Review your bets.
Check your luck.
Examine results.
Consider new stats.
Test new theories.
Import stats.
Update your database.
Say hello to your family.
Take a shower.
Buy new sweatpants.
Analyze success versus the closing number.
Self-scout.

Of all the items on a wiseguy's summer to-do list, it's the last one that means the most. Self-scout. I have a buddy who is a real sports journalist, not an editor like me who just pretends with his little column. He covers the NFL and said a coach once told him the most important thing his staff does is, during a bye week, break down its own film to understand its own tendencies it may not even be aware of game to game and down to down.

Because, the truth is, it's a lot harder to get beat if you don't beat yourself. "By doing these things, you are learning about yourself," says Sal Selvaggio of madduxsports.com, "and your biases."

Everyone has biases. During the Norv Turner era in San Diego, I was a sucker for the Chargers -- no matter how much I knew better. Maybe you won all year with underdogs and were a coin flip when betting on the favorites. You don't know until you dig in and do the work. "That review is something a lot of people doing this casually don't love to do," says Sal.