Laura Rutledge breaks away from the "NFL Live" curse by picking the Seahawks against the unanimous 49ers on "Thursday Night Football." Credit: ‘NFL Live’
By Sam Neumann on

It appears that Laura Rutledge has gone to the Jason Kirk school of being the designated contrarian. The NFL Live host knows that in order to avoid getting memed, you need to stop making unanimous predictions. And while the San Francisco 49ers seemed to be the obvious choice on Thursday Night Football, Rutledge took the road less traveled with her prediction.

After Mina Kimes, Marcus Spears, Ryan Clark and Dan Orlovsky all picked San Francisco to win its matchup on Amazon Prime Video against the Seattle Seahawks, Rutledge gave props to her colleagues. And even though she wanted to follow in their footsteps, she couldn’t.

“Look at you guys, all on the 49ers,” she said. “Well, let me just say this — I don’t blame you guys because I always pick the 49ers; I think I’ve rarely picked against them. I’m doing it right now; I’m picking the Seahawks. Come on, they’re at home. What are you guys doing? You guys need to think about the fact that Seattle can’t possibly lose this game.”

Spears tried to change his pick to the Seahawks, and when Rutledge said that they don’t change their picks anymore, ‘Swagu’ said, “I can do what the hell I want to do.”

True.

But so can Rutledge, and she knew she’d be tempting fate if she didn’t pick the Seahawks.

When a 49ers fan on X (formerly Twitter) tried to clown her for picking against San Francisco, who won 36-24, claiming that she was the one person on the panel who “doesn’t know ball,” the NFL Live host reminded us of the very curse she was trying to skirt.

“Usually when we all pick the same team, that team loses,” she wrote.

So, to protect the Niners (and their fanbase), Rutledge went against the grain — and groupthink.

49ers fans can thank her for her service as soon as possible with a fruit basket, edible arrangement, or anything of that nature. Perhaps if she hadn’t picked Seattle to win 28-24, San Francisco would’ve started a season in which it was heavily favorited to repeat as NFC Champions at 2-4.

No one wants that. Well, maybe not people who can’t stand the 49ers, but you get the point — and what Rutledge was trying to (and did) accomplish here.

[NFL Live]

About Sam Neumann

Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.

View all posts by Sam Neumann