It promises to be a cooler week here in the Rose City, and probably a slow news week, too, as folks think about sneaking out early for Labor Day weekend. What a fine opportunity to start thinking about the upcoming pigskin season. The "college" kids will start hitting the gridiron before the week is out.

As we mentioned last week, we'll be playing the charity pro football underdog game on this blog again this year. Indeed, the first lines will be posted on Tuesday, September 6 -- just eight days from now. (The first pro game of the season is a Thursday nighter on the 8th.)

If you e-mailed me to say you were interested in playing the underdogs, watch your e-mail over the next few hours for further instructions. For those readers who haven't thought about this yet, here's the basic lowdown: The game will operate pretty much the same way it did the last two years. Players kiss $20 goodbye -- it all goes to charity -- and slug it out, season-long, for glory and the right to designate which charity gets the group gift.

The object of the game is to pick each week one NFL underdog that's going to win its game outright. Each successful pick wins points for the player equal to the number of points by which that 'dog was predicted by the oddsmakers to lose. The player with the most points at the end of the playoffs is our champ and gets to direct the entries to his or her favorite charity. With enough players, we will have multiple winners, and several charities will benefit, as happened last year. A total of $900 went out to a group of charities last time around, as directed by our five top finishers. We'll do something like that again this year, depending on how many players we get. The details will be finalized once we have all the entries, in a couple of weeks. First place will definitely have a big advantage over second.

The official rules of this year's game are here. If you'd like to see an example of a week's lines, posted weekly on Tuesday or Wednesday, you can go here. Then here's a typical Sunday morning post showing who picked whom. And here's a sample wrap up of a week's results and standings. The final standings from last year are here -- our winner scored 78 points, and only a point and a half separated second from fifth places.

Knowing something about pro football is helpful, but there's luck involved -- that's why they play the games. If you'd like to give it a try, and maybe be a stud or studette for your favorite charity, just e-mail me at underdog@bojack.org, the official e-mail address for this year's festivities. I'll get back to you shortly.