Folks are doubtlessly thinking about sneaking out early for the Labor Day weekend, but in the rush to wring the last drops of fun out of summer, let us not overlook the upcoming pigskin season. The "college" kids start hitting the gridiron this Thursday night.

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 4 -- just a week from today. (The first pro game of the season is a rare Wednesday nighter on the 5th.)

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 three years. Players kiss $20 goodbye -- it all goes to charity -- and slug it out, season-long, for glory and the right to designate which charities get 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 lion's share of the entry fees to his or her favorite charity. With enough players, we will have multiple winners, and several charities will benefit, as happened last year. Last year more than $900 went out to a group of charities, as directed by our five top finishers. We'll do something like that again this year, with the amounts depending on how many players and sponsors we get. The details will be finalized once we have all the entries, in a couple of weeks. As always, 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 -- only 3 points separated first 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.