I’ve been thinking a little bit lately. I know, that’s a dangerous thing. Just ask my wife.

But recently I thought about what the easiest job in the world could be.

It would have to be a job that you could absolutely be horrible and run no risk of any consequences by your boss.

It would also have to be a job that you don’t have to work very hard at all, and you still get a pretty nice paycheck.

After much thought and some football watching over the past few days, I’ve come to the answer of my question.

The easiest job in the world is a sports television prognosticator, or “talking head” if you will.

You know, the so-called experts, normally former football players or coaches, who tell you what is going to happen on game day and then proceed to be proven wrong week after week.

If they tell you one team is going to win, more often than not it’s the other team that comes out victorious.

If they tell you to expect one type of game, expect the opposite to occur.

I began to realize the answer while watching Utah destroy Alabama in the Sugar Bowl on Jan. 2.

You know, that Utah team that wasn’t supposed to hang with the mighty Crimson Tide. Everybody on television said so.

So it was a little strange to see the Utes go up and down the field on the SEC West champs and beat them 31-17.

Maybe they just had a bad night, I thought. I mean, they do think Texas will destroy Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl, so I guess that will happen.

Not exactly. The Buckeyes hung with the Longhorns all night and took the lead with a touchdown with two minutes to go.

Texas only won when quarterback Colt McCoy drove them the length of the field for a TD with 16 seconds left.

A win, but hardly the drubbing that was predicted.

Fast forward a few days to the BCS Championship Game between Florida and Oklahoma.

Lots of points were predicted. The experts said so. I began preparing for a shootout.

Funny then that the score was 7-7 at halftime and would up a pedestrian 24-14 Florida victory.

Well, I thought. Maybe it’s just the college football “experts” that aren’t that great. Surely the NFL experts won’t be that bad.

They had their chance on Saturday when the Arizona Cardinals traveled across the country to take on the Carolina Panthers.

“There is no way the Cardinals can win this one,” they said. “This will be the biggest mismatch of the weekend,” said another.

The reasons went on and on. The Cardinals are soft. They won’t be able to run the ball against the Panther defense. They don’t play well on the east coast.

Well the Cardinals, and their running game, sure looked good on the east coast in destroying the Panthers 33-13 in a game that wasn’t even that close.

Sorry, wrong again, guys.

So now that I came to the answer to my burning question, I figure I need to get into that line of work.

Forget writing articles or staying at the office until midnight to get the sports section done. I’m going to become a football expert and tell you who will win the games you care about.

I’ll start my new job with today’s NFL playoff games.

The Eagles will go into Giants Stadium and knock off New York while the San Deigo Chargers will pull the upset against Pittsburgh.

And you can take those picks to the bank. After all, I’m an expert.

Jeff Edwards is the Sports Editor for The Democrat. He can be reached at sports@natchezdemocrat.com