, the kind that you expect to go away soon but seems to stick around inexplicably. You know, kind of like Rick Mirer.

But at least for now, the visitors are being rude guests at the close of each NFL week.

Contest update

Through nine weeks of my celebrity selectors contest, KLAS Channel 8 meterologist Kevin Janison is proving he can predict more than just the weather.

Just past the halfway mark, Janison is an impressive 18-8-1 against the spread, narrowly ahead of Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, 17-9-1, and Mr. Las Vegas, singer Wayne Newton, 16-9-2.

Magicians Penn & Teller are fourth at 16-11 against the point spread.

Picks: The Steelers' choice to kick a late field goal rather than try to score from the 3 against Seattle prevented a backdoor cover and a winning week for me. The 1-2 mark puts the season record at 12-15. This week, I'll back the Vikings minus six at San Diego, the Rams at home minus 7 against Baltimore, and the Eagles plus 4 1/2 at Green Bay (the road team on Monday night? Wonder where I got that idea).