Let’s start with five things you might not know about Roosevelt (Rosie) Grier, the former NFL player. Consider this a mini-hunt down, though we would never step on Stu’s toes.

1) He was a guest at Minneapolis Henry High School yesterday.

2) Per Diddy’s direction and Wikipedia, we know that Grier is also a cousin of 1970s superfox Pam Grier, and …

3) Was a bodyguard for Robert Kennedy and was guarding the Senator’s wife the night Kennedy was shot.

4) Made a movie called “The Thing With Two Heads.”

5) Sweet mercy, just look at that bibliography on Wikipedia. That could be an entire day of RandBall posts in and of itself.

OK, that was so much fun. On to the NFL picks, where we’ll start with a guest contribution from Deadspin.com editor Will Leitch, whose face will be appearing in Sunday’s Newspaper of the Twin Cities in a similar capacity. Will, the Mattoon, Ill., native, breaks down the Vikings/Bears game thusly (oh, and he also has a book coming out to extend a theme this week):

Bears 18, Vikings 13: I swear to God, if the Bears don’t stop trying to resist their destiny and just start Kyle Orton already soon, I’m gonna have to start an online petition … and trust me, Bears, YOU DON’T WANT THAT. Here’s how I imagine this going down: Bears “jump” out to a 9-0 lead, Peterson scores, Robbie Gould kicks two more field goals (which, because of this new stupid time out thing, requires him to kick them twice each), Brian Griese throws in an interception for a touchdown (they’re calling it a “Pick Six” now, apparently), the Vikings miss the two-point conversion, they bring in Kyle Orton to kick a field goal because Gould is awfully tired by now, and the Bears win. Did I mention the Vikings should trade for Orton?

RandBall says: The Vikings have a kick-ass opening drive that yields a 37-yard field goal attempt that suffers from a botched snap. They don’t sniff midfield again until late in the first half, when Ryan Longwell cuts the deficit to 10-3. Adrian Peterson has 7 carries for 56 yards at this point, while Chet Taylor is 8 for 22. Tarvaris Jackson is 5 for 11 for 43 yards and an INT. We like the pick-six idea for Griese, so we’ll stick with that. But he atones with a second-half TD pass. Robbie Gould tacks on a field goal. The Vikings threaten to cut it to a one-score lead late in the game, but a really stupid turnover — not sure what kind yet — is their udoing. Bears 20, Vikings 10.

The rest (quicker than usual, winners in bold. This post is already quite long):

Cincinnati at Kansas City
Houston at Jacksonville
Miami at Cleveland
Minnesota at Chicago
Philadelphia at New York Jets
St. Louis at Baltimore
Tennessee at Tampa Bay
Washington at Green Bay
Carolina at Arizona
New England at Dallas
Oakland at San Diego
New Orleans at Seattle
New York Giants at Atlanta

Don’t forget to make your U Pick’em selections. We’ll have a guest post COW, links galore and maybe — OK, probably not — some more Rosie Grier information later.

Mystery link! These guys play Tuesday the 16th. You might want to consider going.

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