Rick Pedone
Sports Editor

Generally the word tragic is reserved for something really bad, like the car insurance bill when your teenagers drive, but this week’s slate of college and NFL football games might qualify.

I’ve run down the list of games this weekend twice and determined that it’s a good time to do just about anything else rather than watch football. Well, anything else other than to trim up the family’s Foo-Foo dog, an action whose results might properly be described as tragic.

A group of good-hearted local football fans is going to take my advice and volunteer their time Sunday to join Habitat for Humanity to rehab a home for a local veteran at 424 E. Drury Ave. in Kissimmee.

The fans are members of the Steelers Fan-Addicts Club, which watches Pittsburgh’s games at Gator’s sports bar in Kissimmee.

The group, headed by Jon and Penny Chartley, who pitched in the first $300, began raising money for needy veterans last year while watching Steelers games at Gator’s, and by the end of the season, the group had amassed $2,287, counting a $1,000 match from Gator’s. Chartley said this year’s fund is growing even larger, perhaps doubling in size.

“I actually started doing this when I was living in South Florida. When I moved here in 2005, we did the same thing,” Jon Chartley said. “It took about three years down there to double what we started with, and I’m amazed by how fast it has grown here. This group is amazing. They want to do whatever they can to help our veterans. We’re just regular people, and we know it’s hard times out there for a lot of people, so we get together and try to help in any way we can.”

Chartley expects 20 to 25 club members to be at the Drury Avenue home Sunday from 10:45 a.m. to 4 p.m. He invites everyone – maybe even Ravens fans? – to join them.

Group members also will be at the arts and crafts festival in downtown Kissimmee Sunday at the Habitat for Humanity booth. Further information about the group and its goals will be available there.

Since Sunday is the Steelers open date, the club’s members don’t have to worry about missing their favorite team in action.

If you simply must watch football this weekend, take it in small doses.

Look what the Florida-based NFL teams are providing: Tampa Bay at Green Bay, Jacksonville at Cleveland, and Buffalo at Miami.

Our Bucs, 4-5, once the state’s bright hope for football excellence, are spiraling downward at a breathtaking rate and should crater out of the playoff picture after their trip to Lambeau Field Sunday.

The Dolphins and Jags, four and three games out of their respective divisional races, have sucked the drama from their seasons. The Fins for winning two games after threatening to lose them all, and the Jags haven’t done drama since the last millennium.

The Mighty News-Gazette Divine Nine:

No. 1: The Pack. No. 2: The 49ers. No. 3: The Bayou Bengals. No. 4: Gator’s Steeler Fan-Addicts. No. 5: Roll Tide. No. 6: Habitat for Humanity. No. 7: Coach K. No. 8: Da Bears. No. 9: Timmy Tebow.

The picks:

Virginia at FSU (-18): The Noles may be coming to the Champs Sports Bowl in Orlando, which isn’t their preseason goal, but it would make resident FSU booster “Flaming Spear” Sullivan much happy. Noles by 17.

UCF at East Carolina (-8): Knights apparently still bound for the Big East along with just about everyone else except the Kardashians. Pirates by 6.

Miami (-1.5) at USF: At some point this was probably a big game on USF’s calendar. Canes by 3.

Nebraska at Michigan (-2.5): Big Ten is having a title game for the first time next month, but do you see two championship-worthy teams in this conference? Wolverinos by 3.

Penn State at Ohio State  (-5.5): Who would have guessed early this year that John Cooper and JoePa would be gone for this one? Buckeyes by 4.

The paid professionals:

Buffalo at Miami (-1): Fins have flirted with respectability for two weeks. That’s long enough. Wild Bills by 3.

Jacksonville at Cleveland  (-1): Spend $2,000 on the 55-inch wide screen, and they show this. Brownies by 2.

Tampa Bay at Green Bay (-13); Don’t you miss those old Warren Sapp-Brett Favre showdowns when these teams met years ago? Pack by 10.

San Diego at Chicago  (-3.5): We keep waiting for the Chargers to wake up, but it doesn’t seem to be happening. Maybe they’ve seen this weekend’s slate of games. Bears by 7.

Philadelphia at N.Y. Giants (-5): Eagles can’t be this bad. At least that’s what Young Jackson thinks. He might be wrong. Giants by 7.

Brian “Big Man” McBride’s Super Sniffer Upset Special: San Diego by 3,

Ken “Young” Jackson, frequently blogging at phoulballs.blogspot.com, predicts: Huskers by 3, Fins by 1, Eagles by 3.

Last week: Blogging Banshee (8-2, 75-35) bopped Brainless Bumpkin (7-3, 70-38).